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Not perfect, but saved by the sheer beauty of it

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 158 / 163
Date: June 22, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Syberia is easily one of the most breathtaking games to look at. It's landscapes and buildings are stunningly beautiful. The opening takes place in Valadilene, supposedly a town in the French Alps. It's Art Nouveau architecture all around (Guimard, Majorelle and Lavirotte-style for enthusiasts out there), and creator Benoit Sokal is forgiven for putting Art Nouveau in the Alps. You'd be hard pressed to find decent Art Nouveau there nowadays, or any day in the past for that matter! But if Valadilene really existed, it would be an architectural Nirvana!
The animations in Syberia are superb - I've never seen moving water done better than this. The cutscenes are superb, razorsharp, and it is apparent that mr. Sokal likes atmosphere - the rainy openingsequence is very reminiscent of his first game, Amerzone.
But apart from graphics, is it a good game? Well, it certainly has a few shortcomings. For one, it's much too easy. This was also the problem with the first game from mr. Sokal, Amerzone. Very atmospheric, but, too easy, too short. In Syberia, it's all spelled out for you. "I should get someone to carry my suitcase." So you talk to the first person around, an presto, he carries your case. "I can't go in there, maybe I should find a missing part", that sort of thing. In this case it reminded me of the recently released Road to India (also by Microids/Dreamcatcher) wich is an abysmal game and whould never have reached the shelves. But, Syberia overall is much, much better. First of all, it not that short. Although it's always difficult to estimate gameplay in adventuregames - it all depends on how astute you are - I would say it's 25 hours or so, certainly much less than Exile or Beyond Atlantis.
Syberia is reasonably immersive, although I wonder why mr. Sokal decided to design the game in third person, instead of the much more engaging first person perspective, as in Amerzone, Exile, Journeyman Project etc.
The difficulty-level is, of course, always the problem with adventuregames. Either you target the experienced gamer and put in hard puzzles. Or you target the bigger (and probably more lucrative) market of younger players, but then you'll have to downgrade the difficulty. The latter is evidently the case here. It could have been overcome somewhat though, by giving the option of switching off the hints. It's highly irritating to hear "I don't need to go down there" every two minutes just for trying to open a door. Gameplaywise it's very similar (if not identical) to The Longest Journey, with prerendered landscapes and a little lady running through it. You talk to people, you'll get hints, nudges and pushes and you switch from one area to another.
I would have liked 3D free movement - as we have come to expect from most of the recent games around, like Exile, Beyond Atlantis and the like. In this way, Syberia has not kept up with these dramatic and very important opportunities and innovations. Valadilene, Barrockstadt, Aralbad, the surroundings are truly astounding. But time after time you feel the disappointment of not being able to look around in 3D! What a labour of love has gone into the artwork, but what a waste that I'm no able to zoom in, look closer, explore more...
In a recent interview mr. Sokal promised a 'new gaming experience'. Well, sorry, but a new gaming experience it is certainly not. This is more like a sequel to The Longest Journey, but in a different setting (and much shorter). Graphics, gameplay, it is exactly the same. But TLJ is 5 years old, so you would have expected some evolution in graphics (3D!). Even the tedious conversations from TLJ - a major drawback of that game - are somewhat repeated here. The voiceacting in Syberia is much better though.
The puzzles are all inventorybased, and very, very simple. You don't even need to try all the objects you have - your cursor will change into a cross if it's not right. So in fact, there are no 'real' puzzles to speak of. Just click and see what happens.
The story is compelling, well written, funny, and foremost: moving. You are Kate Walker, a lawyer being send to Europe to handle the takeover of an robot-factory. But, of course, you'll get into unexpected situations. You'll have to fix machines, locate missing people, find hidden parts and so on. It's not very original, but it is certainly entertaining. I wouldn't say exciting, but entertaining, yes.
Soundeffects are extremely good, but I wonder why they didn't put in some more. Ascending a ladder sounds exactly the same as ascending a iron staircase.
The music is very atmospheric, classical. Some money must have gone into the score, but most of the time, there's no music at all and you wander around in utter silence. The main musical themes are certainly dramatic - sad even. As is the storyline overall - beginning with a funeral, and evolving into a familydrama. All in all, a sense of tristesse pervades Syberia, and I like that. The sadness of course reminds a bit of the Myst-series (cultures being whiped out) but in Syberia it's much more done on a human scale. There's humour too, as in Amerzone. The scene with the university rectors made me laugh out loud. Amerzone even makes its way into Syberia, with quite a few cross references. Overall, there are certainly quite a few shortcomings, but they are forgiven, just because the game is such a joy to look at, and I applaud Microids/Dreamcatcher for churning out these games. The adventuregenre has become an endangered species, and I dread the day they wil stop making them. So the four stars are mainly earned by looks, not complexity. Technically, the game ran very smooth, no bugs at all on my system (P3 550mhz, 128mb). So buy it? Yes do. I'm sure you'll enjoy the sheer beauty. But don't get your hopes up too high that this is a second Riven, Journeyman or Atlantis. Anticipate the architectural beauty, not the puzzles.

Absolutely stunning!!! "Game" seems like an insult to it!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 15 / 16
Date: July 25, 2002
Author: Amazon User

From the very moment you place the CD in your CD-Rom drive, you will be fated to play perhaps one of the best games of the year.

But "game" cannot describe what Syberia means to the average player. Kate Walker, a lawyer from New York, is sent to the small French Town of Validelene to bear witness to the taking over of a factory that manufactures robots...(only, don't call them robots...they prefer the term 'automotons') However, upon her arrival she finds out that the original owner of the factory has just died, and that there is an heir which Kate must track down in order to fulfill her mission.

Benoit Sokal has filled Syberia with tons of nuances that make this "game" very memorable, such as Oscar, the automoton sidekick to Kate, and while he's only there to serve as the engineer of Kate's train, the player will begin to wish that they knew Oscar, and care for him. The character's all have distinct voice acting that fits each and every one of them perfectly. No puzzle is too hard, and Kate's personality is explored through the means of her cell phone, and her interaction with the characters that she talks to.

While this may sound like it is my own opnion, (it is shared by many others) I never wanted this game to end, and I wish for a sequel. So I suggest you stop reading this review, ignore the one above, and buy this lovely piece of art! ...

Sheer Genius

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: July 27, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Imagine how you would create a visually compelling canvas backdrop, a unique story line, immense attention to detail in voice acting, movement and motion, and you still would not top this truly gem of a game.

As Schumann said with regard to Chopin's entrance to the musical society in the early 1800's, "Hats off. A Genius"!

That is how I feel about all involved with this wonderful new addition to the genre. It is an "instant classic".

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!

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!

its just the best

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 8
Date: August 09, 2002
Author: Amazon User

...this is one of the intresting quests ever made even better than the longest journey
syberia is one of the bests quests i ever play
it has a very intresting story that make you play all night
if its may seemed easy to you at start so just wait and you see whats happen when you have 7 diffrent places to go even that this is only the the first city and belive me if you buy the game you'l never regret couse its a great with great graphics that make the game better

Magical Mystery Tour

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: August 23, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Great adventure with no shoot-em-ups. Action required to move to next step made perfect sense, acting of characters was superb, and the visual is exquisite. I can't wait for a sequel.

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!

Beautiful, touching, enchanting

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 20 / 20
Date: September 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

_Syberia_ is a third-person, story- and inventory-based adventure of the best kind: there are no timed sequences, no mazes, no threats to life and limb and no incomprehensible underwater manoeuvres, but there is a lovely and engaging story peopled by real characters and punctuated by puzzles that make sense and are not so difficult as to be frustrating.

You play Kate Walker, an American Lawyer who has been sent to the Alps town of Valadilene to negotiate the final buy-out of the once-famed Voralberg Automaton fatory by a multi-national toymaking conglomerate. Once there, however, you find that the factory owner has died and the factory now belongs to an eccentric recluse whom no one has seen in about fifty years. You job is to find the recluse and seal the deal.

The first thing that struck me about _Syberia_ is that it is without a doubt the most beautiful game I have ever had the pleasure to play. The backgrounds are stunning, from the Art Nouveau architecture of Valadilene to the industrial Kolmkozgrad. The character animation, based on motion-capture, is without a doubt the most realistic I have ever seen, giving every character lifelike mannerisms and body language. The amount of detail is unbelievable, featuring birds flying and leaves blowing through scenes, water rippling and clouds moving across the sky. You really get the sense that you're in a real place and living a real experience. As I knew that _Syberia_ was designed by Benoit Sokal, the designer of _Amerzone_, another game that struck me with its beauty, I was expecting _Syberia_ to be pretty. But the reality of it still blew me away.

The sound is also quite good. Each location has its own musical motif, which is beautifully orchestrated but not over-used. Most of your gameplay is accompanied by silence interspersed with well-synchronized f/x -- footsteps on cobblestones, dripping water, or birdsong, for example. I really liked that, because I sometimes find that repetitive music in games interferes with my concentration. The voice acting was above average, with only one character who couldn't seem to settle on which nationality he actually was and several who were truly well done.

As far as gameplay goes, _Syberia_ was on the easy side. By that I mean that it was always pretty clear where you needed to go and what you needed to do; there were none of the leaps in logic that tend to send gamers running for a strategy guide because that's the only place to find out what in the world the programmers intended. The puzzles were generally inventory based or conversation based (meaning that you had to have the right piece of a conversation to advance). I appreciated that the conversations were succinct and free from the mindless repetition that plagues some games. A couple puzzles seemed a little contrived, and one at least could only be solved (as far as I was ever able to determine) by randomly running through your options. Most, however, required about the level of thought and ingenuity you might expect to have to apply if you really were Kate Walker and really did have to deal with the situation. While this did lower the level of challenge (after all, you want her to succeed, don't you?) it added to the realistic nature of the game.

Gameplay was a little bit linear, with it being necessary to accomplish certain puzzles in order to open up certain avenues of exploration. For the most part, however,it didn't matter in what order you explored those avenues. The plot veered off in kind of an unexpected direction about two thirds of the way through, but managed to find itself and do a pretty decent job of bringing all the loose ends together by the end.

I really got to care about the characters in a way that is unusual for me. I cringed whenever Kate's cell phone rang, wondering what crisis from home was coming now (and often having all too good an idea of what it would be!) I felt real sadness for former diva Helena Rochinski and I cheered at Kate's ultimate decision about her life. My only real complaint about _Syberia_ is that it was too short! I finished it under 20 hours, about half the time it took me to get through _The Longest Journey_, which it resembled.

In my book, _Syberia_ is the best game of the year. Play it.

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.

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