Jade Empire Reviews
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Overall, Jade Empire is a wonderful game that Bioware, and gamers everywhere, should be proud of. The game does, however, also tread some uneasy ground. The lack of an inventory, the streamlined nature of the game (approximately twenty hours of play), and the real-time combat may be off-putting to some. While Jade Empire is neither a '˜heavy' RPG, nor a focused adventure game, it deserves equal fan attention from lovers of both genres.
And the second is at FiringSquad with an overall score of 84%:
Jade Empire is a very good game that could have been great if it had come before Knights of the Old Republic, not after. It would still face serious comparisons to Final Fantasy, but the game would weather those better than it does a head-to-head evaluation with its direct predecessor. Even though it's a more polished experience with a world that is as interesting as the Star Wars universe, its lack of depth becomes immediately apparent after finishing the game. There's just no desire to go back and try things a different way, or to do some optional quests. This is mostly because the "different way" is either very petty or senselessly evil, and the optional quests are very rare. Combat is actually an improvement over sitting back and watching fights resolve automatically, but it could be done with more depth. There's little reason why it couldn't be a little closer to Soul Calibur than Bad Dudes. Mostly, however, we're concerned that BioWare's beginning to show signs that its writers are getting tired and relying more on formula.
