Gameplanet Store Australia - Buy Jade Empire: Special Edition for PC Games online

Product Description

As this is an import only product stock is limited -- get it while you can! (All import titles are in English and will work in Australia.)

The Jade Empire Special Edition contains:

System Requirements

Minimum System Requirements
OS: Windows XP
Processor: 1.8 GHz
Memory: 512 MB
Hard Drive: 8 GB Free
Video Memory: 128 MB (ATI 9500/GeForce 6200+)
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
DirectX: 9.0c
Keyboard & Mouse
DVD Rom Drive
GAME PAD STRONGLY RECOMMENDED

Recommended System Requirements
OS: Windows XP
Processor: Pentium 4 @ 3.0 GHz
Memory: 1 GB
Hard Drive: 8 GB Free
Video Memory: 256 MB (ATI X600/GeForce 6800+)
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c Compatible
DirectX: 9.0c
Keyboard & Mouse
CD/DVD Rom Drive

This is a very decent game. If it had come out before KotOR it would probably have been much better received. As it is, it feels a bit more-of-the-same-ish in many respects.

The similarities to KotOR are extensive: it has a similar look -- environments are much lusher, but characters look very KotOR-ish; dialogue works very much like KotOR; and it's linear in similar ways to KotOR is (though a bit less versatile: you can't do quests in any order to the same extent as in KotOR). It's even similar in having a Big Plot Twist, though it works somewhat differently.

The differences from KotOR lie mainly in combat. It's an action game -- no rolling d20s here -- and feels decidedly Prince-of-Persia-Sands-of-Time-ish: you leap over your opponents, side-roll to dodge attacks or area-effect-attacks, time your attacks to interrupt theirs, and so on. It's not too difficult once you get used to it, and the different "styles" -- hand-to-hand, weapon styles, magic, and changing into demon forms -- makes combat lively.

It's definitely a very good-looking game, better looking than KotOR, even if not quite up to 2007 standards. However, it doesn't sustain interest as well as it might: there's no exploration for the sake of exploration; by the time you get to the Imperial City, you can really feel the railroads hemming you in on either side.

Finally, in the Australia/NZ edition the bonus fighting style in the Special Edition doesn't work: installation is impossible because of a Securom error. See http://jade.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=555377&forum=102 for details.

This may be an "RPG" by Bioware but don't compare it to KOTOR. It is an Xbox game after all so it's what you would expect... simplistic. Based on my impressions of a few hours of playing, it's not much of an RPG at all, really. It's a very linear, 3rd person action game with some RPG elements. You do get experience points and level up, but aside from that it's lacking in many of the elements that I would expect to see in an RPG. There are very little options to customise your character, and none at all to customise their appearance, like wearing armour. There is none. There are stores but all they sell (so far) are gems that boost your abilities, exercises that boost your abilities, and plot items. If you enjoy browsing a merchant's wares for weapons and armour and magic items and whatnot you can forget it. You can't even view your inventory because all you carry are plot items.

Weapons are very limited too. Early on you're given the option of a longsword or a staff and that's it for, I presume, much of the game.

There are many conversations and you have dialog options but where that's normally a good thing it's a bit of a bore in this game.

The combat's done quite well but I found it got very repetitive. Voice acting is good, and the graphics are nice. Plus it played sweet which is always nice in this day of system hogs. But I can't see why this game earned such high praise in all the reviews I read, polished though it is.

Jade Empire: Special Edition (PC Games)