Syberia

Read my score as 3.5/5 - 4/5 was too much and 3/5 was too little. Syberia is a game I really disliked when I first played it and to be fair, the reasons for this are still there - it's just a matter of forgiving them. For example, the interface is annoying and unnecessarily clunky, the characters you talk to are mostly dull, the backdrops are far too static and cold, the animation is pretty average, etc. You may say "but that's all superficial stuff!" but then I'd say "not for an adventure game". Despite these shortcomings, the game has good puzzles, the main character is quite interesting and the plot does get interesting as well and these things drag the game away from becoming like a classic Cryo disaster. As the game moves on, you learn to forgive its shortcomings but it still falls short of being a classic in all areas. It's just too lifeless and static in its locations (not to mention the 3D design feels cold and too unconvincing). Still, 3.5/5 is not a bad score.

Ich komme leider aus dem schönen Städtchen nicht raus, da das Spiel nach der DVD verlangt. Sollte das nicht gefixt worden sein? translated with Google------------------------ Unfortunately, I can not get out of the beautiful town because the game demands the DVD. Should not that have been fixed?

Syberia I and II were supposed to be one game, but developers thought it was too big so they divided it. They were right, it would've been too large a game, however, the first part is full of unnecessary parts (pretty much the last third of the game) that don't add to the story and prolong the agony by making us run from screen to screen, which can be tedious considering animation and not be able to skip/quick run through the screen. The story is interesting, the art design is gorgeous, but that's about it. Side characters are cardboard cutouts, dialogs with friends and family on the mobile phone are horrible, and puzzles are almost nonexistent, which makes Syberia look like an early HOG. It's the art design and story that makes you play it and make it worthwhile your time.

The whole story is just so absurd to me: the moment I found out that an heir was alive somewhere in Siberia, I would have packed my stuff and gone back to New York. But hey, fortunately, that wasn't me. :)

The animators really likes there "walk up or down a step very very slowly" animation (stairs), and there a lot of those in the games. The game is also slow pace due to slow animations and no fastforward clicking between pictures/scenes. Puzzles/tasks can only be done be backtracking previous scenes and sometimes many of them before reaching you’re objective, and then you repeat this. So if you’re impatient i wouldn’t recommend buying this game. + Beautiful scenes Story to a point - Slow animations/gameplay Backtracking Mediocre puzzle’s Oscar (NPC)