JADE EMPIRE VIPER STYLE PC

Also you can poison the waters of the empire and seize the godlike power of the Water Dragon for your own evil ends! Because you're evil. Much like KotOR, perhaps suspiciously so, there comes an end-game moment where all of your party members realize that your murderous psychopathic behavior actually meant something and you can force them into your service against their own wills. I played the game 'Closed Fist', which the game tries to pretend is motivated self-interest instead of just Chaotic Evil, but yeah, it's still binary moral choice with all the subtlety of an anvil and significantly more interesting than playing the role of the Lawful Good 'Open Palm' character. My character didn't take so kindly to this one. Apparently there are good demons in the world of Jade Empire. I'd say that's about on-par with 'You are Darth Revan', and maybe just as obvious in hindsight. And then he kills you (but of course you don't stay dead). Also to its credit, the late-game twist in Jade Empire subverts this to a degree: Your life, up to that point, was all part of an orchestrated plot by your master to get revenge on his brother, the emperor and gain the throne himself. Jade Empire's world is what stands out more than its main story, borrowing heavily from Imperial China and a bunch of other Asian mythologies that don't get their just due in Video Games and for that I will give it points. Along the way you pick up a group of colorful companions who are probably romance-able (bonus points here for being the first Bioware game with homosexual romances and also you can apparently have a threesome?). You are the only one who can save the Jade Empire because you are special (the last of the spirit monks) and because of that you are hounded by the forces of (obvious) evil. Stop me if you've heard this before: You are an individual of humble origin thrust out of your home after violence occurs. Who doesn't love a villain that never really shows up and doesn't ever earn his menacing reputation on-screen? Doesn't help that I just played Mask of the Betrayer too, if we're just going to throw in everything. While that game wasn't the second-coming of RPGs for me the way it was for some people, it still stands that my opinion has been colored by the story-focused RPGs that have come since, be they from Bioware, Obsidian or CD Projekt RED.

JADE EMPIRE VIPER STYLE PC

By the time the PC version of this game came out (two years later) I had moved on to being really obsessed with Oblivion and sort of regretting the purchase of my Wii. But I was a Nintendo kid, and thus did not have an 'Xbox The First', leaving me with nothing but KotOR II to sate my need for RPGs. Had I played this game in 2005 when it came out and KotOR was still my favorite game of all-time, I bet I would've liked it a lot more than I did now. This can partially be blamed on simple perspective. Not every game has to be a winner, and I'm still glad I played it. Oh, I'm sure that Sonic RPG is still a piece of work (and now I feel the sudden urge to play that and mock it relentlessly), but as it stands now Jade Empire is my least favorite Bioware game*. However, in the grand pantheon of Bioware games it's nothing special. It's fine, and I might even go as far as to say that certain aspects of it are great: It has an unique setting as far as video games are concerned with some pretty great art direction and some well-done supporting characters. After the 12(!) hours it took me to beat this game, I can confirm that Jade Empire is indeed a RPG of questionable quality. Oh well, going home for the 4th will be good.

This is the face of unemployment crossed with a lack of friends in town.

Jade empire viper style