Jade Empire Special Edition (Rhino Demon Exclusive Content)

by Take 2

Product Features

• An incredible, engaging story that makes you the noble hero... or the treacherous villain!
• A wealth of fascinating characters to interact with.
• Beautiful, mysterious lands to explore, discover, and save... or conquer.
• A rich blend of role-playing and exciting real-time combat.
• Enhanced PC game features, including: increased customization, new monsters and enemies, new fighting styles, improved combat AI and new world map interface.

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000MKGK16
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: February 26, 2007
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #26,771 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Step into the role of an aspiring martial arts master and follow the path of the Open Palm or Closed Fist. In this multi-award-winning action-RPG, your choices and actions will determine the fate of an empire. Will you prevent the destruction of this beautiful land or crush it beneath your heel? Are you a warrior who uses strength and fighting mastery to bring peace or will your power bring pain and ruin?

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun the first time through, March 28, 2007

By 

Andalusi (Redwood City, CA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Jade Empire Special Edition (Rhino Demon Exclusive Content) (Video Game)

Jade Empire: Special Edition is a lot of fun. The milieu is a fresh breath of air from the typical fantasy setting and the combat is certainly more dynamic. Instead of issuing commands and then waiting for the computer to resolve dice rolls behind the scenes, the combat is pure real-time martial arts. You jump your character in and out, dodge, roll, and have to actually connect when you strike. It brings out an urgency and involvement that is sometimes lacking in RPG combat.

The graphics may not be at the level of Oblivion, but they're crisp and pretty. Plus the game runs on a system that's not quite state-of-the art without issue. Apart from a few bugs (sometimes the camera angle gets stuck, easily fixed by a quick reload), Jade Empire runs smoothly.

The game has limited replay value, though. This is simply not as in-depth or large a game universe as Knights of the Old Republic or the Baldur's Gate series. You have a small starting town, which there is no point revisiting once you finish the introductory chapter. After that, there's a somewhat larger town (Tien's Landing) and then the Imperial City. Again, once you leave the town, you probably won't have any reason to ever go back. And the Imperial City is the same story: once you've wrapped up everything and head to the Imperial Palace, you won't be going back to the City.

That's a shame because the game feels so linear as a result. There's side quests in each urban location, but nothing that really makes you feel like you're forging your own destiny in another world. You won't be doing anything equivalent to rescuing Anise's castle in BG2 or acting as a hit man for the Genoharadan in KOTOR.

So my final verdict is that this is definitely a good game. But will I dust it off the shelf every few months, eager to give it another go (like I do with BG2, Kotor, and even Fallout 2)? That I can't be so sure about.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Jade Empire SE, March 27, 2007

By 

A. P. Samuelson "Shadowsmith" (Anchorage, AK USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Jade Empire Special Edition (Rhino Demon Exclusive Content) (Video Game)

This is a stable game with excellent graphic and a very good story line. The controls are simple and easy to learn. Unfortunately it is a bit on the short side, it took me only 14 hours to finish the game my first time.

There are a number of subplots, but they don't take long to complete. The romantic subplots for male characters are good and varied, female characters have only two options.

While the story is a bit lacking for replay, the combat options are keeping my interest. I have just started my third game. My wife completed it once and is likely to play through it again soon.

Personal Rating

Graphics: A

Stability: A

Controls: A

Combat Options: A

Character Customization: C+

Story Depth: A-

Story Length: C

Replay Value: C+

Overall I give Jade Empire SE a solid B.

I honestly found the Rhino Demon exclusive combat style to be of little value. But it is a cool little bonus that is fun to play around with once or twice.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice!!, June 1, 2007

By 

Vappour (SYLMAR, CALIFORNIA United States) - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Jade Empire Special Edition (Rhino Demon Exclusive Content) (Video Game)

A truly fine RPG and a real treat for anybody who played and enjoyed KOTOR 1. Jade Empire has all the Bioware trademarks: Good graphics, a fine story, great dialog, romance, challenging combat (on high settings) and interesting characters/locations. Like KOTOR, it has two paths to follow (something like good and evil), plot twists and even the opportunity to completely change your alignment near the end. Some people feel it's "cartoonish", but I definitely don't agree. Rather I think it tries to impart a sense of another culture's mythology, and it succeeds beautifully in my opinion. Think Titan Quest if you want an example (or Star Wars for that matter). I did almost everything I could find in the game (main quest, mini-games, sidequests, etc.), and it took me about 30 hours to complete. There are a lot of cut scenes, but they can be easily skipped by pressing the ESC key. If dialog screens bother you, you shouldn't be playing this type of game in the first place. It's really a shame that it took so long for Bioware to port Jade Empire to the PC. It would have been much more popular if it came out a year ago. Even so, I count Jade Empire among my favorites to be replayed many times.