"Look ma! No hands!" (falls and hits his head)
STORY:
Kate Walker, an attorney working for a toy company, is going to a small town in order to close a deal with a woman who owns a toy factory. When she arrives, she learns that the woman has died from natural causes. While the company had made arrangements for such an event, the small fact that there is an heir makes things quite complicated. Kate must find the heir, Hans Voralberg, and close the deal. Without knowing it, her journey will open doors Kate never imagined, and in finding Hans, Kate will also find herself.
There are no life-threatening situations here. There isn't an evil warlord that seeks to destroy creation as we know it. While there is a slight touch of science fiction (the automatons), most of the game's storyline is completely realistic. It's not about heroes and villains; it's about a job, a duty, a search and a journey.
GRAPHICS:
Still two-dimensional backgrounds and quite nice 3D models are the visual weapons of Syberia. They do get the job done, thanks to the lovely sceneries, and the characters' animation. I wasn't impressed, but I wasn't disappointed either. A plain good job. The backgrounds have many details, and in games like these, they may even play a vital role in solving a puzzle.
MUSIC / SOUND EFFECTS:
Music is quite calm and rarely heard. Full speech (and with satisfying performances) accompanies the game. Many sound effects are heard, giving you a very realistic audio during your travels (birds chirping, water running in a fountain, church bells, etc.). In many ways, the sound makes a better job than the visuals in making your journey real.
GAMEPLAY:
Adventure games like those Sierra made in the 80s and the 90s probably influenced Syberia, at least in the way the game is played. You control your character, and whenever she approaches something of interest, you can choose to examine it, pick it up, or use it with another item (or, in the case of a person, speak to him).
In many ways, the X-Box version is a lot easier that the PC version, because while in the PC version you had to search the screen with your cursor to find clues and items, in the X-Box version the cursor fixes itself automatically to places / people / items of interest.
I can't really comment on the difficulty, since adventure game difficulty depends clearly on the I.Q. and luck of the player. However, I must say that while many (if not all) Sierra Adventure games made me read their walkthrough a lot of times, Syberia made me do this only twice.
OVERALL: Syberia is an old-school adventure game, plain and simple. Sierra veterans will probably appreciate it a lot more than other gamers, since adventure games are a dying (read: dead) breed. With a plethora of riddles and no action-scenes whatsoever, Syberia is challenging your mind in a delightful manner.
It's just a pity that the ending feels a bit rushed (a certain character's appearance in the end seems rather weird and out of place), and that the finale encounter is so undertoned that you say "Oh, I get it! The *insert last scene* was the final scene of the game!"
All in all, Syberia is worth the purchase if you're an old-school adventurer. Other than that, I can't really recommend it to anyone else.