Jonny goes Kung Fu fighting.

Jade Empire takes as its background the epic majesty and beauty of ancient China, and everything that entails - pagodas, kung fu, tea, dragons and spiritualism, and spices it up with a smattering of what we've come to expect from fantasy scenarios - demons, magic and monsters, to create what amounts to a kinda Fable-with-paper lanterns. Kinda.

At the beginning of the game, you are a promising student at an idyllic mountaintop Kung Fu school, but all is not well. There are strange rumours that ghosts have been blocked off from the underworld, and cursed to continue to roam the lands and plague the living. Before long, you find yourself embroiled in an epic quest which will eventually take you right into the heart of the Empire and beyond.

You have a large amount of freedom in how your character develops. You start off by selecting a name (Furious Wang, in my case), sex, and body type, and then you can select the types of skills you wish to develop as well as a magical weapon.

develop a unique character

The game is absolutely packed with fighting styles to develop, and no two characters will end up the same. There are "Martial" styles, all with cool names like Leaping Tiger, "Support" styles, which do little or no damage but are beneficial in drawing energy from opponents or setting up stronger attacks, "Weapon" styles, ranging from double swords to a large blunderbuss, "Magic" styles, which are fire / ice / lightning-type attacks, and "Transformation" styles, which allow you to change your form into that of a huge demon or somesuch.

As you progress through the game, you'll earn experience points to spend on developing these styles, so you'll need to choose the ones that work best for you in different situations. Some enemies can only be fought with certain styles which forces you not to become too dependent on any one, and you'll also need to bear in mind that different techniques also take a chunk out of one of your three energy bars (Health, Chi and Focus) so it's necessary to use a fair bit of strategy as you brawl in the streets.

Switching styles on the fly is simplicity itself, allowing you to blend a unique fighting style of your own, while the combat as a whole is superbly entertaining.

Of course there's a lot more to it than just fighting. Story-wise, it's one of the more intriguing yarns of recent times, and there are smatterings of dialogue here and there which are by turns superb, or funny, or shocking.

Most of the voice acting is superbly done, and even includes the odd star name, most notably John Cleese, who plays the role of a hilarious, stuffy, stuck-up English gentleman (quel surprise…), and Firefly's Nathan Fillion, who voices your character's nemesis at the school.

As the game goes on you'll be tempted to walk either the low path or the high path. The Way of the Open Palm vs. The Way of the Closed Fist. Every conversation gives you numerous options, allowing you to deal with situations either peacefully or with often-hilarious insults and violence. This makes your game tailored to your style, as missions which require you to follow one path or the other may become available depending on how your actions shape your character.

land of the setting sun

It's definitely a beautiful game to look at, in a setting we have seen used surprisingly few times before, which makes it feel fresh throughout, with gorgeous sunsets of pink and orange effectively setting the mood for much of the time.

Jade Empire doesn't offer much of a challenge in the conventional sense. It's easily entertaining enough to keep you playing through to the end, but there are few times when you'll feel it's really testing you. Thankfully it takes quite a while to finish, and the story and the game itself are both very rewarding - the journey, it seems, is the worthier part. And also one you'll be tempted to play through again, as every experience can be wildly different.

As you'd expect from RPG master developers Bioware and publishers Microsoft, Jade Empire reeks of quality. It's right up there, proudly standing shoulder to shoulder with Knights of the Old Republic and Fable as one of the finest adventures on the Xbox today.

GAME's Verdict

• A brilliant adventure in a setting we've not seen much before.
• Combat is handled extremely well.
• In terms of dialogue, plot, etc. it's one of the best-written games of recent times.

• Not particularly challenging, even though it offers a lengthy adventure.

Review by: Jonny Austin
Version Tested: Xbox
Review Published: 09.05.05