User Reviews (11 - 21 of 224)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

A visually stunning, immersive gameworld unlike any other...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 13
Date: January 11, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I eagerly snatched up a copy of French cartoonist Benoît Sokal's "Amerzone" a few years ago, an obscure little game with gorgeous graphics and creative critters. I dearly loved "Amerzone" because it was unique: following the legacy of a dying explorer to a remote South American country isn't your standard game fare. The problem with "Amerzone" was that the game was too short, too easy and there was hardly any music or character interaction. With "Syberia," which was originally intended to be an Amerzone sequel of sorts, many of the problems with "Amerzone" have been fixed outright.

In "Syberia" you play the role of an up-and-coming New York lawyer, Kate Walker, sent to buy out a French toy factory in the Alps. But when Kate arrives in Valadilene, she finds that closing the deal won't be as simple as she thought as Miss Anna, the owner of the factory, has died, and there is a mysterious heir. Kate must journey across countries searching for his identity. Along the way, she rediscovers herself, becoming more assured and independent, a true adventurer.

"Syberia" indulges in flights of fancy unlike anything I've ever experienced. The plot was a masterpiece of mystery, drama, melodramatic moments, and half-buried family secrets. The graphics are photorealistic, and the animations are some of the best that I've ever seen. The music is lush and haunting, always reflecting the particular country/atmosphere that it was portraying. Words cannot do this fantastic game justice. Play it for yourself, then keep an eye out for the sequel, which is due Fall 2003.

Microids is the same company that produced the love-it-or-hate-it "Road to India." Based on every other Amazon.com review except mine, everyone hated it. I loved it, flaws and all, and I think that for a small company in Montréal with a smallish budget, Microids did a fantastic job trying to capture the feel of India and come up with a semi-original mystery. It is much easier to critique what a game is missing or lacking than to sit down and produce a game from start to finish, sticking to the plot, deadlines and budget. However, "Syberia" is a superior game in every way: the 3D models, voice actors, animations, and the biggest difference is storyline. Where "Road to India" lacked much of a plot, "Syberia" has a novel-length backstory and plenty of twists and turns.

The Good: Everything
+ 3D models are extremely realistic, especially in closeup (think Helena Romanski's opera performance---the most haunting thing I will EVER see in a video game OR movie)
+ Architecture uses elements from Art Nouveau, Russian Communist-era factories, dilapidated, once elegant seaside resorts, train station/greenhouses...
+ Voice acting is superb, especially the cell phone conversations
+ Cell phone added a level of real-world plausibility: having Kate's boss calling and nagging you, having to listen to Kate's mom gush about her new boyfriend, talking with your boyfriend, your best friend sharing secrets along with her finds at Bloomingdales...you also use the phone in at least one puzzle to gather information. All together a nice touch.
+ Music (haunting, magical and highly addictive)
+ Cutscenes played like movies. The flashbacks to WWII were especially well done, as was the intro and the ending (which I found to be magnificent...although the actual end of the game does come very abruptly).
+ Characters: Unlike "Amerzone" and "Road to India," where there was hardly a soul, in "Syberia" there are dozens of characters that you interact with on your journey, all of them interesting and some with quite the personality!
+ Story: Highly original, magical, with unexpected twists and turns that kept me on the edge of my office chair
+ Creatures: some of the creatures from "Amerzone" make a guest appearance, and you will learn quite a bit about mammoths.
+ Attending a lecture at Barrockstadt University
+ The evolution of Kate Walker's character from a business-minded, uptight lawyer, to an adventurer who comes to care for the company she was going to sell

The not-so-good (with this game I can't make myself say "bad"):
- Occasional crashes
- Ending is very abrupt (not the ending cutscene, but simply the ending itself...quite obviously a setup for a sequel and rather a disappointment after all the puzzle-solving
- Many puzzles are easy, especially to seasoned gamers
- Kate's annoying "No need to go down there" and "No point. The door's locked," became incredibly frustrating and irritating after the hundredth time

Overall, along with "The Longest Journey," this is the most fantastic game that I've ever had the pleasure to play in terms of graphics, story and presentation. The best game of the year and possibly of all time in my humble opinion.

Easy Gamplay with stunning graphics!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 13 / 15
Date: August 29, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Syberia is brought to you by the same developers which brought you "Amerzone", "Chronciles at LochNess" and various others just like them. After I played Amerzone I was resolute on the fact that there would be no game such as this with its high level of interaction and ravishing graphics.

Well just a few years later, here comes something way better. Something with greater graphics and something with, well, um pretty much the same gameplay. Easier to be more precise!

You play as a Lawyer, most commonly known as "Katy" to her friends and family. Your mission at first, was to make a deal with a large Toy Manufacturing company in Valadeline, French Alps.

However, the sceanrio abruptly changes when the owner of the Company dies. Well now youre informed that the owner had an heir, which you had no idea about. So you start your mission in search of this so-called heir who is supposedly somewhere is Syberia.

You begin your journey from Valadeline and head east towards Syberia so as to reach a deal with the heir. You pass other destinations such as a Univerity and another town somewhere in Syberia, after completing puzzles.

Sounds tedious, yet the gameplay is awfully easy and the puzzles wont keep you confused for weeks or even months, rather minutes.

Some aspects of the game are just outright silly. For example you are supposed to climb this ladder, but you cant because there are these birds arund it. You just have to pick up some object and distract them right? Wrong! You have to go through this whole charade to get these berries which you distract the birds with.

Overall, the gameplay will not impress you, rather it is the wonderfully renderd graphics which will!

Stink-eria

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 11 / 12
Date: January 17, 2005
Author: Amazon User

It is a sad state of adventure games when this moronic mess of software wins several 'Adventure Game of the Year' awards. Which is a shame, because this game has a lot of potential, with gorgeous graphics and a moderately intriguing storyline.

The beautifully rendered environments, however, are just crack; an addiction to keep you playing, because there's nothing else to keep you playing. The characters are insipid, with grating voice actors reading retarded dialogue. Kate Walker, our 'heroine', is a 'lawyer' trying to 'do something' in Europe regarding an old toy factory. Simultaneously, via her cell phone, she is dealing with her stereotypical friends and relatives in the States. The ongoing soap opera with her moronic boyfriend, airhead girlfriend, airhead mom, and slave-driving boss will have you rolling your eyes in disinterest every time her phone rings and the game screeches to an even slower pace. And well before the end of the game, you'll be wanting to pry the head from her little robot friend Oscar and flatten it like a penny on a train track.

But the real disappointment in this game is the puzzles. You'd think with all the cogs, gears, levers, buttons and robots that there would be some fun and intricate puzzles to solve and machines to build. Alas, it's hard to think of any way the game designers could have taken more fun, logic, and ingenuity out of the puzzles. At least they could have added a difficulty option so that those of us who didn't want to watch a bad 10-hour cartoon wouldn't have to. If you want an idea of the difficulty level of most of the puzzles in this game, I recommend buying 'Winnie the Pooh Toddler' and trying your hand at the balloon popping game.

In the end, it is a joyless game. I had mixed emotions when it was over: anger that it could just end in such a stupid way, anger that I had been duped into thinking this was going to be a great game, incredulity that people think this game is great, and joy that I never again had to spend time on this mindless exercise. But mainly anger.

Bottom line: Play Monkey Island.

An Amazing Game With a Horrible Ending

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: January 06, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I must say that I have waited my entire life for a game like this. I'm terrible at running around and shooting things but love puzzles and games that make you think. The Kings Quest series of games used to satisfy this desire, until then they too became games in which you have to run around and kill things. Syberia was amazing. The graphics were incredible, the music was amazing, I loved every bit of the game. My only complaint is that the ending is amazingly abrubt. One minute you're playing, and the next minute the credits are rolling. I truly almost cried because things felt so unresolved. If other reviewers are correct and this is simply because they're planning a sequel, then I'm not quite as crushed. However, I want everyone who buys it to be prepared for the abrubt ending, since I was not.

Masterpiece in Every Way!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 18
Date: September 23, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I am ABSOLUTELY relieved that games of such magnificent quality still exist! Imagine the game you have played with the best graphics, storyline, character development, etc. and Syberia will surpass even the very best!
I agree with every point that Charles Ardai, Computer Gaming World, has made. Syberia is likely to be underappreciated, most probably because Adventure games are not what they used to be, and therefore people may be wary of taking a chance. This is the best game I have ever bought, and a fabulous value! (Nearly $20 less than most games you will find) Still not convinced? Let me address some of Syberia's impressive points:
I have praised the graphics, and for a good reason! Not only do the graphics in the foreground and characters look completely realistic, but the creators have taken such care that you will notice superb quality in the furthest depths of the screen. Even the tiniest details have been perfected as you see leaves rustling and water rippling. Transition between screenshots is seamless. There is never a moment where my game has frozen, crashed, or even the sound or graphics faltered. Mr. Ardai is correct in saying that Myst will look like a crayon drawing in comparison. It is absolutely perfect.
I mentioned the character development and storyline as two separate descriptions, yet I believe that they work together to make excellent gameplay. Each character has a unique identity that causes you to grow so close to them and feel that you really know the person (or automaton in Oscar's case). For example, we do not meet Hans Voralberg until the end of the game, yet I felt as if I knew him personally through the cutscenes and especially through Anna's diary. Also, Kate (our main character) is connected to her real life in New York through her cell phone. As we witness her conversations, we see a change in her attitude towards her lifestyle, and her reevaluation of her relationship. This is definately a game you will feel passionate not just about 'beating', but for the resolution and to see what becomes of our characters. I was so completely involved, that I will admit that I even shed a few tears as I learned more about our characters throughout gameplay. I am not the only one, however, as wysewomon, an amazon.com top 1000 reviewer, stated, "I cheered at Kate's ultimate decision about her life.".
There are many other points I could make to attempt to convince the masses to purchase this game, but nothing else than to purchase the most fantastic, 'feel-good' game you will ever play!

Review for Adventurers

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 13
Date: September 16, 2002
Author: Amazon User

For this review, i will actually make paragraphs and not write 100 lines clumped together that look like 1 big black block on your monitor.

Your reading this because you want to know if this games good , correct? Well telling from the ratings, this game is not good, it is great. So why should you PLAY it?

The story:
Although not as long as The Longest Journey (if you havent heard of it, play it now!) the story in syberia is VERY good. Story can often be judged by how well it resonates in your memories after it is empathized, this game really brings you in. Although i have just beat the game, i still have the story is still resonating in my mind, so its fresh. So in conclusion.... "the longest what?"

Graphics/ Music:
The characters are polygonal, and the background and objects are a vector like, you can obviously tell everything was once rendered from 3d. The graphics are perfect. The music is great, although not many scores, it does get repetitive to hear the same song for like an hour or three, or even days depending how long it takes you to beat some parts.

Puzzles:
Way too easy, but you could tell the creaters didn't want hard puzzles getting in the way of their gem of a story. Again this game is easy, just gets frusterating running around cause the areas are so huge.

Conclusion:
The only thing bad about this game, is the length. I would say it is about 1/2 to 1/3 the game lengh of the longest journey, but i think the story is much nicer. This game is also more real, as opposed to the longest journey where it attracted science fiction and fantasy fiction nerds, this game is real and actually has a moral.

So without spoiling anything ahem.. there it is.

Repetitive junk not saved by mediocre animation

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 11 / 13
Date: February 21, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game has gotten so many good reviews that I can only imagine it is because we are overwhelmed by massive amounts of ugly trash. The game is pretty by gaming standards, but ask any designer who does work in Alias, Maya, or even Studio Max to create you a picture of a city and you'll get something better. The fact this is pretty decent for a video game demonstrates the lack of animation and drawing skills of computer designers. So, fine, pretty- but if you only want pretty scenery go to Barcelona or Florence, so much prettier than this absurd French city where the people don't even have accents.

The mechanics and story of the game are badly thought out and trite. The 'puzzles' are the same as any game. Unlike some games they are not totally arbitrary and subject to pure guessing, instead they are absurdly simpistic. You walk into a room and the cursor gives you two things to look at and basically the puzzle is solved. Otherwise, fail to find one detail in a room and you'll wander until you see the detail. This is where the pretty graphics fail- the designers failed to use basic things like perspective, contrast, or aperture features to help focus on certain details. Why no good puzzles? Probably, we the gaming public is viewed as too stupid to figure out even some basic logic puzzles- perhaps it is true, but it would be nice to get a game with thought beyond 2-step thought processes.

Also, the walking around part is so tedious. YOu walk, and walk for no purpose other than to make the game seem longer. It was maddening, especially given most of us gamers are imbued with a bit of ADD.

Lastly, I bought a new computer at the end of 2004 on which I have played the game. Super fast,tons of ram, graphics card etc, but this game runs like I got an old 386 here. So the designers and the code writers should be fired.

So, if you can tolerate tediousness for pretty graphics (which I never played on low settings so it may only be pretty on a high res flat screen) buy the game. Plus, don't think this is a whole game, it is half of the game. The sequel is like a force buy to actually get the whole story. It approaches fraud to say this is a whole game. How would you feel if you bought cookies and cream ice cream only to get home and realize that the label says you had to buy Oreos, too, or else you only had a tub of bland vanilla ice cream?

P.S. The main character is a lawyer. As a lawyer I wish someone would have any clue about how the law works before they attempt to write a story about a legal tansaction- the whole set-up is absolutely absurd.

An Absolute Delight

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: November 10, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I have had some bad experiences with Dreamcatcher in the past and I was a little reluctant to buy Syberia because of those experiences. But, after reading so many great reviews, I decided to give it a shot.

First and foremost, this game is every bit as good as the reviews say. The voice acting is paramount and the graphics make this game beautiful and engrossing. The graphics in this game are by far the best I've experienced in gaming. If you are going to buy this game, make sure you have at least a 32MB graphics card. You can play the game with a lower graphics card but you may miss out on some of that beautiful artwork.

The gameplay is a breeze and the storyline is compelling. Most all of the puzzles can be solved logically and are an intergral part of the story ( Not just something thrown in to kill time). However, there are a few tough ones and I wouldn't have been able to solve a couple of them without the help of a walkthrough.

I've read a lot of reviews that complain about the short length of the game. And I agree that it is a little shorter than I would have liked it to be. However, it's not too short and will give you several hours of enjoyment. Personally, I liked the way the game ended. Maybe if the final scenes had been a little more drawn out, it wouldn't have met with as much criticism.

Believe it or not, I did have one bad knock against this game..........I just couldn't stop playing it. The storyline pulls you in and you're hooked....so get ready for a few groggy mornings at work due to staying up late playing this game.

Syberia truly is a great game and a safe buy. I highly recommend it and I believe you will thoroughly enjoy this game.

Moving story, beautiful game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: March 20, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I consider myself pretty discriminate when it comes to adventure games. I cut my teeth on the Infocom text adventures; forayed into graphic adventures with Myst. With those two as my standards, it's been hard finding anything I truly enjoyed.

I LOVED Syberia. I thought character development was excellent, the puzzles were so well integrated into the story that they didn't feel like puzzles - but they weren't extremely easy either - they require some thinking. But I definitely enjoyed the lack of pixel-hunting, "use every object in your inventory to see if it's the right one" type gameplay. The graphics were superb.

OK, the voice acting left a little to be desired. But, it wasn't absolutely horrendous either. If I could, I'd take off half a star for that. But truly, the magic in this game lies in its storytelling. I was captivated, interested, and couldn't wait to find out how things turned out. The ending... All I can say without spoiling anything is: I am SO glad Syberia 2 is being released on Monday. I haven't waited for a game this eagerly since Riven!

If story is a factor to you, get this game. Both graphically and emotionally beautiful, this game is right next Myst in my Number One spot.

The graphic adventure lives again!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: July 31, 2002
Author: Amazon User

If the The Longest Journey set the stage for things to come in the world of graphic adventures, Syberia surely opens the first act. With a combination of compelling storyline, haunting locales, lush music, and jaw dropping animations, Syberia will be the game to beat as developers work furiously. I'm sure the boys over at Cyan and Presto are up to the challenge!

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next 

Actions