A potentially grand story hamstrung by very linear gameplay. Designers chose visual beauty over game depth.
My only wish is that Syberia had reversed their percentages. We would have been just fine with only 50% of that graphic depth! Add the remainder in expanding the locales and perhaps a few non-linear scenarios/puzzles, and something very special could have been in the making. As a player, I loved Oscar, my trusty sidekick, and even grew closer to him as the game progressed. This story branch was also under-explored. This sort of short-selling permeates most of the game, as if the visual beauty was supposed to be the star, implicitly.
I still give the game a high score - it is impossible to do otherwise. My main wish is that the developers expand their grand story, characters, and locales all the way down to the deltas next time. And give us access to some real secret areas...surprise us!
And a zip mode between area would be nice, too.