Vivid imagery and solid storytelling make Syberia a grand experience for the player.
Syberia puts you in the shoes of Kate Walker, a junior member of a law firm that is trying to close a deal on a toy factory. While in Valadilene, France, she finds out that not only is the owner of the toy factory dead, but that a long forgotten relative may be out there to claim the factory. So you have to journey across Europe to find out if the heir exists, while analyzing your decision in life and on the case.
The first item that you notice upon loading up the game is the visual quality and style of the game. Even though the game runs at a fixed resolution, it looks amazing. From the menus for the game to the last minute detail in the game, it shows polish and an attention to detail that most games just overlook. Screens that are there just for transition have little nuisances that make you stop and look just for the beauty of them. Graphics are normally not an adventure game’s strong point, but here, you can tell that Microids enjoys the world that they have created. The character models are solid and diverse. Special note should be taken with Kate Walker as we have a heroine that is intelligent and not designed with young teens in mind. It is a refreshing change from the bigger chest is better design philosophy that a lot of developers have used as of late.
Story is where it is at when it comes to an adventure game. If you can’t tell a good story when it comes to adventure games, you will mocked and ridiculed on the Internet until the end of the world. Luckily, Syberia does have a strong, character driven story. The conflict between the world that she is falling into vs. the world she is from is well defined. It is almost like she has reached a mid-life crisis of sorts as she tries to appease her boss while she forms a bond with the automatons that she meets. The dialogue is fresh and flows quite nicely, while conveying emotion.
The puzzles that you encounter in the game are not too difficult and won’t stump hardened adventure game veterans. The puzzles range from the straight-forward, to the obscure and weird. You should not be stumped on most of them for too long, but a few will just drive you nuts due to the illogical nature of the solution A good example is that you need honey to make a special drink, but all you find is crystallized honey. So you have to find a way to make it liquid again. Logic would dictate a microwave or a stove with a pot of water, but you would be wrong, because the best way to liquefy crystallized honey is in a steaming hot Jacuzzi. Nothing says heating food like a Jacuzzi. Fortunately most of the puzzles are a little more sane, and make sense, but you just have to wonder what are game developers thinking when they put these puzzles together. But the puzzles don’t get in the way of the story or the style of the game, which is a big plus.
Sound in this game is pretty good. The voice overs are solid and feel very real. The parts are played with meaning and care which always makes the characters much more believable. Kate Walker is voiced as a strong woman with a conflict. You can feel her struggle while being in a foreign land. Oscar and James, the primary Automatons in the game are voiced with elegance and a dash of pomp and circumstance. Games that take the time to put some effort into the voices of the characters really pay off in the sense of realism. The sound effects however, are a mixed bag. For the most part, they are good, but there are times when they sound hollow and tinny, like they were recorded in a shower. The music was a little offsetting as well as moments where it would peak or crescendo would end up leading to no real climax. But in other parts, the music would lull in the middle of a heavy sequence or action sequence. It was like the music was on a loop that did not care where the story was going.
There are few faults in Syberia that you will notice. Three that do stick out are graphical glitches, a save bug and some out of order dialogue. The graphical glitches normally happened while opening the cell phone for a conversation. It was not a hindrance, but the screen having black folding triangles on it was a bit disruptive. Out of order dialogue is hard to control in a game that counts on structure, but some plot points were given away before you knew about that point. While this can happen with smaller points, it should never happen with main plot items. The last one is a save bug that really got in the way of progress during one of the stages. And once it corrupted that save, you had to go to a previous game and play through it again. Not fun.
Overall, Syberia presents a unique universe that is a blast to visit and play through. If you can get past some of the minor issues, you will find complex characters and diverse scenery to keep you enthralled for several hours. At its current price point, it is definitely worth the investment.