Why is it that all the Syberia games feel like they're 80% the way to where they wanted to go? As others have mentioned the UI is just painful. At a few points, I actually said outloud, "I really wish this was an isometric adventure game." It is so hard to navigate. I also just finished Syberia A World Before, and it was better. Full 3D adventure games have a common challenge, and it's moving around. Even one of my favorites, Grim Fandango, had some challenges with navigation and camera angles. The puzzles are much simplier than with one and two. They are more consistent. In most cases everything you need is quickly found. There's no pixel hunting, and honestly, everything makes mechanical sense. You won't be looking for three pieces to put together to make a glue from some random pun from the periodic table. Plus, and this just drops the difficulty some, pieces of the environment are not unlocked until you need to solve them. There's still a decent amount of problem solving, but you won't have 15 items in your pocket that you've collected through the game. A major improvement in Syberia 4 is the directing of the actors. I've gotten so use to hearing Sharon Mann playing a near happy go lucky Kate. After listening to some of her other stuff online, I thought, "Maybe she's just the type of person that sounds happy." Syberia to me is NOT a happy adventure. It's weird, it's messed up, and there's a lot of struggle. In S4, she does not sounds happy go lucky. I enjoyed it so much more just because the protagonist didn't sound like they were flying high all the time. In a way I kind of wish they hadn't made S4. I kind of wish Kate's fate was left to be unknown. In a way I was hoping for a Seinfeld ending. This gal has been "train hopping" for the past couple of years, and she deserves to have someone anchor her in place for a long time. In a way she was, but not permanently. I still don't understand why Kate felt so compelled to keep doing all this weird stuff.
I feel like this is as good a wrap on the series as any. Like other reviewers, I don't think I need to repeat that this is more of a visual novel. It's similar in the vein of Life is Strange and other story based games that have some puzzel elements. Syberia 3 felt more balanced, as there were still some serious puzzles that took me a bit to conquer. There were very few in this game that posed a challenge. I don't find myself to be very clever. For instance, a guide needed to explain the fish in Guybrush's inventory was a red herring, which I needed to use to destract a troll with in Secret of Money Island. When I watched the trailer and played the demo, I knew I just needed to play the whole thing. It was just stunning all the way around. The music adds to the environment, and was a wonderful complement. The environments just made me want to visit areas of Europe. I felt the quite town close to the Swiss Alps was perfectly done. It was also nice to see the passage of time as you progressed through the story. Though, it felt like it was perpectually morning or late afternoon to make it a bit more moody. The story was fairly compelling. One piece of the Syberia games I've always been a bit annoyed with has been Kate's constant desire to just keep jumping around. It's addressed and wrapped up, a bit, here. So, that's good. There were plenty of points later in the story line where I was a bit surprised why they went a certain direction. It started feeling a bit soap opera-ey at the end. Then it was over, so it was mostly believable. For me it's a bit difficult suspending disbelief on a few pieces. For instance, no one seems to have a cell phone in 2005 in a major fictional city in Europe? Some of the dialog is pretty odd. Background noise was sometimes oddly chosen too. Felt like a weird mix at times. I had a few performance issues during action scenes with VFX even with RTX 3060. Navigation is a bit wonky with camera angles. Puzzles too. Not as bad as S3 though.
A friend recommended checking this out. So, when it went on sale for $4, I couldn't pass it up. Our tastes don't always match, and they hadn't played even the first episode all the way through. I am so glad I picked this up. I think I got 3 hours per episode, so 15 hours to get through the story line. I'm the RPG person who will try to get 100% playthough the first time through. I very quickly realized to enjoy this story, I should not do that. I also second guess the choices that I make, and, for some reason, everyone in the story MUST like me. So, this whole story line was rather difficult for me, as I questioned every decission I made. Once I got through the first and half of the second, I realized how much your actions really DO affect the story line, it made the anxiety worse. Once I realized that in a way, I'm helping to write the story, I just got sucked in even more. Yes, I was the kid keeping three to four fingers holding the pages at the decission points in the 'Pick Your Own Adventure' books. The story is compelling, and has some good branching. Once the pieces fell into place, I felt horrible for the choices I made, but there's always another play through to "get it right." Like wise the voice actors and direction was VERY well done. For some reason Hannah Telle's (Max) voice for some reason gave me Alexis Bledel vibes. There were plenty of times I found myself staring at the screen, mouth wide open, and eyes watering. The time mechanics seem really cool at first. For puzzles or conversations, if you miss something just re-wind. Later on, pieces get introduced to make it a little more complex. There are some fantastic scenes with a lot of energy, and the developers played around with the time winding mechanics to try to push the player to feel the urgency of the moments. Good overall art design. Low quality animation. Characters are like muppets, so I'm glad the voice acting was spot on. I wanna punch, hug, and slap some characters!
After finishing part one yesterday, I knew I had to pick up part two after reading some reviews. I was a bit sad that part two was not as long as part one. There's a decent amount of areas, but there are fewer cast members, and the job subplot is worthless. It was still worth at least 10 hours of game play. Even though there's more pixels, I did experience some interesting glitches. None of the character mouths moved correctly. They always moved way too quickly. During Act 3 after getting a mask, all characters walked two times as fast. Kind of a benefit going between scenes. I also noticed that dialog would get cut off for most characters after the half way point. The puzzles are still fairly simple, and the items you need aren't hidden too much. Except in Act 3. It's like someone decided, let's stop putting things in plain site. Then they decided not to give any clues, or maybe I didn't find them, for the end game puzzle. Took me almost 30 minutes to hunt and peck my way through it. Aaaah adventure games. Good times! So, I give this a two for keeping the play style the same, good creative direction and over all look. The wrapping up of the subplots is God awful. I know we're using the phone as a device, but really, cell phones working in the tundra of Siberia? Come on. This was also one of my challenges with part one. The subplots are just crammed down your throat whether you like it or not. Though, in the first game, one of the other characters is used in a puzzle. So, there is that. I don't know. I just really hate the cell phone.
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!
