By: Teagan Morrison Staff Writer Phoenix Genesis / MBS LP www.phoenixgenesis.com April 10, 2005.

     

This week will see the release of Bioware’s Jade Empire, and over the past few days we have been eagerly playing our final copy.  It’s clear that Microsoft has been pushing for quality Xbox exclusive RPGs, but as Sudeki revealed, throwing huge amounts of money at a game doesn't quite do the trick. This time Microsoft made the right decision and put a game in Bioware’s experienced and clearly more than capable hands. Following in the footsteps of Fable, quite possibly the first RPG Microsoft got right, Jade Empire plays as well as any of us could have hoped.

So why is Jade Empire just so good? Looking past the beautiful graphics, the polished battle system, and the amazing expansiveness is a plot and characters that make other RPGs look like 12th grade stories; What really matters in an RPG is story, and Jade Empire is a shining example of this. Bioware’s team of writers did a fantastic job in fleshing out an epic plot filled with twists, wonder, and emotion. Countless sub-plots complement the main storyline, making the world of Jade Empire massively in-depth. Every character in the game is voice acted, and conversations are intelligent and insightful. Admittedly, it's hard to balance choice and story line, which makes Jade Empires synergy between the two all the more an achievement.

With every conversation you are given choices in how you reply, characters react in different ways depending on what you decide to say, it’s possible to take on a personality of your choosing. Choice also extends to the fighting system; there are countless fighting styles to develop. You can even choose the character you play as between a cast of 6 (3 men and 3 women). You may be wondering if there’s a love plot considering the character choices, and yes there is. You can build relationships with a number of your team members, or you can choose to ignore them. Like fable, Jade Empires choices affect the alignment of the character; you can be either good or bad. On one had could be a large sum of money for capturing a fugitive you know was falsely accused, on the other had could be helping him out and getting a reward from his friends. There are also some major choices to be made that drastically affect the outcome of the game and your character. The easy choce is whether to buy the game or not. If you’re even the slightest RPG fan this is an Jade Empire is an experience that shouldn’t be passed up. Much can be sung in Jade Empires glory, but nothing will come close to playing it (or living it) for yourself. Go get it!

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Teagan Morrison is a Senior Staff Writer for Phoenix Genesis.
You can email him at: (phoenixgenesis@game-developer.com)
Teagan also works as a Playstation 2 Game Tester for Sony's Santa Monica studio.