If you played the first Syberia and enjoyed it, you're gonna like this one as well. There are quite a few graphical inprovements (mostly pertaining to animations) but it is still very much the same style. I find most parts of the game to be highly entertaining and cozy, but I sometimes experience a severe visual glitch whenever the game is minimized. This glitch requires a restart, and is the only reason for the 4/5 honestly. No clue if this is exclusive to me, GOG, or whatever, but there you have it.
I would say that this a pretty good experience. The game will fight back at times but overall, really solid. Would love to see more from this studio. The atmosphere is on point for most of the game. It has a steampunk-esque thing going on but not to a huge degree. Like the store page says, it's dark and sometimes pretty messed up, but in good ways. The main story is hit and miss (the misses will come later). Several of the main missions are interesting enough. They offer some good setups and fun scenarios. The side missions are usually similar in nature although not as grand. As for the weaker parts. The stealth mechanics are, sadly, lacking in my opinion. The game resolves around stealth but often you will find yourself getting either annoyed due to the top-down perspective blocking your view or bored due to just how easy the game is. (fyi, I played on hard). Arguably, the reason for it being easy was that I killed any enemy that stood in my way (silently) as this does not affect the story in any way. Which means that, to increase the difficulty, the player needs to limit themselves with no incentive. As a total side-note, I did find it to be very strange that the menu esthetic very closely resembles dishonored. It does not look bad but I would prefer an original look. The issues that I had with the missions were that they were all too linear. Usually, there is one or two ways to enter a building but the end result is always the same, except for the ocational player choice (which don't matter save for the final one and even that is questionable). The combat is strange. It's hard to explain but it's very hard to execute precise button presses when you are so far ways from the action. It's plain hard to see. This became a great annoyance for me but your mileage may vary. Finally, I need to draw attention to the general buggyness of the title. There are quite a few bugs (mostly affecting Arthur's movement), that can cause great annoyance. Be warned.
The game does carry a creepy atmosphere but it wears of rather quickly as it doesn't change or add anything as it goes on. Rather it becomes less and less scary, which is disappointing. If you're looking for a horror game, look elsewhere. As for the puzzle portion, it is also lacking. The puzzles consist of (very) simple platforming, flipping boxes, moving boxes, and flipping switches. It isn't very stimulating and the puzzle segments are not implemented into the rest of the game in a clean way. You will very much know when you have entered "the puzzle zone". As for the story, it's not too bad. The location is interesting enough and the lore is, at lest fairly, captivating. My issue with it is that the lack of any horror developments turns it into a walking simulator (not what I thought the game would be) where you just listen to audio logs (which are quite good) and read letters (still pretty good) and listen to the ramblings of a crazed scientist (no bueno). The voice acting itself is fine (disregarding the, at times, extreme microphone clipping), it just becomes repetitive. Unfortunately, the story also lacks the depth that I was expecting when I first began playing. However, what really brought it down for me was the ending cutscene. For some reason, the developers decided that everything needed to be explained and all mysteries cleared up. I feel that a game like this needs unanswered questions. You need to walk away from the game and think to yourself "I wonder what happened with this person" or "did I do the right thing". Something along those lines at least. I don't want to be spoon-fed a story. I want to discover it myself and make deductions as to what it all means. With this said, it is not a terrible game by any stretch of the imagination. I suggest you buy it and try it out, but don't expect to be blown away.
