Koudelka

"Good effort, but........."

Gameplay-The gameplay is like Resident Evil. You press the direction you want to move in and move. Take my word for it, it gets very annoying after awhile. You won't in the direction you want to go sometimes. Add to the fact you to press the action button to go up stairs....more annoying. The battles are sometimes long and tedious. They are set up like a strategy game. Your character can only move a certain amount of spaces. If you are close enough you can attack. Battles take away from the gameplay. Also there is a time between choosing a spell and actually casting it.....not good for gameplay. also this is a short game. It spans four disc but just because a game spans four disc doesn't mean it's long. I have less than 2 hours of gameplay and I'm almost on the second disc already.

Story-The story for this RPG is actually good. It is set in the 19th Century and in an old monastery that used to be a prison or something. Koudelka actually draws away from the typical RPG plot of trying to save the worls from thje eveil archfiend or some crap like that. Story is a good point.

Audio/Video-Another downfall. The graphics could have been better. The audio is mediocre. Another reasons the battles suck. The music doesn't have that feeling to make you want to kill (so to speak). It isn't exciting, it's kinda soothing.....actually. Some of the soundeffects are great,though. The enemies are differentiated by sex.killed a lady monster and it sounded like a lady screaming. The video is another thing. During battles, there a re significant load times. It loads for the magic you cast. Then after you cast it, there is a load so the character who casts the spell weapon can comeback in his hand. This also goes for enemies as well. Also certain enemies move weird. I fought these ghosts once and they were moving side to side like they were in a musical....not good for an already suffering game. The only upside to this game is there is no text when the people talk..only voices. The downside to that is if you miss something it is missed...you can't take the time to read it yourself.

Replay-This game is short. It is four dics, but most of that space is spent on the people talking. This one of those games that if you do decide to finish it, it will go back in a drawer (or wherever you keep your games) and collect dusts.

I would rent this game. I actually payed 39.95$ for it. Had I known it wasn't that great i would have rented it and copied it, but not spend 40 bucks on it. Tne game was developed by ex-Squaresoft people, so I expected something great. You can look at that two ways. I look at as I see why they are EX-square members. I can say it was a good effort, but IF you plan on checking this game rent it (unless you like buying a game and regretting it later because you spent your hard earned money).

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/26/00, Updated 07/26/00