General

Fortunately, the story and presentation are done wonderfully. Though BioWare falls upon its formulas, it delivers them nicely. However, given the very lite RPG aspects, the heavy story presentation and linear, formulaic plot, we sometimes felt we were playing Final Fantasy rather than a real RPG. In fact, one could argue that Jade Empire is a hybrid between Knights of the Old Republic and a Final Fantasy game.

The overarching plot is thought out well and its exposition is almost perfectly timed. The endgame feels a bit rushed but otherwise we couldn't be happier with how the story develops. It has interesting twists and the mysteries of the quest are pursued consistently and hints are given often enough to keep the player interested.

Where the writing fails is where it failed in Knights of the Old Republic. The choice between good and evil, light and dark - or in this case, Way of the Open Palm and Way of the Closed Fist - is a little too obvious. At times, the response choices in the game really go out of their way to point out that "this is a really bad thing to do". At other times, the player's "evil" choice inflicts casual cruelties for no apparent reason. We can accept evil - the Enron board was clearly evil and self-serving, but it did so with a purpose. Too often, the purpose for being evil in Jade Empire is a petty reason and offers little to no extra reward over the good path. At times, the game will surprise the player with an interesting choice, but all too often it fails to give a compelling reason to do something cruel. Then again, this isn't a problem unique to Jade Empire, and to be fair, this game handles it better than most.

Overall, the plot experience is the most satisfying part, especially if the player plays his intended role as the good guy. The bad guy part BioWare needs to keep working on.

Beautiful

Jade Empire's greatest asset may be its graphics engine - it is truly stunning. A further refinement of the technology used in KOTOR, it delivers breathtaking scenes without effort. Grass is plentiful and is waved away by the footsteps of characters, special effects are impressive and yet subtle enough to fit in. Character animations are quite stunning and it's clear that true professionals were used for the motion capture.

The modeling is very impressive. Particularly interesting is the portrayal of demons and buildings and other characteristic features of China. Textures aren't as high-resolution as they would be on a PC, but they serve adequately and, thanks to the glow/bloom that is ever-present in the game, they hold up quite well. Jade Empire may in fact be the first game that actually uses bloom properly, since it gives a very dreamy fantasy feel to the whole experience, which fits the setting perfectly.