More than 20 years after its original release, Syberia is reborn in a fully modernized version. Rediscover its iconic locations and unforgettable characters through a stunning visual overhaul, redesigned gameplay, and the same captivating storytelling that made it a classic.
Kate Walker, a...
More than 20 years after its original release, Syberia is reborn in a fully modernized version. Rediscover its iconic locations and unforgettable characters through a stunning visual overhaul, redesigned gameplay, and the same captivating storytelling that made it a classic.
Kate Walker, a brilliant lawyer from New York, is sent to a remote village in the French Alps to finalize the sale of an old automaton factory. But what begins as a routine assignment soon turns into an extraordinary journey across Eastern Europe and its snow-covered landscapes.
Accompanied by Oscar, a loyal and one-of-a-kind automaton, Kate sets out to explore mysterious and forgotten places, filled with eccentric characters, as she follows the trail of Hans Voralberg, a genius inventor pursuing a seemingly impossible dream: finding the last living mammoths on the mythical island of Syberia.
An unexpected, thrilling, and deeply emotional voyage that will challenge everything she thought she knew. First released in 2002, Syberia became a reference in the adventure genre, praised for its unique atmosphere, sharp writing, and the richness of Benoît Sokal’s artistic vision. This remaster is a new opportunity to (re)discover the masterpiece, following in the footsteps of other titles from Benoît Sokal such as “Syberia: The World Before” and the newly released “Amerzone: The Explorer’s Legacy”.
A rich and immersive world
From the alpine town of Valadilène to the frozen edges of Eastern Russia, Syberia transports you into a world of mystery, automatons, and poetic machinery. Dive into a clockpunk adventure where realism blends seamlessly with dreamlike wonder.
A moving and unforgettable story
Experience a deeply human narrative, as Kate Walker’s legal assignment turns into a profound journey of self-discovery. Filled with unexpected encounters, emotional choices, and moments of awe, Syberia’s tale blurs the line between strangeness and the sublime.
I am a player of the whole series with each part that ever appeared and I was so eager for a remastered Syberia.
And now what did we get? A total crap that ruins the whole experience - I bought it on Steam and after the first 30 minutes I asked for a refund.
Let me explain:
1) the videos are basically the old ones, they are not remastered at all.
2) Kate looks lifeless and without emotion, the eyes in particular are dead.
3) All points of interest are highlighted over the whole scene, so no reason to search the surrounding for something useful to interact with - a complete destruction of the game mechanics.
4) The German translation obviously was made by some AI and never checked by a native speaker - irritating to say the least.
5) The sound was not improved but somehow worsened - the same speech files (at least in the German version including that ridiculous Momo voice) and background music becomes soon enervating.
All in all, the good features have been destroyed and the bad ones maintained.
What a wasted opportunity to create a real transformation of this classic into our present! I prefer playing the old version again - that seems more true to Benoit Sokal's intentions.
I have mixed feelings about this remastered version. I was really looking forward to play it when I saw the updates on facebook, and when it was out I bought it immediately. However, I found that while the main gameplay appearance was improved, many things that are so well-made in the original were either removed and / or replaced with basic placeholder text instead, which to me kind of ruined the experience. In addition, I didn't even get to the factory and encountered many bugs and incorrect gameplay behaviors that makes this feel like an unpolished release. Before I dig into it, I just want to say that I rated the game as 4/5, but it's mainly because I appreciate the effort that was put into it, and I don't want my review to affect the overall rating of the game. But honestly, I think that at its current state, this release deserves less than 4 stars.
I played the original game a few times, and while its pre-rendered backgrounds and game style are outdated, to me they're still stand, even in 2025. However, it is very nice to see that such great game is not forgotten behind and get a remastered version. But there are some caveats:
1. The cutscenes don't seem to be remastered at all. I think they were only cut from top and bottom to fit nowadays widescreens, as if I remember correctly, the original was in a 4:3 aspect ratio.
2. The user interface miss a basic thing that a 'point & click' adventure game should have, and it's a convenient inventory window where you could view what items you possess, and better from the actual game window from which you could either look on items or pick them to use on something else. Here however, you have them all in Kate's diary, which requires one click on the diary to open it, and then another click to either access the document section, or the rest inventory items section. But what's more frustrating is that you can't pick an item from there but only to look on them. To use an item on something, you have to interact with whatever it is that you wish to interact with, and if there's an item that can be used there then you'd see it in a circle to pick it up from. But if you don't possess the required item, you'd just see an empty circle - there's not even a way to scroll between other items to try them out on that interaction area. So it feels like the game is built like a "movie" in mind, and you just have to click here and there to make it progress, without any way to try "side scenarios" like using an item on whatever and get a "That doesn't work" feedback.
3. Looking on document items lacks a way to zoom-in to view them properly, and some of them are just too small while there is quite enough room on the screen to make them larger. They did however add a "Read" feature that shows whatever text on the documents in an overlay with big font, but it's still not like reading the actual graphic document.
4. I was surprised to find that some authentic elements from the original were completely removed and replaced with text based placeholders instead. For example, Kate's phone - she has an old mobile phone in the original; I think it was a Nokia. And you could search through your contacts by pressing the phone buttons. Here however you just get an overlay text showing to whom you can call. And if that's not enough, when you call someone you hear a "ring" instead of a dialing tone, which is both irritating and technically incorrect. Another example is the dialogue topics notepad you had in the original - the same as with the phone, this one was also removed and replaced with a text based placeholder as well. But why? The notepad was so authentic. It feels like playing an incomplete game with text based placeholders all over the place...
5. Walking in the new 3d world seems unpolished. I really wanted to like the fully 3d environment where you could move your mouse to examine the area. But it doesn't let you freely move the camera like I thought it would; you only get a camera pointing at some point (depending on the scene), and you can move it just a little to each side, so it's kind of limiting you from freely exploring the area in 360 degrees. I really struggled with it when I began walking in Valadilane, until I even got branches from the trees getting in the way, covering the camera view. I also found bugs where Kate speaks to other NPCs but not looking towards them, and even scenarios where Kate just "disappears" behind walls and even walking "into" the floor. It was then that I decided to stop playing and ask for a refund, as I didn't want to ruin my Syberia experience any further - I'd prefer to remember the original as it was.
I really wanted to like this remastered version, but unfortunately I did not. So that is my review. It doesn't say that it's a bad game - it's just that to someone who played the original, the things I mentioned above may come in the way and ruin the playing experience. However, if you never played the original, you may enjoy this game nevertheless as you don't know what you miss.
Update 2:
After another phone call the game just wouldn't let me continue and I was stuck, even after restart. Due to the lack of manual saves I'd have to start over. Requested a refund.
Update 1:
A few hours in and I must say that I am quite disappointed, not only because you can't save.
What is super annoying is, that EVERY interactive object automatically highlights. There is no need to look around and search for objects.
The graphics are really nice, the soundtrack as good as back in the day, the places just look like the original ones. However, the cut scenes are the original ones, they only received some upscaling to fit bigger screens.
The phone is now just a num-pad overlay that looks ugly, in the original it was a real phone.
To make things worse, the phone bugs out every now and then. The overlay won't close and you can not continue to play, but have to restart.
The german translation (for locations and actions) is terrible and most likely a word by word translation via AI.
All that problems combined with the missing save function are so frustrating that I can only give 2 stars, mainly for the nice graphics and the fact that they didn't try to "improve" the story.
Original post:
It captures the feeling of the original nicely.
However, the missing manual save option kills every Adventure game for me. That missing feature is so crucial to me, that I only give out 3 stars.
- The first town is alright, flawless - graphics are decent (not the top-notch, though), it is a stark contrast in comparison to the original animations still within the game,
- The performance is decent (except some second-long stutters once in an hour or so, and some graphical glitches), but the game just stops in the second town, cursor disappears and that's it - nothing can be done, while since there is no manual saving I can't go to different save, so this is a game-breaking bug for me (as I suspect this is not the case for everyone, it will be patched eventually, fingers crossed, but it is a typical launch-mess nowadays) - there is a restart of the whole chapters, which I have eventually used - which is a pure 'we do not care about your time' in my book.
- This is just how the games launch nowadays... on top of it small stuttering once in a while (i.e. when I have approached one of the gates inside the 2nd town) and it is on the 2nd best graphic card on the market (not that this game would need this level of power) - this means this is a problem for everyone.
- The first town is great, it saves some time, I can imagine, that I have lost back in a days with figuring stuff out in the gardens - I feel like always visible interactions is definitely a plus in this context - as I was never a fun of pixel hunting.
- There are some missable achievements, and no manual saves make these so much more annoying to obtain - I am a perfectionist so I will be hunting these down eventually.
- The graphical glitches comprise of character inside floor (few centimeters/inches)/walls, light flickering, etc.
Edit: Also I have miss-clicked one of the options during the in game 'automatic call' and I got stuck in the never ending loop of 'invalid' choices - I had to force shutdown the game... Honestly, I'm not trying to break the game, the game just keeps 'giving' (the dam in the 2nd town).
I've enjoyed the syberia games since I was a young kid. I believe my current syberia rankings are 4, 2, 1, 3.
I've currently finished the first part of the remake and I think it's a good remake.
positives: great game with updated graphics and not crashing constantly
negatives: the controls can be a tad wonky occassionally (not a big issue).
The cutscenes are still the old ones from the original game, so the quality of the cutscenes is worse than the graphics of the game. this can be a bit jarring but it's still a good game
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