If for whatever reason you've been reading my blog, you'll know I've been craving an RPG since finishing Kotor 2; And if you didn't know that, well now you do. I've been fairly unsuccessful to find an RPG that matches the thrill Kotor 1/2 gave me. Along the way, one of the games that really disappointed me was Jade Empire, when I finally got my hands on it. I had really high expectations for Jade Empire to be a deep RPG, since it was developed by Bioware. What I got slapped in the face with instead, was what I personally thought to be, a really shallow game, in comparison to other RPG games developed by Bioware. Almost all the elements that made Kotor to be fun were stripped down. Repetitive and shallow "Action/RPG" combat, shallow stat building, shallow side-quests, lack of proper inventory, and shallow exploration elements. The only positive things I can say about Jade Empire is the solid voice-acting, decently written script, and mildly-interesting, but forgettable, characters. Inspite of all the negatives of Jade Empire though, I managed to overlook those elements, and finish the game; In 11 hours...

I'll be honest, I didn't do the side-quests like I do with all my other RPGs; Mainly because with the lack of an inventory, the rewards either amounted to Silver, or another useless skill I'd needlessly have to spend my points on. That alone really irked me throughout the whole game. Why should I bother doing the side-quests? The two skills you get right from the start of the game, assuming you only focus on upgrading those two, will get you right to the end without needing any other ones, and silver is piss-easy to get- Also very useless. All the things that you could buy, you can get better going through the main quest.

The combat became very repetitive after a short while, and basically boils down to this: Keep hammering the regular attack button, and if they block, use heavy attack. If they use a heavy attack, jump behind them and keep hammering that Left-Mouse Button! I would have been just as satisfied as I was with Kotor if they just used the same combat-system. As it stood, I managed to look over it. On the plus side, it was mildly entertaining to watch my character jumping around and fighting.

Lastly, the exploration. Oh man, the game felt so linear when it came to this. Again, the problem with the lack of a proper inventory system crops up. Why should I bother looking for optional power-ups, if I'm going to get better ones through the main quest? And even if I wanted to go out of my way to look for the chests/crates (or in this case, Bamboo Casks), most of the areas boiled down to forked roads that lead to either continuing the main quest, or beating up a few more enemies to get another useless power-up. There were very few open fields that just let you explore, get lostand soak in the environment, if any at all.

So, in-short, a passable and mildly entertaining RPG that pushed back that crave in the back of my mind for another RPG- Only a little bit though.

Now, two things are happening in terms of my craving for another good RPG. I've found a mod for Baldur's Gate I to use the improved engine graphics engine of Baldur's Gate II - Now its more bearable on the eyes, so I'm going to take a whack at that and try to play it again. Second, I'm on the fence againabout whether or not I should grab an Xbox 360 this year, for Mass Effect. Fully customizable character that actually speaks (Both male and female), and Bioware claiming its "the most non-linear game we've ever made"? Please, that alone is all the incentive I need to buy an Xbox 360. Hopefully they learned from their- Again, what I personally consider, mistakes with Jade Empire. Of course if I do decide to pick up a 360, I'll alsolook foward to being able to play Dead or Alive 4, Ninja Gaiden 2, Grand Theft Auto 4, etc. as well.

Of course, I haven't forgotten about the RPGs coming out for the PC this year. The Witcher seems very promising from the recent videos and previews shown, and Hellgate: London looks like more Diablo-esque fun. Not exactly the kind of RPG I've been looking for, but if I can round up my old Diablo II playing friends again to play Hellgate: London, I'll be excited.