A great story, this is what Syberia is. The story of a girl looking for her destiny in a strange but fantastic world, a world that is ancient and futuristic at the same time. Beautiful graphics, wonderful soundtrack and some memorable characters, who you know more through letters, newspaper clippings and conversations with other characters than talking directly to them. Syberia is like a movie. Its realistic graphics contribute to that. But that's not the only reason. The game may be a little slow -you must read a lot at some points to learn about the plot- but as a compensation, the game is rather easy. There are not real puzzles, you won't get stuck more than, say, twenty minutes. The actions you must do are so obvious that more than one time (and two) you will solve something even before knowing that you need to solve it. Also, when a new important "door" opens, you don't need to go back to the rest of the game places even if you can, because it becomes clear that you will find all the clues in this new situation without walking so much. This makes the action faster and lets you enjoy the real goal of the game: its story. Another good thing about Syberia as an adventure is its gameplay. You won't never carry more than three or four objects at a time (she is a human!), and there is no possibility of using one of the items of your inventory with the others, which avoids that annoying ritual of most adventures when you don't know what to do. The places where you can use objects in the world are showed clearly without any effort, so there is not any pixel hunting. I mean, the objective of the game is not making you think a lot or annoy you with a difficult interface or a complex gameplay. You can just enjoy the plot while you advance through it. This kind of game needs a name as an adventure subgenre. "Film adventure", maybe. Comparisons between this Syberia and The longest journey are unavoidable, but they are very different games, although both of them are based on a solid script and a similar environment and both of them have a girl as the main character. Wether or not you are a classic adventure player, you should try this game. You will notice significant differences between Syberia and other adventures if you are a Lucasfilm kind of player (as I am), but you will enjoy it anyway. Don't try to compare, just relax and play. You will remember this journey all your life.
It's just not funny. It's like playing Sims. You can spend a good hours (or minutes) at the beginning while you see your own creatures growing and thinking. But then... what else? That's all. Your creatures will keep on growing and eating and learning words and ignoring your orders. The interface is rudimentary enough to make it hard to play. You need a lot of opened windows (I mean Windows windows) if you want to see the evolution or changes affecting the creatures. You don't have a clear objective, you can't make them eat when they are hungry and you can't rise their low levels using the objects you have (unless they want to). There is a limited set of actions they can perform, and they will do them when they want. Anyway, it's exciting to think about what is behind the scenes and it's a very good AI experiment. I understand they wanted to convert this in a game with a friendly interface in which agents become hairy cute creatures who react to environmental stimuli. But this only thing is not enough to be a game. You *are not* any of those creatures, you are just a hand giving orders. They should have used this AI to construct something bigger. Maybe a character commanded by you that should learn while other creatures learn by themselves around you. A spectacular Artificial Intelligence exercise surrounding a plot with real objectives, not just watching what happens. It's nice to see one of those games by yourself, but not buying all of them, because there is no good reason to play them.
Wonderful physics and gameplay. Very difficult at times (if you want the gold medal in every track) but always rewarding. Simply one of the best car simulators I've ever played. And the extra games are very funny too. Recommended 100%.
I tried to play this game in normal mode (not easy, not hard) and the first hours it was kind of fun. The idea is terribly weird, but the ambient, graphics and, above all, the main menu music are great and recall James Bond films a lot. But while you are playing to have fun you discover you have to play to survive. Literally. With all the bad feelings it supposes. Your minions are stupid, the process of constructing rooms and creating an army is extremely slow and, worst of all, making money is excessively hard. You must use a stupid world map that shouldn't even exist in which you will lose lots of men quickly while you will get money very slowly. That world map is like an offline, breaking-action subgame that could have been avoided and replaced with stores for tourists or something like that. Sending minions to the world is also a very slow process that makes you lose money, men and fun. Every time you loose a minion, in the world map or in your base, your chances to survive decrease dramatically. Your objectives are clear (well, not always), but you can't reach them because you have no money. And you cannot get money because you are discovered stealing in the stupid world map without even being alerted, loosing all your men. And you can't get more men because you don't reach your objectives. And also, your base is constantly attacked by immortal agents who will kill half your army in two minutes and your rooms cannot be constructed because you need the money to recreate your minions, who are so stupid that cannot kill ninja-style enemies until you have told them they are enemies. The traps you set up attack more of your minions than enemies. If you want to change a room because it's not big enough, you will loose a lot of time, money and workers. You can put all the doors or traps you want, but your enemies will make a trapdoor and will access your base anywhere, killing your minions, breaking your objects and stealing your treasures. Too frustrating game. And it's a shame, because the aesthetics are right and even the original idea is funny when you get used to it.
I think the problem with this game is the story and the scenarios. I mean, the cover, the intro, the comic style, etc. seem to say that this is a story about a futuristic world. You can imagine a big city with flying cars, floating buildings, fighting robots, teleporting devices, silver suits... And then you find a plot where you must just find a way to escape from a kind of factory in a not so much futuristic place (except for the nice Link interface). It's good for a beggining, but the whole story should have a bigger set of locations. And well, it's funny and some characters are really hilarious but it isn't what you expect at the beginning of the game. Also, there are too much of the two things I hate in an adventure: stuff that doesn't seem to have any utility but it has and, much worse, stuff that you are sure will have an important role for the story but doesn't have. Both things makes you try again and again everything with everything until finally you find something. For example, you feel stupid when you go here and there trying the same things all the time because you didn't see a little switch hidden in the background picture. The other thing is worse: if, for example, in an adventure you find some glue it's ridiculous that they don't give it any use. Or if they give you a piece of rope or a key, you need to use it soon, because they are things that can be so useful. It's not fair of them to make you keep it almost all the game until you can use it. They should know you will try a key in every door you find all along the game. Some times in such adventures you have a key and a closed door but they don't match! The key is for a cabinet at the end of the game and the door must be broken with a bar. It's cruel and it shouldn't be permitted! And what about a closed cabinet that you won't be able to open? You will try everything to open it until you find a new way to go and you will finish the game without having opened it. AAARGHH!! Anyway, the game has the classic flavor and it's a story you will remember forever, but it's not all it could be. There are too many loose ends that could be avoided and you will wish a BASS 2 where all that necessary future stuff is explained.
Since all the good things have been already said about this game (and that's why I decided to buy and play it, thank you all), I will only enumerate the things I didn't like about it. There are not important spoilers and perhaps I can help someone who is going to play it for first time. I'm spanish so though I'll do my best in english, you may have to decipher some of my magic translations. Sorry. I hadn't play this game before. Actually, I hadn't even heard of it. My first gameplay impression was not as good as I expected after reading your comments and ratings, and it was not a short feeling. Maybe it's because I don't like so much 3D platform games, but I think it's because there isn't a clear goal at the beginning and you discover too many things that you don't know how to take advantage of. When the good action arrived, it was too late, I already had a bad impression and perhaps I didn't enjoy it all I should. Another thing I don't like is the complexity of the controls. I spent a lot of time until I realized that I actually had the button Sasha gave me. I just didn't know how to open and use my inventory, and that's because when they tell you how to do it (if they really told it) you don't need to use it yet. And when you need it, you don't remember what they said. The same with your powers and assigning them to the keys. It's not easy to figure it out. Or when you have to use the little door to get into other people's minds. I tried everything else a lot of times before I used it. Yes, Cruller can tell you if you ask him... but that's only when you discover the bacon in your inventory and remember something about Cruller's help. A little in-game guide using objects would have been appreciated. And the last thing I didn't like was the point of no return. The same as the last, a big warning explaining the consequences and the special saved game should have been told. I collected all the figments and items in every door and then realized that I could not go back to the real world. I think I won't do it all that again, I'll let it for the next time I play it. The rest of the game, the story, the dialogs, etc. are as great as you all described them, and I'm so proud of reading your comments and playing Psychonauts. New players, download and read the manual from GOG, it's very useful. And don't cross the point of no return if you are trying to collect everything in the game!
