Review Game Over reviews Jade Empire

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: BioWare; Jade Empire

<a href=http://www.game-over.net>Game Over</a> has posted a <a href=http://www.game-over.net/reviews.php?id=1103>Jade Empire review</a>, giving the game 82% and praising the "outstanding plot" and complaining about the RPG elements
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<blockquote>As RPGs go this is a super light one, even lighter than Titan Quest, more along the lines of Dark Messiah. You have three characteristics: body, spirit, and mind.</blockquote>Another moron who thinks that role-playing means increasing stats. Jade Empire is not a pinnacle of role-playing, of course, but claiming that Titan Quest is a better RPG is just ridiculous.
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<blockquote>Body determines health points while different martial styles consume a combination of spirit (chi) and mind (focus). At each level you get a few points to divvy up amongst those three stats. You also get a separate set of points to allocate into particular martial combat styles to improve damage or speed or reduce the chi/focus cost. And that’s pretty much it for the RPG portion of the game.</blockquote>Uh, quests?
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.rpgwatch.com">RPG Watch</A>

 

[Volourn]

"You can replay the entire game on master level, though that is literally playing through EXACTLY the same game only with more difficult enemies using the advanced character you just completed the game with."

Yeah. It's exactly the same game if you play the same exact character, and you make the same exact choices. Duh.

Thankfully, for those who like avriety, JE gives you OPTIONS in what to do espicially in dialogue. R00fles!

Score is decent; but the logic is pathetic.

 

[Texas Red]

Ive heard that JE uses the same jerk-psycho side of the evil options. I dont understand. Whats stopping Biowhore from giving actually realisitc moral choises?

 

[Volourn]

Probably the same reason that stops you from saying intyelligent things - they don't feel the need to change.

And, JE's evil is no more jerk -psycho side than FO is for the most part. R00fles!

 

[Durwyn]

Actually JE provided the best good-evil moral choices that i haven't seen in any RPG for many years. The guy who wrote this review is utterly dumbfucked but somehow he managed to get the score right. Great dialogues and plot. Too bad that it sucked in action side too me.

 

[Texas Red]

Probably the same reason that stops you from saying intyelligent things - they don't feel the need to change.

And, JE's evil is no more jerk -psycho side than FO is for the most part. R00fles!

I dont *care* about Fallout. How is it relevant to the subject at hand? All of the games of Biowhore, from what Ive seen, have the ridiculous teh eval and good choises, where you either insult and kill anyone who gets in your way or you are willing to go through hell just to save a bug.

 

[Volourn]

You lie. As always. Bow down to the Codex Princess, Mr. Dumbfuck... or, at least tell the truth.

 

[elander_]

JE may be a good game for Bioware but since it didn't sell as well as other Bioware titles their next will have to be even more dumbed down and the cycle will repeat itself until they have dumbed it too much like Neverwinter Nights 1/2. They might as well let their Marketing people have intensive lessons on game design since they are the ones who decide what a game will be. That old dude from Bioware that used to post in here almost sounded pathetic with his talk about how we have to make a game for everyone meaning how we have to be sluts and do everything Marketing says.

 

[Drakron]

NWN 2 was done by Obsidian.

 

[Volourn]

And, how was NWN series 'dumbed down'? The game hs A LOT of things thata re far from dumbed down. Heck, they has more attention to detail for abilties both in and out of combat than their predessors the IE games.

That is just dumb talk.

 

[elander_]

And, how was NWN series 'dumbed down'?

I could write a book on that subject but let's keep it at that. The little improvements that NWN made don't compensate for it's rather poor gameplay.

 

[Volourn]

It's gameplay was basiclaly the same style; but deeper than the IE gameplay. Why do you post dumb things? It's rude.

 

[Kraken]

Does Game Over still exist? I'm pretty sure it started out as a website for reviewing ripped games back in the days. Weird.

 

[Voss]

Tsk. Months away and its still the exact same conversation.

But I guess its good to know that even the stupidest dumbfuck on this site isn't as much of a moron as the guys at Game Over.

 

[Crazy Tuvok]

One of the things I did like about JE was that the moral dimension was more complex than in every other Bio game; for that matter most games period. There were really very compelling reasons to choose either side of an issue and both paths (Open Palm and Fist) offered good reasons for choosing to walk one or the other w/o it being "I want to be evil" or "I want to be good". This the game got right. Now if the combat hadn't sucked donkey balls I may have enjoyed the fucking thing.

edit: typo(s)

 

[made]

There were really very compelling reasons to choose either side of an issue and both paths

Care to give examples?

From my experience, the "compelling reasons" for chosing Closed Fist dialogue options were almost exclusively greed and hunger for power. In fact, I can remember only one case where there was actual reasoning behind the Way of the Closed Fist and that was the incident with the girl that was bound to be sold into slavery and could be convinced to pick up a knife and fight for her own freedom if she valued it at all. Of course, after killing her slaver the girl ran off with a crazed look in her eyes, presumably slaughtering all innocents in her path, with her mother left crying and blaming the PC for turning her daughter into a monster. That's Bioware morale for you.

 

[Volourn]

"Care to give examples?"

Play the game, and pay attention. There are plenty of examples. If you played it, and didn't see it chances are nobody is gonna convince you that you ar emistaken anyways from your perception.


R00fles!

 

[Sol Invictus]

Game-Over is pretty retarded. Always has been.

 

[Greatatlantic]

Hmmm... I'm going to have to disagree with VD here. Well I agree that stats don't make the RPG, they are a pretty darn important place to start. In particular, being able to design unique characters types before you even begin playing to me is at the core of RPGs. The second part of the core is having the world respond to how you developed your character (i.e. the quests).

Jade Empire fails miserably to provide distinct character builds. Every character will have a martial style, a weapon style, and a magic style before leaving the first town. I find the differences between styles of the same category for the most part trivial. Yeah, White Demon is slow and does more damage compared to a Thousand Cuts, but they still function largely the same way. For the stats themselves, you have 3 and they ALL improve when you level up. You get a few extra points to distribute however you want, but by the mid game you'll have plenty of health, chi, and focus to have all the advantageous each provide.

As for the quests themselves, JE is probably the best Bioware has ever done (keeping in mind I never played BG) in offering multiple resolutions to quests. Problem is, none of these solutions are dependent on the choices you've made in the past, either character building or behavior wise. I mean, whats the point of being either OP or CF? At least in KotOR the cost of using Force Powers changed depending upon your alignment. In JE, there are a handful of gems which are alignment restricted, and 2 magic styles only available to certain alignments. Thats it.

Jade Empire, adventure game with choices!

 

[kingcomrade]

This post's title is misleading, I was thinking Volourn had a bout of literacy and wrote a review.

 

[Volourn]

R00fles!