User Reviews (1 - 11 of 224)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Too much hype

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 7
Date: March 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Where did all the great ratings come from? Did they actually play Syberia? I found this game a true yawner - over simplistic and dull. I paid 20 dollars, might as well finish it type of game. It should have been named Almost Syberia since you never actually get there without buying the sequel. I now need my own wind up key for a train to oblivian since this game drove me mad.
I believe the Adventure Game developers need to quit wasting their time along with ours and come out with a real 'adventure' game. A game with great graphics, great interaction and mind boggling puzzles (without the use of hint/cheats). I'll pay the extra 10-20 dollars for it!

Many technical problems

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: November 01, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have not been able to play most of the game due to tech problems--Have not been able to save games so have always had to restart game. If problems could be worked out it looks like a fairly good game.

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.

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

Oooh pretty! . . . Is that it?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 9 / 13
Date: March 27, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Everyone is in agreement that Syberia is pretty. The plot is interesting and somewhat original. The game is easy to play. The voice-acting is a step above most adventure games. And so on.

Note, however, that the only reviews which reference the quality of Syberia's puzzles are negative. I played the game about 3/4 through, eventually deciding that there were no impending "challenges." The puzzles can be summed up as follows (and I'm being totally literal):

If you find a lever, pull it
If you find a button, push it
Pick up an item and put it where it obviously belongs

If that isn't easy enough, the NPCs provide unsolicited walkthroughs, and this isn't an option. In other words, there is NO "solving" of puzzles to be had. Some games are aptly characterized as interactive movies, but even that implies some skill or decision-making on the part of the viewer/gamer.

The game may redeem itself in its last quarter, but if you're in it for the puzzles, you'll die of boredom before you get there.

HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 9 / 16
Date: November 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I actually bought this game on the suggestions left here by other people who have played it before. I will have to add to the comments of the simply BEAUTIFUL graphics that leap with texture and color and subtlety. And as interactive artwork, I cannot think of anything as sublime as "Syberia".

As for actual game play, however, it has to be the most boring, inane, futile exercise I have ever had the displeasure of experiencing. It is one of those games where you have to touch EVERYTHING on the screen and use EVERYTHING in your arsenal until you finally get the opportunity to move to another screen. And heaven help you if things are not done in sequence, you will be trapped in these luxurious settings forever until you retrace every single one of your steps and repeat them in the correct order.

When I purchased this game, the seller was kind enough to also enclose printed excplicit instructions on game play, which I assume was downloaded from the net someplace. I am grateful for these instructions because without them, I would have never have figured out how to get out of SEVERAL sequences and I'm sure I would have thrown the game out of the window in frustration. There are certain sequences and puzzles I just cannot fathom someone without explicit instructions figuring out.

I have since completed the entire game and am just all in all displeased with the experience. I would have much rather read a National Geographic, it would have worn much less on my patience.

Syberia -- good backgrounds, bad just about everything else

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 9 / 14
Date: December 29, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Although this game contains beautiful scenery, it is largely a waste of the user's time. I bought this game with the hope of spending time figuring out some puzzles without the usual murder and mayhem. Unfortunately, the head-scratchers in this game are few and far between, and the 3-year-out-of-date-interface and primary character's annoying neurosis made me long for the game's final climax. It took 8 long hours to get there and wasn't even remotely worth it.

This game is supposed to be about a smart, New York lawyer solving a mystery that ends in Siberia. Instead, you never arrive in Siberia, and your character turns out to be a neurotic wreck with serious issues with her mother, best-friend, fiancé, and employer. Not to mention these other extra characters call you during the game constantly, but generally add nothing material to the plot. To top the game's list of issues, she never actually accomplishes her main task: arriving in Siberia. To find out what happens to this doormat of a character Dreamcatcher Interactive actually wants you to buy the sequel.

This game is now a coaster.

boring rehash of a ten year old game.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 18
Date: January 04, 2003
Author: Amazon User

If you've just bought a computer, never played a game before, never heard of the game MYST, and find this game in a dumpster you might just enjoy this ridiculous, boring, overblown, tedious, dimwitted game. Endlessly boring gameplay puncuated by mediocre payoffs with graphics that we've already seen ten years ago. This is what happens when a bunch of graphic artists that understand the subtleties of tic-tac-toe write a game for the masses. If you've already clipped your nails and removed all of your belly-button lint, then you've already had more fun than you'll ever find in this derivative rip off of a classic game that was fun and inventive ten years ago. Waste of time.

What a painful waste of time!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 11
Date: May 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I don't understand how this game gets good reviews. The dialogue is horrible, the characters are unlikeable, and the action is boring. I wish I'd steered clear of this one.

Boring

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 9
Date: November 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I'm not sure where all these great reviews came from. I hoped that this game would help wean me off my addiction to the Her Interactive Nancy Drew games, but it didn't even come close. I thought that moving the character around was clunky and slow, and even when I knew there was a key or something that I needed to pick up or interact with, it took me forever to maneuver around in order to do so. The only good thing I can say about this game is that the scenery was nice to look at. After playing 3-4 times, I gave up entirely.

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

Actions