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| Completely awesome in every respect. by bink 04/26/2005, 7:15am PDT | ||||
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| I've only played about three hours, so this is just a rough impression, but the game is awesome. Imagine if Fable had dropped all the sandbox bullshit and spent the development time adding other things an in-depth RPG should have. That's Jade Empire.
The Infinity Engine (KOTOR, KOTOR2) has come a long way. The graphics are not quite up to Fable's standards, but they're close. There are impressive lighting effects on almost every character and details you'll only notice if you spend time poring over each area. The only problem I've noticed so far is the tendency toward thin, mutant forearms on NPC's. On top of all that, they got rid of the "one face" problem from the KOTOR games -- nearly every unique NPC has a unique face to go with it. But on to the meat. Character creation is disappointingly simple -- you pick a general archetype from "strong," "fast," "balanced," or "magic." Then you assign points to Body, Chi, or Focus. Body represents physical hardiness, Chi is for enhancing attacks and healing, and Focus allows you to wield weapons and to switch to bullet-time. After that you pick a martial style (one is a requirement, you get one other) and you're into the game. This is where it gets complicated however. As you play, you can find or buy "techniques" which are basically stat upgrades and have names such as "Master Li's Legacy" and stack with one another. You can learn "styles," differing martial arts moves, which have names like "Forest of a Thousand Cuts" and basically determine your fighting style. On top of all this, each style has at least three categories you can spend points improving -- for example my "Thousand Cuts" style has three options: increase damage, increase chi damage, and increase speed. There is an insane amount of customization as you go along with the game. The combat itself is fluid, easy to pick up, and impressive to watch. "A" attacks. "B" blocks or dodges by way of 50 ft. jump. "X" starts a power move which can break through enemy blocks. "A+X" is an area attack and differs for each style: most martial styles, for example, have you sweeping while a burst of flame explodes outward knocking down all enemies. Heavenly Wave's area attack slows everyone around you. On top of this, you can punch the black button to enhance every attack with chi, or back out from an enemy and use the white button in order to perform chi healing. The problem is, however, chi and focus go FAST so you have to know when to use them. After sparring with students in the first area, you will be soaring around destroying whole screens of enemies. Not that it's all easy -- it's just intuitive. The only quibble I have so far is that the attack animations, like Fable, get old quickly. The game toys with RPG conventions and, in many ways, obliterates them. There are no potions and no item screen to speak of. You gain health, chi, and focus by either picking up powerups from dead foes or at "shrines" which replenish the entire bar. You also get one legendary weapon at the start of the game which you can upgrade (as you master it, of course), instead of a bunch of mysterious, incrementally powerful weapons at each town. I can't really comment more until I play it more; but if you enjoyed the KOTOR series and Fable you should definitely pick up this game. |
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review request: Jade Empire by 04/26/2005, 2:32am PDT  Imagine NBA Jam and Tetris NT by 04/26/2005, 3:19am PDT Completely awesome in every respect. by 04/26/2005, 7:15am PDT Odyssey engine. by 04/26/2005, 1:54pm PDT You're right, my bad. NT by 04/26/2005, 3:57pm PDT Now how about a review from a non-crazy? NT by 04/26/2005, 2:27pm PDT Re: Completely awesome in every respect. by 04/26/2005, 6:18pm PDT Beat it, loved it, doing it again. by 04/26/2005, 7:04pm PDT Riffing off of Funkula here, but yeah, it's great with a few major problems by 04/26/2005, 8:06pm PDT Re: Riffing off of Funkula here, but yeah, it's great with a few major problems by 04/27/2005, 9:37am PDT Sounds like bink was right on target here NT by 04/28/2005, 5:11am PDT Maybe it was some sort of "insane insight." Ah, hah, hah, hah. NT by 04/29/2005, 12:12am PDT |
