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Bioware was the group that originally created Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Last year, they handed the duties of crafting KOTOR's sequel to a company called Obsidian. The reason is that they were working on a monster new RPG called Jade Empire.
Jade Empire came out today. I've logged a couple hours on the game, and I must say it's pretty damn good. The environments are all-original, and very detailed (similiar to Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath in detail), and the action is great. The game is very similiar to KOTOR, so if you liked that game, you'll love this one.
The idea behind the game is that what if all the old Chinese legends about dragons, chi, and magic are true. The game is similiar in mood to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in mood and setting.
The major differences are that the action is real-time, not turn-based, so it's much more of an action game than KOTOR. You can switch between fighting styles at the click of a button, enter "focus" mode (similiar to bullet-time) and pull off some pretty cool maneuvers. Now it's no Ninja Gaiden, but it's not meant to be. The action is good, not great, but it's everything it has to be.
The character development seems pretty good too so far. You can choose a male or female character, and they can start out with various characteristics that can be altered during gameplay, or you can create your own variations and start from there. If you've played KOTOR, this works almost exactly the same way in character development, conversations, and leveling-up.
The only thing that's felt out of place so far is the flying mini-game that feels like the old NES game "1942". Other than that, this is a fine game. It's an RPG for people who don't like RPGs. If you like Kung-Fu action games, and don't mind a little storyline (and a ton of dialogue), this would be a good one to pick up. I had to go to two different stores today to find a copy.
IGN rated the game a 9.9 out of 10
Gamespot rated the game 8.4 out of 10
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