The official Kung Fu RPG from the creators of KOTOR. But does it live up to the legacy of Bioware?
The game is set in the self titled Jade Empire and see's you take one of a number of different charcters through a story to rescue you kidnapped Master from the Evil Emperor and his Cohorts including the fearful assain leader Death's Hand (he sounds friendly...). Of course the journey isn't going to be easy and see's you fighting Ghosts, Demons, Bandits and just plain nasty people. The trademark WOW thing in this game is the Kung Fu. Along the way you can adapt your techniques to help benifit your characters status aka Fast, Power, Magic etc.
The game is one of the most beautiful that you'll find on the XBOX. The areas are a real treat to work through and you can see attention to detail in many place. A good example is in a Tea House you can see the additional bits of meat on the barbeque up stairs, no-one cares but they put it in anyway, which shows commitment. The characters are also well modeled, however there seems to be about 20 standard models apart from story characters...so you'll be finding a large number of qaudlets seperated at birth or more. The sound in the game is also impressive. Despite once again having a mute for a main character, all the party members have adequate voice matched to them eg the lavishly dressed merchant Zin Bu has a slightly camp voice (Please don't take this the wrong way) whereas the butch Black Whirlwind has a gruff low voice. The soundtrack is calm and soothing however there's nothing that'll get your blood racing in battle.
The gameplay that what your really after, after all it is a Kung Fu game.
Just to start your charcter has Health, Chi which is your magic power and your Focus which allows you to use weapons but can slow time down in other styles. The player canuse Chi in the middle of a battle to heal
their wounds, but its a bit cheeky and easy due to the large number of healing station that top up your chi. There are a number of styles that players can use: 1) Martial Arts - Styles that require you to use your hands and feet to cause damage. 2) Magic - This allow you to fire elemental projectiles at the cost of chi power. 3) Support - This subject your enemies to ailments (eg paralysis) but don't cause damage unless you improve them. 4) Transformations - Allow the player to morph himself into a range of being at the costs of chi power (mana). 5) Weapon - Attack using different weapon types such as swords, staffs, axes and daggers which do more damage at the cost of focus. Each style has about 4-5 different techniques within in it, these are the different forms of the style, aka in martial arts there is are 2 Fast/Weak, a Slow/Strong and moderate strength and speed technique. Each tech has to be upgraded using points you gain from leveling up in Speed, Strength and a special attack called Chi Strike which allows you to increase the power at the cost of Chi.
For each Tech there are 3 attacks you can do: a basic attack, a slower power attack and an area attack. On the side you can block and dodge. Blocking stops the player taking damage from basic and area attacks. The is fun but if you look at th game from afar it really is a suped-up version of Rock/Paper/Scissors. If ---> means beats the following this is how it works.
Block ---> Basic/Area attack ---> Power attack ---> Block.
The Basic attack beat power because you can attack the enemy while there changing and stop their progress. This may sound bad, but the action is also pushed along with dodges that allow you to flip around the fighting area. The fighting is fun but you'll often find it repetitive later in the game and on your second run through. Aside from the fighting there is the simple exploring and picking stuff up and solving the side quests by talking to or beating up ceratin people or finding objects. There is also the top down flying game in between areas like the Radius games but they can be skipped and are annoying and irrelevant to the game play. I should also mention that alot of the game is spent talking to people and adjusting your personality (good/evil) by how you answer questions. At the beginning it is frustrating how much talking there is and also how clueless you are about fighting, you may find yourself dying quickly.
The lifespan of the game is adequate lasting a healthy 20 hours or so on the first run through and about 10 - 15 and the second. The game like KOTOR has a level limit at 23 (i think, anyone who knows more contact me please) so you can't become too strong and forces you into the storyline.
Any problems? The talking can become annoying and you find your self skipping it. TOO MUCH YAP, NOT ENOUGH SLAP.
Theres so much stuff to read bout the history which you don't want to know.
There are a load of sub-quests some may not be bothered to finish them.
The R/P/S fighting mechanincs.
There are no combos at all, all the attacks are the same.
It is a good game but its let down by its overly simplistic mechanics at heart.