Syberia

This is truly a marvel of adventure gaming. It features unforgettable sounds and visuals, also, it tells quite a story. If you play it, don't rush it. BTW contrary to popular belief, Syberia is a standalone story. It ends in definitive moment while leaving something to our imagination. Just like a good book. Playing Syberia 2 is optional, however, it is fantastic to play both back-to-back.

From the very start Syberia is a cinematic treat. Its unique characters and gorgeous settings are shown in great detail, rich animation and creative design, and this carries on throughout the entire game. In fact, both get even more elaborate. There are a few annoying animations and the occasional empty areas you are forced to walk through that only serve to connect point A to point B, but they don’t take away from the game that much. The sound effects help bring the world to life and are fitting for each area whether it be beautiful sounds of nature or the mechanical sounds of the city. They help to immerse you in the world that Syberia creates, although there are some volume issues with quiet lines of spoken dialogue or overly loud sound effects but these are few and far between. The music… my word, the music is a treat. Cinematic orchestra swells in and the low woodwind bellows help pull you into this game that only feels like a movie. Of course, the real treat in Syberia is the story. It caught me off guard. What starts as a story about a toy factory turns into one of the most beautiful dramas about heart and humanity that I have seen in a while topping most movies and TV shows I have seen. Even the subplot between our hero and her boyfriend begins to take center stage and melds with the main plot at the end that could bring tears to your eyes. If you love adventure games or great stories in general, you are doing yourself a disservice by not playing Syberia.

How strange was to see these weird mechanizm at first glance. I still remember I played with my bro, we were so excited. We didnt have a walkthrough not even internet so we played on our own. The game wasn't so hard but there was a few scene where we stucked. Every character has a personality. Really rare thing but the second part of Syberia was up to the first in my humble opinion.

First off, I'm no good at adventure games. The solutions tend to be too farfetched for me to comprehend. However, I'd been curious about Syberia since seeing a copy at Wal-Mart a few years ago. My first few hours with Kate were magical as I was mesmerized by the story, the character development and the sensible puzzles. Then the bizarre puzzles reared their ugly head in the second area and I had to refer to a walkthrough. They made sense within the story but felt wholly unnecessary (the whole opera singer arc, for example). I really had to push to finish this one, but I had fallen for the story, which is probably the selling point of any adventure game.

I had never played Syberia until I found it on GOG. And I am impressed: it's a game with an absorbing atmosphere, a low-key, quirky mystery plotline, gorgeous scenery and music... one of the few games where cutscenes feel like a reward, a genuine treat, rather than something you have to suffer through to get to more gameplay. The puzzles are minimalist, reasonably intuitive and mercifully do not send you hunting hither and yon to gather five dozen items to perform a simple task. I played the game right through in two days. Only a couple of small flaws keep me from giving it a perfect rating. One was how annoying and clueless everyone in Kate's life is -- and in general the voice-acting is serviceable but not super-impressive. The other was that while the game doesn't suffer from the kind of absurdly counter-intuitive and overcomplicated puzzles that originally sank the point-and-click, there was still a lot of pixel-hunting and even one point where I had to consult a walkthrough in order to avoid having to randomly punch three-number combinations into a keypad in order to advance. But those are minor gripes with an otherwise excellent game.