I like it a lot so far, more than I expected really. I wrote up something big, but felt a lot of it was kinda irrelevant, heh.
Couple of quick thoughts:
Quick KOTOR comparison to get it out of the way:
Compared to KOTOR though, I'm find it a lot more logical and put to better use.
Most of KOTOR was, in my mind, overly convoluted and depth for the sake of depth. The game was entirely too easy and many of the force skills and side traits were absolutely irrelevant. Even early on in Jade Empire, I'm finding the character separation to be more useful, and the different styles present much more impact.
Jade Empire is billed as an original game system, but the game is
pretty much in line with their prior stuff. It has had almost all the fluff and more expendable stuff removed though. Still tons to customize with by ARPG standards however, character class/style, stats by levels, what styles to bring into combat at any one time, and even tweaking up to three various options within the individual style.
Difficulty wise, Jade Empire is easily the more difficult of the two early on. There's far less room for error, and yet no real way to recover from mishaps like with KOTOR. It's not a really difficult game, but I've hit the pavement more times in 3 hours of play than most of KOTOR I think
Presentation; music and visuals, all that jazz:
The overall presentation is absolutely excellent. The visuals can be kind of a mixed bag however.
In terms of style and art direction there is a
LOT more flair and polish than KOTOR, framerate is overall a lot better too and it's
much more fun to explore around to my tastes.
However, the engine still isn't top tier Xbox stuff, and still has plenty o' faults. Occasionally spotty models, awkward textures, some low detail environment bits. The engine has made great strides by compare to the last, however and is still a great looking game.
The music is really great when it comes in, but it's a tad too sparse. The combat themes are of incredible quality and most of the environment tunes are as well, an occasional obvious synth emerges, but it's rare enough, odd though.
Quick narrative opinion
It's a lot more interesting compared to most RPG's through theme alone. It's very nice to have largely original fare in a Bioware game as well, although as with typical Bioware tradition most NPC's have almost too much to say at times.
It starts off a bit slower than KOTOR, but doesn't hit the same disaster of a lull afterwards. Pretty simple fare early on, but it's also fun seeing your character interact as if it has an established history.
The good/evil slants have been grayed a bit, to set in tone with the whole mythology gig, the choices are still obvious, but you get the drift. It seems like it'll be much more rewarding (and more accessible) to replay for the supposedly solidly different spikes and endings for the dialogue branches.
Anyhow, closing up this thoughts post, I've only played threeish hours or so. I'll follow up some more relevant updates, more concise as well for those still on the fence.
