This is long and if you haven't played Jade Empire or aren't especially interested in the game you will probably want to just skip this wall of text...

I figured I better flag this for spoilers although I don't really want to get into what happens much anyway and spoil it for myself. I did want to be able to talk about where I am so far though and not ruin it for anyone who hasn't played it yet. Okay, so enough about spoilers.

I'll give you the tl:dr here: I am in the Imperial City now and am about to meet someone to infiltrate Death's Hand's group of bad guys, "The Lotus Assassins" it would seem. I am hoping the story gets better because I am getting bored and just want to finish this. How far do I have to go roughly?

Here's why I am feeling tired of the game if you are interested...

It's been about 2 weeks since I last played Jade Empire. I have about 20 hours into the game at this point and have enjoyed it on and off, sometimes more than others. I thought since it was done by Bioware I would love the game but my view is tainted by my love for Baldur's Gate and this game is not in the same league in my opinion. It is so linear it feels claustrophobic to me at times. The combat is kind of fun but I find myself only using 1 ability I maxed so far since you only get so many points to increase the power of abilities and it seemed wise to max one first for all situations. I forget the name of it now but it does not use focus or chi so I can use it constantly and maxing it has paid off with good consistent damage vs all kinds of foes. The problem here is, it is kind of boring to always use one, use up chi to self heal, and use another ability to siphon chi and that is kind of it. Rinse, repeat... My sidekick always does the same thing for me, occupies an add or two while I kill what I am working on and then kill their mobs.

The mobs you fight have an annoying habit of blocking and keep on blocking until you do a couple of back flips to create some distance. Then they will always drop shield, you do a couple forward flips to close the distance and then finish killing them. At this point combat is a very predictable affair for the most part in its simplicity.

The music is okay but forgettable. I cannot currently think of any tune from that game in my mind now even after twenty hours in its world. Contrast this with Baldur's Gate where I can recall tunes I liked a lot from it a year later. I even downloaded the soundtrack and play it sometimes.

The RPG elements of the game all feel like RPG-lite to me with limited character development, no armor, one weapon I never use because it needs points to be useful and I put them into another skill instead and no loot to speak of other than silver coins and the occasional and usually useless gem.

The graphics are nice for a game its age and the art direction is good. The world is colorful. I have no complaints here. It would be nice if there was ambient sounds to make the world seem more alive. It is kind of strange to be near an ocean or a waterfall that is silent for example.

So what does that leave then? Well, you'd expect a good story from Bioware and so far I think I will give the story good marks if not great (at least so far) but this seems a game that could be winding itself up by this point and concluding. It seems kind of obvious to me what conflict lies ahead and I would just as soon go kill the bad guy and be treated to some closure in the form of a nice cinematic and call it a day. There really isn't any gameplay or exploration or anything to make me want to prolong my stay any further beyond seeing the story's conclusion.

Somehow, this game just seems to be lacking something as a whole that I have trouble putting my finger on but which makes it feel like a chore to me now. I am in the Imperial City and it seems I am about to infiltrate Death's Hand's bad boys who's name escapes me now. I picked up a couple of side quests here as I have been doing them all so far but I find myself wanting to blow them off at this point and just pursue the main story quests and get to the heart of the story here finally. The gameplay involved in doing these sidequests is not interesting to me at all. It's just a chore to earn some xp and presumably make the final fight I expect to see eventually, a little easier perhaps, not that combat on normal has been all that challenging anyway.

Ever play a game like this where something drives you to want to complete it past the point where you really aren't enjoying it anymore and don't care about it and yet it would bug you not to see it through to the end in the hopes it gets good and rewards you? Or perhaps the only reward is you finished - you didn't quit.

This game was clearly dumbed down for the original XBox and as a long time PC gamer I think how this could have had so much more depth. It seems like half the game it could have been. It seems like a great IP to me that didn't get the full treatment it deserved.

So, my trouble is just getting through this now. I want to finish it and go have fun with something else. I even wonder if this is just me going through a little funk with gaming in general and I am being too hard on this game. There is no one part of it I would point to and say this is terrible but it just hasn't grabbed me the way I hoped it would either.

How much farther is there to go from the point I am at now, roughly in terms of hours? Could anyone who's played it venture a guess? And does the story get really good as it winds up? I don't want to know what happens but it would be nice to know the last parts are very good.

Since you don't want to know any spoilers, finish the infiltration part and the area after that (which is very short, and you will see why). If you don't like where the story is going after that (you might have easily predicted it or whatnot), you might as well just quit since it isn't going to get much more interesting for you storywise. In terms of hours to finish the whole thing, you've done the meaty part already.

I really, really don't get people who play through games they don't enjoy. Isn't that a terrible waste of the only life you've got?

Whatever, not for me to judge. You've still got a good bit to go. I guess you've completed maybe 2/3 of the game. There's a big plot twist coming up and the story will generally speed up a bit and take a few twists and turns (only after the Death's Hand bit, though), and, if I recall correctly, the game will become even more linear and combat oriented. I doubt you'll enjoy what's yet to come more than what you've already played through, but who knows.

Personally, I thought the idea behind the game was fantastic, but the combat system they came up with ended up much too shallow. Guess they didn't want to alienate their RPG fanbase, which is a bit insane if you ask me. Making an action game for people (you think) don't enjoy action gameplay? Madness.

Wow, what a cool mod that is. I wish I had known about that before I began playing. I wouldn't want to start over now but I did bookmark it just in case I decide to revisit the game at a later time. Next time I would definitely play with that installed. Thanks for the info. I guess I will forge ahead and see what I think at that point then. Well I was enjoying myself for the most part up to a point, despite what I feel are the game's shortcomings. But I did reach a point where I didn't feel like continuing and I did stop then a couple weeks ago. It bugged me not to finish though and I did want to know how the story turns out, if there is any twists or surprises, etc. So I figured I'd ask about that here and get some complaining off my chest. ;-)

Yeah, I guess that makes sense.

I have to say I didn't see the big twist coming, and there's one revelation that's quite well set up and executed... it's not like the story simply winds down.

Going download this this right now. Thanks for the link.

Also love the Mass Empire video on the that site, everything is just that much more epic with the Final Rush music from Mas Effect 2.

Thanks. That gives me something to look forward to. I think I'll fire it up and play some more a little later on today.

As others have said you're about 2/3 of the way through the game, with a big event coming up. After this event, however, the game pretty much is on rails for the last third, with none of the exploration or sidequests that were found in the parts of the game you've played thus far.

That sounds good, the big event I mean. I just played a little bit and did another sidequest after all in the city. It seems fun again. Maybe I just needed a little time off from gaming which I just had. I think I may have been too critical above. For one thing, I was wrong about ambient sound or at least in the city because I noticed it is there tonight. After some pizza I will return to it for some more questing and story.

I've beaten jade empire in 27 or so hours. So good luck. You can beat it and then never come back.