Jade Empire, two hours in, not lovin it, continue?

I'm about two hours in to Jade Empire, it feels like it's still opening up, but I'm not having much fun at all. The presentation seems fantastic for its time, but the loading and dated graphics are dragging it down (a LOT of loading)... and the other aspects seem a bit mediocre at this point.

Should I stick with it a bit more, or have I given it enough chance as it is?

I'm playing this too, and I'm 11 hours in or so, maybe more after yesterday (I might have started at 11 and put in 2-3). I think give it a bit more. I find that depending on the point I am at, it either has me really hooked, or I'm pretty "meh." Can you describe a bit what point you're at?

The load times are long, but really, there aren't that many. Areas are pretty large to explore after a load. The graphics are dated compared to 360 or PS3 I suppose, but it doesn't bother me, since I don't have either one of those systems.

My two suggestions are: Play through and get well into chapter 2, if you haven't yet. It's quite a bit more interesting IMHO. -OR- Look around online, and get a copy of JE: Special Ed. for PC. It's pretty recently released, but still, not expensive. It has better graphics, and probably better load times. I'm not sure about load times, I'm just assuming...check that out perhaps. That's a good option for you judging from the system specs in you sig though. Amazon has it for ~$15 new and "used & new for $5."

Where I'm at:


I'm going to look into the PC version that you mentioned... I think shorter load times would make a huge difference for me.

Yeah, you just started chapter 2. I pretty much felt the same way at that point. Give it a bit more time.

And just to be clear, I don't know that the PC version has shorter load times. I just expect that to be the case.

I'd say give it more time as well. The game does get a bit more interesting after this chapter. I'd tell you in what ways, but i cant go about spoiling it for you. All i can really say is that if given a chance it will most likely hook you, and make you want to play more. Anyways i can see why you're not really loving it at the moment. The fighting is rather slow paced and you are limited to I believe 3 or so hit combos if i remember right. i havent played in a bit, but i do know that the combos are limited to how many strikes you can actually land with a given style you use.

It can also be rather hard to figure out what exactly you should be doing next sometimes, and frankly the best you can do when that happens is talk to as many people in the game as possible to maybe get a hint, or explore w/e houses or places you can that will have you do a small side quest......or possibly extend the story and allow you to progress further in some way.

Just give a bit more time and you may or may not get hooked on it. For me I did when i got past chapter 2, cause as i said earlier things got a bit more interesting and kept me playing.

Great game. I can't wait for part 2 coming out on 360

Stick with it, it gets a lot better. I think it had the most evil "bad" ending i've ever seen

Stick with it! I hated it too when I was at where you are; Took me forever to get used to the battle system. But Jade Empire climbed to be one of my favorite games, stickwithitstickwithitstickwithit!

Jade Empire gets a mixed review from me, but I'd still say "stick with it." I found the combat really disappointing -- far from strategic, it seemed dumbed down to appeal to the action game crowd. I literally beat every fight in the game until the last boss just by toggling back and forth between Thousand Cuts and Paralyzing Palm and mashing the quick attack. However, it might have the best storyline in any Bioware game yet, in my opinion.

Oh, and lesbians.

Can't go wrong with that, right?

A great game with a bad combat system. In a lot of ways I felt the same way playing Mass Effect. It is one of the reasons I get chills thinking how they might mess up Fallout 3.

For me the game started getting good when I least expected it. I played it when it came out, so the load times did not seem that bad to me at the time. At one point, with every GREAT rpg you find yourself getting into it enough that you forget about time, and you find you have played 8-12 hours and not even felt it. This is one of the games that this happened to me.

I still hated the combat system, and IGN should be shot for giving it a 9.9, but it is worth playing, if just to see some of the great game moments in RPG history. There is one moment that still gives me chills just thinking about it, and heck its been years now since I played it..