Jade Empire

The creators of Star Wars: KOTOR return with one of the biggest firstparty Xbox RPGs of 2004. What's the story so far? We investigate. Awesome direct feed trailer included.

	Version Xbox	Developer Bioware	Publisher Microsoft	Genre RPG

By Rick Larson

Ask any Xbox gamer what genre is really lacking on their system and the answer you'll most likely hear is RPGs. It's pretty amazing that after two years the Xbox still doesn't have a large RPG line-up. The system does have a handful of games in the genre including Morrowind and Shenmue 2, but we need more. Luckily, Bioware just happened to stumble onto the scene and release Knights of the old Republic, creating a whole new storyline within the Star Wars universe. Now, Bioware is on its way back with an all new original title that is sure to tantalize any RPG fan - Jade Empire.

Jade Empire's story still hasn't been fully explained. We know that it takes place in a past mythical China. In this fantasy world certain sinister events take place, sending your character on his way through an epic adventure to stop the forces of evil. Yes, it is very vague but that's all that's out there.

What we do know more about is the amazing environment that Bioware is putting a lot of time and effort into making it as detailed and engrossing as possible. The team visited China in order to gather every last detail on Chinese myth and legend to make the game true to the ancient culture. This world is full of legendary creatures, magical spells, supernatural beings, and beautiful mythical environments.

The environments range from normal river towns to floating cities, and like KOTOR, Jade Empire's many cities will flourish with NPCs that inhabit the fantasy world. There will be all sorts of characters with over 100,000 lines of voice-overs, which will offer numerous personalities from rivals, quest givers, and others for just comic relief. Simply, every character you come across will be different with their own personality and story, according to Bioware. The massive amount of voice acting should really help bring the game to life.

All the characters will also have fluid movements thanks to some serious motion capture effort. Topping it off, some amazing character models with vibrant, lifelike locations and a superb lighting system will really enhance the visual mood. From the screens released so far, Jade Empire's visuals look set to surpass KOTOR effortlessly.

Taking more from its Star Wars counterpart, Jade Empire's gameplay is an overhauled version of KOTOR's game engine. Gamers will be given the ability to choose form seven starting characters, or create one of their own. Once the character is customized the journey will begin. The extent of the gameplay is truly deep, giving you the choice to play as either a good or evil character based on actions throughout the game.

Another way to increase your reputation is to make a city your stronghold. This is one of the most promising aspects of the game; players will be able to fortify a town in which they will have to defend against beasts and marauders as well as attract students which you can train in martial arts. Newcomers will bring with them new missions and fighting styles for you to learn. Over time your stronghold will evolve and can gain popularity across mythical China. It sounds fantastic - although how it's pulled remains to be seen at the moment obviously.

The fighting system also promises considerable depth. There are over thirty fighting styles, ranging from hand to hand martial arts to magical attacks, as well as fighting with weapons. To truly harness the fighting system gamers will need to master several styles and switch through them in mid-combat. As your skills grow, the more experience you will earn which in turn gives your attacks more destructive power. Eventually characters will even learn the ability to transform into mythical monsters. Right now it's unknown whether this fighting system will be turns based real-time fighting like in KOTOR, or if it will be something new.

Things are really looking good for this title. The worry really floating around right now is whether or not the game will be far away enough from KOTOR's gameplay to considered fresh and new, rather than just a clone. From the unique features Bioware has shown this shouldn't be a problem. The only other thing we can complain about is a release date not scheduled until Christmas 2004. But it looks highly promising and hopefully it will deliver a big boost to the Xbox RPG library. Keep it right here for further updates.