Completed: Jade Empire

I've been waiting until I finished the video to write about this. Until now it had been the only BioWare RPG that I had not played. I don't really remember why I never played it when it was first released but the fact it started life as an XBox exclusive probably didn't help. Also the ancient China setting wasn't the most appealing to me, so even when I picked up a copy on Steam it still took me a while to get around to trying it. It turns out that was silly as I really enjoyed the game.

I ended up playing the game in three parts. It started with the initial burst, I played though chapter 1 and the beginning of chapter 2 but was then distracted by something (the release of Fallout: New Vegas I think). That was at the end of last year. It wasn't until last month that I picked it up again and played to the end of chapter 2. Then the final session started the first weekend and this month as I mentioned yesterday and was a marathon session spanning from the very end of chapter 2 all the way through the end of the game (chapter 7), now featured in the latest MoG. Although the chapters are not of equal length so that really isn't a very accurate account of time spent. I must admit I'd forgotten a lot about the story in the long gap between the first two sessions. I eventually got back in to the world and that led to the mammoth final session. RPGs to tend to better when you let the world suck you in and become part of it, but you can't do that with a six month gap in play.

I think part of the problem was my initial skepticism about the setting. It wasn't until chapter 3 that I really understood the world and what the actual purpose of the story was. Once I'd got to that point it was hard to find good places to stop. For a five year old game the graphics still hold up really well (more the environments than the characters though). Still when you've got a good story that matter much less. It's interesting how much of BioWare's history you can see in the game. Built on the engine used for Knights of the Old Republic you can see the similarities and what has been improved since then. However playing it after Mass Effect and Dragon Age you can also see the new things they were trying that would eventually become major parts of their game play.

I'm glad I finally played the game. At the end I didn't get the feeling that I should play again right away as a different character like I do on some RPGs. I just didn't get the feeling it would be much different. Still very much worth the one play through though. I would recommend it.