Interesting storyline, wonderful graphics, but not the best adventure game out there.
~ Story
The story of adventure games, aside from the puzzles, is really the heart of the game. Fortunately, the story in Syberia, although far from perfect, is quite interesting an mysterious, and moreover, believable. You're not saving the world from a disaster, or escaping bikers, and whatnot. Instead, you are a lawyer who came to town to sign the contract and purchase a toys company.
Unfortunately, the owner just died, and there has been some complication with the processing of the paperwork because there apparantly is an heir by the name of Hans. More unfortunate is the fact that Hans has been in exile for so long and no one knows where - and it is your job to find out where he is dwelling and get him to sign the paper.
What makes the story majestic and dreamy is the fact that Hans, although a bit "touched in the head", is a henius engineer, and his many toy contraptions are quite fun to work with and make them function. Typically, almost all of the puzzles involve some sort of figuring out how to make one of Hans's contraptions to work. This makes you more intruiged about Hans and his past, and thankfully his story is told through nice animated scenes as well as a lot of text to read through.
Unfortunately though, the game seriously lacks any sort of humour. The story is a piece of tragedy after another, and everything is almost too depressing for an adventure game. Even the side stories, played out through the phone calls you get from your mom and boyfriend back home, are melancholic, although they try to serve a purpose by making the main character more human and believable since the main story does not affect her in any possible way.
What is most unfortunate about the story however, is that the ending leaves a lot to be desired for. If you thought that the endings of the Soul Reaver games choked you, you'd be killing yourself with this ending. Absolutely no payoff (except that you know there is a sequel), it is almost too predictable, and the grand finale is not so grand at all - you will be amazed by how stiff the final twists and conversations are, especially with all the previous hours of buildup.
~ Gameplay
Just like any other adventure game, you control the main character with the mouse and guide her around the scenery and examine various objects.
What makes the gameplay good is that the puzzles are not arbitrary, for the most part, and they almost always make some sense or have some direct connection with the story or something around you. You would not suddenly find yourself in a lava room where you have to turn off the valves by throwing bananas at a monkey head somewhere. The puzzles here are logical and make sense - basically, most of the time you would have to get a toy working.
Puzzles are made somewhat easier by the fact that the game lets you know which items work and which doesn't by changing the shape of the cursor. This saves you from randomly selecting all items in your inventory to try out with no avail. However, some of the later puzzles really need some attention, since the clues could be hidden in casual conversations or some drawings on pieces of paper you were reading off another clue from.
The most tedious thing about the puzzles however is that the concept of having to wind the train every time it stops becomes silly. It almost wants you to kill yourself.
~ Graphics and Sound
If you have seen the screenshots you would notice that the backgrounds are all drawn and painted. The attention to detail is amazing, every scene you get into is an artwork marvel. This is the best and worst thing about the graphics - there are just too many scenes and pointlessly running slowly through all of them back and forth is frustrating. Also, most of the items you get are not highlighted in any way shape or form, you would be doing some guesswork on whether things on the floor are there for decoration or for picking up.
Soundwise, the game lacks a continous musical score, but whatever music it has is well done and adds to the sadness of the game. The voice overs however are not perfect, only the main character is marginally convincing and the rest are just too cheesy.
Overall, the game is a good aventure and the story makes you going. However, the weirdness of it, its lack of humour, and the seriously underpopulated locales may turn off many players. Still, it is a good recommendation, but it could have been a lot better.