Jade Empire released released during a time when Bioware released banger after banger! Play this and appreciate it for what it is, there's not really been many games that have such a unique premise both in gameplay and setting. I highly recommend you give it a chance
It's free on prime gaming and 89p on GOG. I will take one star off though, unless you grew up with games like this the dated mechanics will start to annoy you. Though, this was the game that showed that puzzle based, stealth FPS games could also tell a phenomenal story and if you can overcome some of those mechanics and have patience then it'll be the best 89p you ever spent.
Get the game, it's £7.89.
I enjoyed some of the mechanics and playing as a dragon with a boost pack on during battles is actually pretty fun! With that being said there's not a lot of variation in how battles go, the real focus of the game is on interaction and decision making. This might be due to resources getting allocated to DOS during development as a lot of the game feels half baked or rushed in the later stages. Not bad when it's on sale, whether you like it or not entirely depends on your preference. It's not long (Depending on what difficulty you play) clocked about 6 hours or so on it and it has some replay value but not £30 worth of replay value.
My main issue was getting it to run on modern hardware/software. I don't care if it's worse than the original or better, this game is literally 89p and it's better than almost 95% of Ubisoft's modern catalogue. It's a solid game that i have enjoyed playing for 15 hours.
This came out 5 months before New Vegas from what i can remember and well the reception was mixed. With that being said I'm glad GOG somehow managed to preserve and make it available again, this one sadly passed me by during the 360/PS3 era but like VMB gained a cult following and after playing through it multiple times i can honestly tell you this is an underrated diamond. Honestly, this game feels like a peak Bioware game, with an Obsidian spin and so much B movie energy! Buy this game, It's honestly the closest thing to a Bond Mass effect your going to get.
