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about what i expected but something is missing

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: November 09, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Syberia reminds me of my days of playing the original Myst. The gameplay over all is very similar, with obviouly improved graphics. Many reviewers before me have gone on about the graphics so i won't even bother writing about them since i agree that they are some of the best graphics i have seen yet. The story is very catching at first, and the intro if you are into games of this genre will definitely leave you hooked enough to at very least get you through the rest of the game. Overall it is a very short game however toping out for me at about 15 hrs. Stretched accross 4 levels. The first of which is by far the longest and most complicated. It's hard for me to write a proper review without giving away the ending, because for me the ending alone dropped this review down by a star. What i will say is that the ending is disapointing. I can't say more without giving away key points, let's just say, you strugle so hard for so little, and Dreamcatcher definitely had a sequel in mind when they made this. Overall here is a breakdown of the game:

Graphics: 4.7 (almost perfect, almost but not quite)
Gameplay: 4.0 (very easy controls, and simple puzzles)
Sound: 4.5 (nothing negative with it, accept a little lack of diferent types of music. A tip though if you are doing something right in the game, the music will kick in and get louder as you get closer, kinda a musical marco polo.)
Replay: 2.0 (there is almost no replay value, some of the cutscenes are nice to watch over but thankfully we can do that from the main menu. I would recomend buying Syberia used, it will only take a few days to beat, and you probably won't ever pop it in your CD rom again)

I can't say what is missing now, but alude to it, i'm sorry, but i don't want to ruin anything for the players of this game, you will understand when and if you play it.

An exciting adventure about a lawyer needing a signature...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: January 15, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The first thing you need to know is that "Syberia" is only the first part of Kate Walker's European adventure, so if you are expecting to end up on the fabled lost island of Syberia by the end of this PC adventure, you are going to be disappointed. Actually it was some reviews about "Syberia II" that got me interested in playing that particular game so of course I picked up "Syberia" first. I do not take the time to play a lot of these games, but when I do I like these sort of adventures where you go around and collect items, endure endless conversations, solve some tricky puzzles, and eventually uncover some sort of mystery.

The heroine here is Kate Walker, a sophisticated New York Attorney who is sent by her firm to Valadilene, a smal alpine village in France, to buy-out an old factory, the Voralberg Toy Company, which was once world famous for making automatons. Of course once she is there Kate is confronted with an unexpected twist the turns her business trip into a journey heading east in order to get a signature needed to complete the deal. Kate's journey consists of three additional locations after Valadilene: the university city of Barrockstadt, the forgotten city of Komkolzgrad, and the once lavish seaside resort of Aralbad. Her only companion, once she gets him up on his feet, is Oscar, one of the Voralberg automatons, who will be the engineer for the mechanical train that takes Kate on most of her journey.

Oscar is the most interesting of the supporting cast of characters, although he is a stickler for the rules, especially about having a ticket before you can proceed from one station to the next. Most of the other characters get a bit annoying, especially as you go through the unavoidable pointless conversations you have to endure in this sort of game. It is the nature of the game that they are always impediments to either Kate's overall mission or her specific task at hand (or both). There are also several dead end characters, where you keep thinking at some point talking to them will be of some importance, but that never proves to be the case.

Then there are the phone calls that Kate gets from back home, where her boss, mother, boyfriend, and supposed best friend harangue her about not getting her mission done and back home as quickly as she can. Apparently we are supposed to be watching Kate turn from a boring lawyer into an exciting adventurer as she meets her various challenges. Of course she is the heroine of "Syberia" so we tend to think of her as that from the very beginning and keep looking for a way to get her to dump boyfriend Dan as soon as possible. Of course, you cannot get so annoyed with these phone calls, especially those from Kate's mom, that you do not pay attention to what is being said, because there are some clues there as well. But overall the phone calls tend to detract from both the adventure and Kate as a character.

The best part of "Syberia" are the graphics, which are pretty stunning. There are nice details to each of the settings, all of which are run down to various degrees. I like the way the water ripples and the fact that at one point we can see a soccer game being played on a television set in the background. The music by Nick Varley and Dimitri Bodiansky is also pretty good, with a fairly memorably title theme and some nice Russian/Gypsy influence bits as well. Most of the tasks are rather mundane but fairly logical, which worked out well for me because I only got super stuck three times in the game (until the very end, where suddenly how to use simple objects like a screwdriver were suddenly an almost insurmountable task). Those tasks involving automatons are more interesting and that motif, along with that of mammoths, are also enjoyable aspects of the game. The hardest task, for me, was mixing a drink, but at least once you get through that things move pretty quickly in the end game.

In fact, I was rather surprised when the game ended. "Syberia" comes on two discs and you play with Disc 1 in your DVD-drive and I kept waiting for the point where I had to switch discs, like in "Phantasmagoria" and the Gabriel Knight adventures. My biggest complaint, such as it is, would be that you cannot quickly skip across screens when you have to travel from one end of a train station to another or across town. You can make her run a bit, but some things just take time. I was not especially enamored of games where you get to do 360 degree turns (they make me dizzy at times) so I have no problems with this more traditional way of moving the character around.

The bonus disc includes a short "movie" on the making of Syberia where B. Sokal and others at Microids in Montreal (they speak French so be prepared to read subtitles), both a trailer and a teaser for the game, some examples of the transition "From 2D to 3D," and a nice collection of desktop wallpaper. For each of the four locations of "Syberia" you have a choice of wallpaper that you could put on your desktop to record your journey through the adventure and remind you that there is some reason Kate is carrying around those metal shears.

The bottom line would be that hardcore adventure game fans are going to find "Syberia" too tame for their tastes. But for the occasional PC game player or even the novice, this inventory/adventure game should be quite enjoyable. Plus, "Syberia II" is even better and the story really does end at that point, so that you do not have to worry about picking up "Syberia III: Oscar's Revenge."

An adventure worth your time

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: December 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

It has been a while since I attempted to play a game like this. In years past I have done Myst and the like, and in some ways, disliked the seemingly meaningless hoops you had to jump through to move through the game.
Not so with Syberia! While some of the "puzzles" are fairly obvious and easy to solve, the completion of the tasks aided your character to complete her mission. There is an actual story line that increases your involvement with the character. And inclusions of items in day to day life that plague us all! *when will that cell phone stop ringing??*
As has been mentioned, the graphics in some of the settings are in a word, stunning. I found myself stopping my charter just to admire the backgrounds!
All in all, the story line was captivating. When in the world will Part II come out??!! I am awaiting the further adventures of Kate, Oscar and Hans!

Pleasantly Surprised

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: October 03, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I have had some experience with Dreamcatcher games a few years ago; and to be honest, I was a bit leery whether this one would live up to its packaging. I was very impressed with the box graphics and the storyline, so I decided to give it a try.

Imagine my amazement when I finally got to the game! The pre-rendered graphics were breath-taking and the sound superb. The integration of realtime 3d graphics with pre-rendered backgrounds in the interface was handled quite well. The storyline was engaging right from the start, and advancing through the game was not as difficult as I was expecting.

I became so engrossed with the game, that my first evening playing it - I ended up in front of the screen for 3 hours! The next evening: another 3! This game pulls you in from the opening movie and keeps you there for quite a while. I was hard pressed to turn it off for the night!

The only minor glitch that bothered me was from an artists point of view. As the main character was walking on or near any steps, her interaction with them was a little jerky, and the shadow underneath her was not handled very smoothly. But after an hour or so, I really didn't mind it too much... ;)

This is one puzzle/adventure game that I would definately recommend to anyone!

Absolutely Wonderful!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 11
Date: July 28, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Let's be honest. Most games these days are all run and shoot games or played for the gore value. "Real" adventure games, I mean the kind that transport you into the story are in dwindling number. But Dreamcatcher has outdone themselves with this game. The story is wonderful and the enviroment has been crafted with loving care. It was like taking part in your favorite movie! Go buy this game today and take a trip with Alice. You will not regret it!

A game that truly merits abundant scorn

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 14 / 22
Date: May 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Do you read 5 star reviews of movies like 'Star Wars: Episode 2' and find yourself saying things like, "What $%^&% movie was this $%&%$# watching"? If you read all of the glowing reviews that this game has received and buy the game, do not be surprised if you find yourself making a similar statement. Calling this game bad is like calling the Grand Canyon a hole in the ground: true, but inadequate.

Let us begin with the characters. It will take less than 15 minutes for you to come to hate Kate Walker (the character you play as). As you meet the rest of the characters, you will hate them as well. Allegedly, Kate improves as the game progresses, but I can only say that I do not see it.

There are almost no puzzles per se. You wander around, pick up objects and use them somewhere else. The game does not allow you to do irrelevant actions (as a friend of mine said, playing the game is like turning the pages of a movie).

The graphics are, at best, adequate. The single perspective for every scene is a major let-down.

The story also leaves much to be desired, as do the individual scenes. This game does not have the fragrance of fantasy, but rather the stench of irrationality.

If the game was better, I would complain about how very short it was. As is, that was a merciful reprieve. Simply put, 'Syberia' fails in every way that a game can fail.

Thank You

Terrible

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 17 / 30
Date: December 08, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Terrible. Absolutely terrible.

Okay, the graphics are pretty, but they are also cheesy and samey throughout the game, despite wildly varying locales. The dialog is ABUSIVELY stilted, a problem exacerbated by the pitiful voice acting (including a French speaker who makes no attempt to sound like he didn't come from Ohio and a Russian madman who sounds Scottish). Then there's the yawn-inducing plot: woman goes to Switzerland to buy a toy company, woman has to do stuff and find keys the end. I didn't give a rat's [hindquarters] about any of the characters, all of whom were cliches, and badly-done cliches at that. Then there's the recurring problem of terminology that doesn't make sense, such as calling robots "automatons," making up a magical fruit called "Forest Sauvignon" out of which one can make wine (gee, anything like the sauvignon grapes you make REAL wine out of?), which comes from the "Amerzone"--a rain forest in South America (are we sure we're not just misspelling something?) and saying that there is an island off of Siberia called "Syberia" (same pronunciation). My eyes rolled so many times during this game that it left little pock-marks all over my ceiling.

Many people are mentioning "The Longest Journey," an adventure game which is actually worth your time, and of which this seems to be a rather uninspired copy. I only make mention of this so as not to be dismissed as an adventure-game hater. This is just the worst of a genre that is rarely good (but if it's good it can be magical).

Finally, it's short. I was going to complain about that, but then I realized that is its one saving grace. At least you don't have to wait long until you can free up the gig of space it takes up on your hard drive.

Don't buy this game. It's bad. It's boring. It's a waste of money and you'll hate it.

Terrible.

Syberia / The Longest Journey

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: June 11, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Obviously people won't be able to help but compare this game to The Longest Journey. Both games cast a young heroine discovering herself as her quest progresses through places going from whimsical to eerie, and both games got outstanding reviews from critics all over the adventure gaming world.

On some accounts, Syberia is better that The Longest Journey. Graphically, for example. The premises are much more typical and interesting in Syberia. You can definitely feel Benoit Sokal's touch. It looks like great research has been conducted to create the different locations. The result feels very homogeneous, something I think The Longest Journey was lacking to some extent.

Another thing Syberia is really good at is stretching reality to great lengths, without ever totally breaking into fantasy or science fiction. The fact that (nearly) everything in that game is so close to how reality is, or could be, adds a great deal of credibility to the story, and the game itself. Mostly everything is exaggerated to some point, as to make the story and decor interesting, but it never goes too far, thus not distracting the player with inconsistencies.

Now for the bad (or not as good) parts.

The dialogs and voices are not nearly as good as in The Longest Journey. Voices are OK, but compared to the quality of the graphics, OK just does not cut it. Nothing is so bad it makes you cringe, but it just feels that it could have been done so much better. Dialogs sometimes sound canned, but I have to admit that it's a pitfall that is really hard to avoid when making an adventure game. I only know a handful of games that managed to avoid it (The Longest Journey being one of them).

The story is compelling, but it will leave you with a feeling of something lacking. Obviously the it is a set-up for a sequel. Of course the same trick has been used in many games, but does it make it OK? I just wish the end brought a better feeling of closure. When I play a game, I usually become attached to the main characters, and it always feels weird to have the story hanging when the game ends.

Conclusion: If you have to pick only one game between The Longest Journey and Syberia, it's a tough call, but go for The Longest Journey. But you should definitely try to play both those games, as both of them bring something very interesting to the world of adventure games. You will not be disappointed by either one.

Just Ok

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: July 24, 2004
Author: Amazon User

What can I say about Syberia? It inspired me to write my first ever review, but thats not necessarily a good thing. I bought the game because everyone here at Amazon seemed to like it if not love it. Because of this, when I started playing Syberia I expected greatness; Syberia just didn't live up to my expectations. I tried running the game in xp, that was my first mistake; while in xp the game played in slow motion. This was solved easily enough by running it in 98, so I have deducted no stars for this problem. When I finally got the game running properly, I found that the graphics are as beautiful as everyone promised they would be and for the first half of the game I agreed with all the high reviews I had read here. The story was both interesting and plausible, the puzzles were solvable and they fit right in with the story line, the evironments were beautiful, the characters were intreging and none of the voice actors irritated me. For a while there, I thought I had found the perfect game, but it was too good to be true. Half way through the game, the story stopped progressing. The puzzles became more annoying than anything else. Its not that the puzzles became harder or anything they just were written to irritate you, for instance to unlock a door on one level, you had to talk to one person, who then told you to talk to a second person, who told you to talk to the first person, who told you to talk to the second person, etc and eventually the door opens after you spend 10 minutes of walking back and forth repeating the same old conversation. There was no challange or question about what you had to do, it was made painfully clear that your only option was to talk to the same two people over and over again indefinitly. More irritating than puzzles like that though were the cellphone conversations we had to listen to. Without fail every cell call was worse than the one before it. You see Kate our main character gets calls periodically from her boss, her mother, her best friend, and her fiance. Most of these conversations have absolutly nothing at all to do with the game. In these calls we are forced to listen to Kate's boss have temper-tantrums like a 2 year old and we listen to Kate's flighty mother babble on and on about some new boyfriend. And then theres Kate's bestfriend who spends their whole first call gushing about how she was in a bad mood or something and so she went shopping and oh there was this sale and she got a shirt for only a couple hundred dollars can you believe the luck.. ugh such stupid stereotypes as this piss me off; Kate's best friend is a lawyer like Kate I believe and game makers think that since shes a woman that the only thing she would talk about with her best friend is shopping.. Ok I'm going to move on to Kate's fiance now. Kate's fiance is whinny and unfaithful, and childish, and he's constantly saying stupid things. Just that would be bad enough but Kate constantly drops down to his level and joins him which quickly makes the main character as unlikeable as her fiance. I don't know about you but I don't enjoy leading a character I don't like through puzzles that irritate me, to get to the end of a story that stopped progressing; so while the first half of the game was fun, the second half felt like work. I had to force myself to finish the game so that I could see the ending; this turned out to be a pointless endeaver because there is no ending. In an obvious attempt to force people to buy the second game none of the loose ends were wrapped up. The end of the game was exactly like the end of any other level; you are left confused and wondering how it will all turn out.

I don't really understand why people gave this game such rave reviews. It was only ok. Buy the game if you find it cheap and your looking for a way to kill a few hours, but don't go into it expectiong greatness because it won't deliver.

Crashes ruin it

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: November 15, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is gorgeous! If you can overlook the fact that you have to run across the entire world, back and forth, back and forth, asking the same people the same darn question over and over (because they are lieing to you only you don't know it)its a lot of fun. Just remember to save after EVERY move you make because the game crashes on newer systems CONSTANTLY. Even after downloading the patches, I'm STILL having problems. Oh, and then theres the fact that your "saved" game doesn't actually save unless you reload it. I had to redo the first level 3x before I figured that little gem out.

Of course, the fact that I actually redid the first level 3x proves that its addictive & a great game overall. Or maybe I'm just really determined...

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