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Jade Empire Review - Xbox

The Jade Empire is corrupt. The men at the top seek only greed, and are being unknowingly controlled by an even greater power known only as Death’s Hand. It is up to you, and a few followers, to set things straight in the empire. Jade Empire is a story of honour, truth, loyalty, deception, betrayal, and most of all pride. Conquer enemies in all corners of the Jade Empire to unleash the true power within yourself. Collect amulets, raise levels, and gather the best possible equipment and skills you can conjure, because the Jade Empire awaits you.

Gameplay

The thing that stands out the most about Jade Empire is its combat system. There’s nothing else on the market like it today, and we’re very proud of what BioWare has accomplished. If they can incorporate this in to Jade Empire 2 and have it released ready for the Xbox 360, then we’ll be more than happy to buy it and play it through. There are over thirty different styles of fighting to learn, each benefiting you in battle in a different way. If you know the ways of RPG fighting then you’re probably familiar with most of the different types that you’ll come across in Jade Empire, but in Jade Empire you can upgrade each style to perfect it.

You can learn as many different fighting styles as you wish, however there are some styles that you can only use if they fall under the category of whatever way you are playing the game. If you choose the way of the open palm, then you’ll be able to enjoy the clean fighting that all the masters of the Jade Empire have been using for hundreds of years, however if you choose to follow the way of the closed fist, then you are able to learn the tactics of dirty fighting, useful to those who wish to kill enemies nastily. You don’t get to choose at the start what way you decide to go, it’s entirely based on your actions in conversation and battle. Treat people nicely, and of course you’ll be heading up to heaven; treat people bad, killing them for your own amusement, and you’ll be going straight down to hell.

There are loads of different enemies ranging from ghosts to cannibals, and even clay statues that come to life, however the most interesting battles are of course against the NPCs that you’ve gotten to know. Throughout your quest, you meet a dozen people that become your followers. You can select one out of them to follow you around and help you throughout battle, and they can be swapped at any time throughout the game. There are three characters that you can’t select though, as they are not fighting characters, they help you in other ways. We’ll let you find out about that one by yourself though!

We found the Jade Empire story had a few flaws. You get (continued next page)