If you want to see how voice acting should be done, this game can show you. Koudelka sounds infuriatingly snide and cutting. James sounds like I would imagine a self righteous priest would, and Edward sounds, well, he sounds normal. Although I will note that these actor's lack of accents do mark them.

The storyline is spooky enough, with enough twists and developements that you are drawn into it. Although it does hit a few cliches that jar it, Koudelka is at heart a solid story and it shows.

So with all this working for it, good va, solid story, acceptable graphics, how can you not want to play it? Sadly, this is one game that I have to avoid playing again, despite how it shines in certain areas. The reason is the battle system. It's a very improtant element in RPG's, and Koudelka fumbles this pat, big tme.

The battles are so mind numbingly drawn out that you would nearly weep tears of blood. Each enemy moves around on the board as you do, but it is done so slowly, and there are such pauses as the character prepares to move, and settles after moving, that you find yourself twitching to just get on with it already. The game also suffers from the "hunt and peck" syndrome, where you have to go back and search for items to allow you to advance. Sometimes, finding things are hard, for Koudelka is a dark-rendered game, making seeing difficult.

The levelling up is done by allocating "points" to a stat you want raised. While this allows you to customize, you will likely find yourself falling into similar patterns. (IE, Edward the fighter, Koudelka the mage, and James a little of both) This is both good and bad, especially if you don't pump up a certain stat enough, you will find yourself doing little to no damage on the latter bosses. And with how tedious fighting is in this game, you would want to avoid levelling up as much as you can without getting yourself slaughtered every two steps.

Bottom line: As much as I want to advocate you buy and experience this good story, I can't wish the battle system on you, the faithful readers.

Pros	Cons
Excellent voice acting Decently done characters Acceptable FMV's (sans the spider horse in the beginning) Solid storyline	In-game character renders are blocky Battle system is tedious and too damn slow The game itself is rather short, and could do with some more fleshing out.