Syberia: The World Before

I love Syberia 1 and 2 and was ok with 3 (it's not as bad as some make it out to be), but this....this was truly beautiful from start to finish. While the journey is not as long and expansive as the previous games (it mostly is contained to the city of Vaghen and surroundings) it is more personal for our favorite lawyering Adventurer Kate. I don't want to risk spoiling anything, so I am not going more into this. Suffice to say, I really liked the story and how it stayed true to the world of Syberia. The city and locations are drop dead gorgeous, some scenes I'd love to hang on my walls they are so breathtaking. And these scenes are often accompanied by a fitting Soundtrack by the great Inon Zur. Much of the game feels like a labour of love, it is truly a fitting tribute and farewell to Benoit Sokal who gave us this world. When he passed away before the release of this I was worried how they'd finish it, but clearly there was no reason to. Gameplaywise it is point and click and the puzzles are a good mix of classic and modern adventure games. Controls can be a bit finicky occasionally, most of the time it's fine though. I had no crashes or major bugs (one time the hotspots disappeared in a scene and I couldn't do anything, but just going to the main menu and back into the game fixed it), there are moments of clipping and gaps between textures, but thankfully rarely. Voice acting is great, all main characters do a perfect job, nothing broke my immersion. Gamelength for me was near 12 hours for a completionist run (though I missed 4 achievements), which is fine by me. My favorite scene probably is the first time in the refuge with Dana (you'll see when you play it), I got serious flashbacks of old 40s/50s period movies, the location, acting and story came together perfectly. Since someone is going to ask: the game is not really woke, nothing is pushed in your face or preaches an agenda outside of the game world. TLDR: if you like Syberia you can safely buy this.

As always graphics are lovely to behold but just as 3 disappointed me so does this. More so. As an avid fan and owner of 100's of old and new adventure point and click games and a Syberia 1 & 2 fan I'm really struggling to finish this. Dammit, I waited sooo long, I had soo much hope........now I just feel mugged. Syberia 1 and 2, which I loved. they were up there with broken sword, runaway, monkey island, critter chronicles and deponia to me. so I forgave them for Syberia 3 and waited for Syberia 4 which was going to be sooo much better right?.........erm No!!!!!!!! What is this? Its sooo slow and dragged out. sooo many cut scens and pathetically basic puzzles. It's mostly just follow the basic instructions. go here. get this and with constant cut scenes in between. Nothing like syberia 1 and 2 other than scenery. No thought process required. And the camera? It doesn't allow ou to look freely around so if going in opp direction just click and hold blindly in the direction and wait until you walk far enough for it to correct the view angle....ssooooooo annoying. I'm not even gonna start on that stupid introspect thing. I have to find a specific somewhere to reflect on my life before I continue? most stupid addition ever... Im going to try and finish but only cos I got mugged of $56.95 Sad to say.... but 100% worst one in the series for me. Rename it a interactive visual novel cos that's what it is really.

I'm not sure where to start, as I have mixed feelings about this game. The visuals are outstanding. The music lets you immerse yourself into the story, but the storyline itself is so predictable. The few puzzles that did need doing were easy and felt like they were just plopped in so I could remember that it was a game and not a movie. The camera angles were annoying at times, had to click around just to see things I needed to see. I'm also not a fan of the automatic save, and was hoping that they would've gone back to way it was in the first two. Finally, I was expecting to see much more actual puzzle-solving or figuring stuff out, instead, it was heavy on just sit back and watch the adventure unfold. To prepare myself I replayed 1-3 and while visually this wins hands down, for actual gameplay, the first two were better and the third was okay when it wasn't glitching. At least this one didn't have me running from one end to the other just to grab some random missing piece.

This game left me speechless... The World Before rivals Syberia 1 and 2 without question. It is the return of the series we all waited after Syberia 3 The story is intriguing, emotional. It moves you. The transition between present and past time is so cool. Late Benoit Sokal and Lucas Lagravette did a great job. The characters are very charming. We all know Kate from previous games, we love her a lot. Dana is very cute. The other characters are also charming, well written. The music is...just wow The atmosphere of the game...when you play it, you feel like you are there in the game The visuals...stunning, one of the most beautiful I've ever seen. The gameplay: I liked it. One thing that annoyed me here and there was the camera. I would have wanted to change the angle so I can see more of the location, if I missed something. The conclusion : One of the best games I've ever played. I can't decide if it's my number one Syberia game to date or not. It's a masterpiece like the first two.