Syberia

I just completed syberia1&2 for the 3rd time. Boght them as they were published. I started this kind of gaming with MYST in '94, and still play MOUL. However, I am so impressed with syberia characters, plot and the syberia world that I'm likely to play them again, if only to walk around to view the backgrounds again. For me, one of the top 3 games of all time.

I enjoyed my time with Syberia, but I don't think it will win any converts to the adventure game genre. It has a strong and distinctive setting, but doesn't really stand out in any other dimension. Gameplay-wise, this is smart enough to avoid unwinnable situations. For most of the game, I understood my goal and the puzzles were not too frustrating. Though they also weren't particularly hard, so those looking for a meaty mental challenge might be disappointed. I had to use a walkthrough in a few places, but this was usually because I'd failed to spot an interactable item. I also wasn't a big fan of the conversation system; sometimes you need to select "Help" to advance, sometimes "Mission", sometimes some other word, with no hint as to which. In practice, the correct strategy is just to try all of them every time you talk to anyone; which is bad for narrative immersion and also quite tedious. The story was fine. While hunting for Hans serves as the overarching goal, in practice you have a number of vignettes with only a loose thematic connection. The intention was presumably to indirectly shed light on Hans's character, which more or less worked; and to develop Kate's, which was less successful. I also think the game did a decent job at using the puzzles to develop the story and world. At then end of the day, I did like my time with Syberia.

Beautiful art, beautiful story (combined with Syberia II - Which is a must play if you play the first part). If you love great plots and storytelling you might like this one. The puzzles are simple and too easy most of the time - I think the main goal of this game was to show the story and the art. But that doesn't make me like it any less, because the story is that good :)

Syberia tells a simple story about getting caught up in a world where nothing goes as planned. But maybe, because of that, a person discovers their true calling. It's a very strange story, in a desolate world that time seems to have passed by. The atmosphere is both quaint and charming, while just under the surface there is something ominous or sad. Everywhere you go, the world shows signs that these places are dying or have long since been abandoned. Yet the more you push through the challenges and these forgotten places, the more it seems that something magical and meaningful awaits in the unknown. In Syberia. I found myself oscillating between really liking the game and getting a bit frustrated by some of the slower pacing and backtracking. But in the end I enjoyed it and I feel that some of the less appealing aspects served the game's message and themes. There were really only a few questlines and puzzles that I found particularly aggravating (mostly with having to run back and forth conversing with NPCs), but overall I felt that the puzzles were decently constructed. They were all decipherable with the information given by the game, and quite a few were particularly clever and creative. I really liked the use of the cell phone as a combination exposition and puzzle device. The only really big criticism is something others have pointed out: Kate's difficulty with stairs. There are a lot of them in the game; and she takes each....step.......very.........painstakingly..............slowly. It did get a laugh out of me a few times though. The game asks for a lot of patience, and I think if you get on board with its theme, then it rewards that patience. I was surprised how emotional I got in the end. Maybe I encountered the game at the right time, but I found its core idea really resonated with me: to embrace a call to unexpected adventure.

Beautiful sceneries, great storyline.