Jade Empire

One of my favourite games in the past couple of years was Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. With its easy to use interface and rich, open-ended story line it was a game that captured my attention and held me in place for several nights.

The developer of KOTOR - Bioware - passed when it came to the inevitable sequel. They had something new in mind that would be their own property. From this came Jade Empire.

Jade Empire is set in Ancient China. Like KOTOR, you control your main character and travel from place to place. You have a main quest that is driving you through the game but there are also many side quests along the way. As you progress you will gain experience and also find gems that will enhance your attributes and find new followers who will join you on your quest. You can also choose to follwo the way of the open palm (light side) or the way of the closed fist (dark side). Different options are open to you based on which way you follow.

The biggest change from KOTOR is the combat. Instead of turn-based combat, the Jade Empire combat engine is real time without numbers floating above heads every time you strike. This combat engine is fluid and is mapped very well to the Xbox controller. You can fight using many different styles that you learn along the way. These can be:

• Martial - Hand to hand combat
• Weapon - There are many different weapons, from swords to staffs, to axes
• Magical - Magical styles allow you to harness the elements and bend them to your will
• Transformational - Along the way you will face monsters and demons. If you defeat them you might learn how to become one in battle
• Support - These styles do not necessarily inflict damage but allow you to replenish your vitals

Your companions add their strengths to yours and can come in very handy in a tough fight.

The story is very engaging and well-conceived. I found myself caring about these characters and always wanting to know where the story was going.

There are two things in Jade Empire that I would have liked to see.

1. I would have preferred a less linear story. Each place you visit has many different story lines and tasks, but there are many spots in the game where you are warned by one of the characters to finish up your business before proceeding. I would have liked a more open story like KOTOR, where quests sometimes resulted in having to revisit locations 3 or 4 times.
2. Why did it have to be only on the Xbox? I understand that the PS2 and the Gamecube would not have the horsepower or the space to run Jade Empire, but what about a PC version?

It will be interesting to see what Bioware follows up with. Will it be a follow-up to Jade Empire, KOTOR 3 (please?) or something different. Regardless, this is a developer to watch.

Jade Empire gets a 9.5 out of 10.

Evil Genius

One of the PC games I'm currently playing is Evil Genius published by Vivendi-Universal. In case you are unfamiliar with it, the basic premise of the game is to build an evil criminal empire and achieve world domination. It's done as a SIMs-like RPG and RTS cross.

The presentation in this game is unique to say the least. The characters and the graphics are very 60's spy-caperish.

As the evil genius in waiting, your job is to build your legions of henchmen to do your bidding. You build your island fortress (inside a mountain of course), and from there send your minions to perform "acts of infamy" around the world. Each of these acts gains you notoriety points (of which you have to collect 500 to win).

As you progress through the game you discover new acts of infamy as well as kidnap targets to earn new levels of minions with different skill sets. Managing the type of minions and their numbers is one of the biggest aspects of the game. You have a limited population limit and your forces need to be balanced since different acts of infamy require different type of minions.

On the "good" side, the powers of justice will send their troops to infiltrate and destroy your operation. You must always keep enough of a force on the island to repel them. If you really irk one of the forces of justice, they'll send their own 007-like agents to shut you down.

I'm really getting into this game. It requires a lot of planning since you only have a limited space in your mountain to excavate the different types of rooms and buy the objects you need. You also have to manage you minions and make sure that you have a balanced force. All of the purchases aren't cheap, so you have to send minions out into the world to siphon money out of the forces of justice and send it back to you. And finally, you need patience because if you try to expand too quickly, the forces of justice will apply too much heat to your operation and bring it down.

I also like this game because it is different. There is nothing else like this game that I know of and this is the type of creativity that should be rewarded in the gaming industry.

I'd give Evil Genius an 8.5 out of 10.