Jade Empire: Special Edition (PC)
Good news is that it's still a Bioware game. Bad news is that it's still a Bioware game.
There's plenty o'role-playing to go about and the Open Palm and Closed Fist paths do lend some credibility to the whole thing... In concept. However, there is a string of poor implementations with it. Closed Fist is said to promote strength through adversity which isn't necessarily evil - but most dialogue still boils down to insanely altruistic/greedy/on the verge of popping a vein with all the violent threats. And as a result you'll encounter many situations where going either path doesn't entirely encompass the whole philosophy.
Combat is definitely an improvement for Bioware. Since it's their rules system, and not an attempt to shove turn-based rules and conventions into a realtime framework, it's much more fluid, responsive and just feels natural. There are no akward pauses in animations because your character can only execute three attacks per round, for instance. It's very WYSIWYG in that regard. But it's also painfully easy. Styles don't matter that much - you can very much go through the whole game with the styles you learn at the beginning. All that matters to styles is hitting with them - it doesn't seem to matter how slow or fast they are. Once you chain them, the combos are rarely - if ever - broken by enemies. Because of this speed isn't really important - range is. But this can be averted by either stunning or doing a series of jumps and rolls around enemies to get in close to attack. A lesser - but more developed - amount of styles would be better.
It's also incredibly short and has a pretty forgettable cast of characters aside Kang the Mad and Wild Flower - the first for being 'quirky', the second for role-playing options. Regretably they're still forced on players and are only useful in combat if you activate Support mode. I didn't care for romances but the game goes out of its way to shove them in my face. Unlike KotOR where you could play a female PC to keep Bastila's hormones in check, you can't do it here since there's hetero and homosexual romances all struggling for your attention - even characters you didn't start a romance with. I'm sure that will be great for someone.
The ship minigame is nice but as expected, pretty out of place. Baloons in a setting with rampant machinery doesn't really make sense, and a rickety and unstable ship in cutscenes is incredibly stable and easy to pilot in the minigame. Go consistency, GO! There's a couple of situations where the minigame is forced on players, too but a couple of times is better than all the time.
Bottom line: it's got some improvements over KotOR but not enough to elevate the game above it. Nice game while it lasts but nothing on par with Baldur's Gate 2 and KotOR.