If you read the descriptions that Bioware bandies about regarding gameplay, you might expect an epic battle that rages throughout the game. You would be disappointed. The gameplay is almost what you come to expect from a Bioware RPG. The story is well developed and there is a cornucopia of NPCs to talk to, sidequests to complete, and good (Open Palm) or evil (Closed Fist) points to gain while doing it. How does all of this impact the gameplay? Well, if you want the full Jade Empire experience, there are a lot of people to talk to. And the voice acting was excellent (but I’ll cover this more in Audio). You were free to run around and fight an obnoxious European or compete in the arena or even embark on a series of “1943” style scrolling airplane shooters. This game seems to have it all in terms of NPC interaction. It is the fighting that’s the problem. I defeated the final boss by jumping over his head and attacking him from behind several times and repeating. He never hit me. This is the final battle of the game and I never got touched. Even on hard. Now, if you are Incarnate, you merely transformed into the Jade Golem and killed him in a few hits.