Syberia

I got this game free during a promo type event. For free it's a pretty good game, but I would not recommend it at full price. The story is interesting & the art is nice, but the gameplay has some real problems. You often have to pass through multiple empty screens, just going from point a to b, and usually you have to go through these empty sections multiple times. On top of that there's too much "pixel hunting" for some tiny, hard to spot item that you need for a puzzle. If you miss any items in an area you will spend an undue amount of time going back through all the screens again on pixel hunts. Given how much time is wasted just getting around in each area, these pixel hunts are extremely frustrating. A lot of the puzzles are fairly nonsensical or even completely pointless, except as time fillers to make the game take longer to finish. The game has too many annoyingly obtuse characters, such as the "Momo" kid near the beginning. Half the "puzzle" of the game is figuring out which dialogue option will pry a clue out of a character & then trying to figure out what the clue means. The game a has some enjoyable moments & even a bit of humor (the "enemy spy" that turns out to just be a strangely shaped tree), but the end was disappointing, nonsensical & makes the whole game pointless... It would have been nice to at least leave the choice to the player whether Kate gets on the plane or not; I don't think an alternate ending would've been hard to put in, even back in '02 when the game was released....of course if Kate didn't get on the plane at the end of the first game, then I guess there would've been no sequel, eh? Not worth the $9.99 IMO, wait for it to be on a very good sale & don't waste your time running thruogh empty screens over & over, hunting pixels to complete the pointless, nonsensical puzzles; just use a walkthru instead & enjoy the story.

Every once in a while, a video game is released where we as gamers can hold it up as something that should be appreciated as a classic artistic creation. Grim Fandango, Psychonauts, Bioshock, Bastion, Silent Hill 2, and countless others have dared to go into places where even other mediums haven't, engaging us both in their worlds and stories, and also in their ability to draw us in with fantastic gameplay. Syberia is one of those games that was created with love and imagination, and every corner of the game comes together to create an engaging, charming experience that anyone could enjoy. Kate Walker is a lawyer on assignment from an American toy company to purchase a failing French automaton factory. Immediately upon arrival in the town of Valadilene, Kate learns that the factory's owner, Anna Voralberg has recently passed away, and ownership rights have been willed to her traveling, mentally damaged brother, Hans. Years earlier, Hans suffered a head injury that inflicted him with an autistic-style mind obsessed with wooly mammoths. Convinced that they still existed in a far-off land called Syberia, Hans set out across Europe in hopes of finding the mythical land. Kate must follow in Hans' footsteps, meeting his old acquaintances and learning from Hans' footprints and legacy. The game is split into several different sections. These range from Valadilene and a university, to an old Soviet factory and an almost-entirely vacant hotel. Each has an assortment of charming, interesting characters. While they are fun and enthusiastically voice-acted, none are particularly deep. It's an incredible nitpick, and it won't bother most people. Kate herself is the most interesting, as she deals with different characters in different ways. Her dialogue and acting represents a wide range of interaction with NPCs, including sympathy for a mentally challenged boy, sarcastic taunting of a lascivious student, or vexation with those who impede her progress. You can see her grow as a character while interacting with Hans' past associates, and with her friends back home constantly nagging on her for taking on her incomprehensible journey. The game tells as much story with its art design as it does with its words. The game has a mixture of early nineteenth century and steampunk aspects, and helps take mundane settings such as the aforementioned factories and universities, and jazz them up with a unique style, and the obvious addition of the automatons left behind by Hans in his travels. The visuals acknowledge limitations of their time, and stuck with a pleasing mix of 2D and 3D aesthetics to create a visual design that looks great even today. Characters feel more like exaggerated silhouettes that are animated well and mix with their great voice acting. Gameplay consists of your average mechanical and dialogue-related puzzles that Kate must solve in order to progress on her journey. The mechanical puzzles are all great fun, showing off the great design of the series' signature automatons and mechanized objects. They require thought but rarely require you to think of ridiculous ways. They're mostly logical and offering enough thought will help you ease into the designers' train of thought. If I have one major complaint with the game, it's the dialogue puzzles. These can get crazy boring and frustrating on a blind playthrough. They're that old kind of "talk to everyone about everything, and keep making the rounds until nobody has anything left to say" form of linear progression that forces the player into constant backtracking or having to re-engage certain topics with NPCs in hopes that they'll say something different this time. The biggest problem I had was when you had to blackmail a group of people making bootleg wine. I ran all over the hub zone, initiating and re-initiating characters loooooong after I had discovered for myself what was up and gathered conclusive evidence because I had to accuse one character, who'd send me to another, and to another, and so on instead of just letting me point to the book that said they had the wine grapes growing in their greenhouse and just ending the puzzle. Don't even get me started on the ones that require you use your phone at the exact right time. They only stood out only because they were the sole frustrating sequences in such a charming game. Alas, while these get more obnoxious than anything, they don't hurt the game much overall. It's just that Syberia was so close to perfection, and having to look up FAQs to find the right sequence of backtracking to uncover a secret that is barely a secret was time-consuming and insulting to me as a player. Overall, it's hard to fault, as these problems just hit a game that hits perfection in so many other areas. Syberia is easy to recommend to adventure fans, or people who want something unique, relaxing, and immersive.

I grew up playing every LucasArt adventure game. They were always so much fun, with just the right amount of quirkieness. Though, I'm not particularly clever. I take things as they are, which makes it difficult for me to read between the lines. So, to understand that I have to give a red fish, which turns out to be a hearing if you examine it, to a troll to get him off a bridge, well, let's just say I had to wait my turn to use the dial-up modem to find a hint online. Syberia's puzzles are perfect for . . . not so clever people like me. Most of the items are used within the distination you're at. No wondering what this baloon is for, and find out it's only used in the Hard version of the game. The backgrounds in Syberia are very well done. I was also a bit surprised at the quality of the water effects for the time it was released. It was also refreshing to see the pain staking attention to making sure Kate's feet landed correctly on each stair. None of this simply walking diagonally up the stairs. So, we have decent quality all around, what about the storyline. The main plot is fairly straightforward. With any adventure games, there's enough twists and turns to keep you guessing. Since the puzzles aren't overly complicated, I personally didn't get frustrated with the game at all. Well, I got really annoyed with Oscar. I think you're supposed to, though. So, good job on that character. What about the rest of the characters? They're fine. The two subplots (job and romance) just seem overly dramatic. I found them very annoying. Not only is the script unbelievable, but so is the directing. Over the top emotions, the world is gonna end dramatic flair. It doesn't make me feel attached to any of them. Though, I did want to shove Dan off a cliff. Mainly because this trip she's on has ruined his week. Overall, worth the playthrough, and I'll be moving onto part two now!

This is probably one of the most gorgeous adventure games I've ever played. Beautiful graphics, clever puzzles. Both Syberia and Syberia 2 can not receive a higher rating.

This adventure is a serious one. No hyperkinetic rabbit or purple tentacle trying to save the world. You play Kate Walker, a lawyer, who embarks on a simple journey to complete some work about a toy factory... which seems to be more difficult than foreseen. Discover a world full of poetry and automatons in this truly wonderful amazing game. The puzzles are logical and the great story is supported by gorgous visuals and good voice acting. Note that this a two-part story: Syberia 2 is needed to complete Kate Walker's journey.