Koudelka

"A game that's worth downgrading for a moment"

Kouldelka, when it was first released, surprised many people and disappointed others. It stays in keeping the Room/Door theme of so plain in Resident Evil, but the plot bears markings from Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. The setting is in 19 century England, a time where, apparently, everyone was an asshole to each other. You have three basic characters: Kouldelka, a medium of sorts, Edward, a treasure hunter and possible theif, and James, a hypocritical priest. There are undercurrents of faith-denouncement in the game, which makes it adds that much more to the reality element in the game. The game's biggest weakness is that the FMVs looks often discordent and unreal-but you can always cancel these if you're playing for the second or third time. The changes to discs are a bit violent and unsmooth, stating that the programmers simply 'ran out of room' on the discs.

The game has many strengths- the first being that the game is very comprehensible and easy to play. You may encounter some difficulty with your weapons breaking, but if you play long enough, you'll be so overstocked with weapons that this will not a problem. When you level up, you choose which attributes you want to push higher; in this way, you can change James(magic character) into a physical fighter, and Edward(physical character) into a magician. Most happily, your HP status is up to you- you only have but to push up your Vitality. I recommend that you don't push too far in one direction, like overload Kouldelka with strength, or you'll end overextending yourself. Go for a more balanced set of characters and your battles should be easy.

The enemies in the game are thought-out and original, daring almost. You get to fight enspirited chairs, desks, mutants walking on the ceiling, bodies without heads, and all manner of macabre creations. It does add to the game's originality, but takes away from the fun element slightly, in that there are times you're fighting enemies that don't make any sense to fight. The music scores to battles sound decidely post-modern irish and often make me want to run online and grab a .wav from the game, they are that good.

All in all, this game is well thought-out, well crafted and fun as well as easy to play. It is worth downgrading to PSOne for a time just to get the experience of this game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/10/01, Updated 10/10/01