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Awful!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 18
Date: December 11, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game is boring. You just walk around with no action and do corny puzzles like finding a key just to make a bell ring and in real life you could just ring it normally or yell.

Not a Page Turner

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 9
Date: September 20, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I read the reviews about this game and expected an experience similar to the Myst series. The graphics are beautiful throughout this game and the voice acting is as good as it can be with the material provided; however, it falls short in too many other areas for it to be called "fun." The storyline is somewhat intriquing, but definitely not a page turner. The characters are lifeless and uninteresting. Even the main character, Kate Walker, is a bore. The "puzzles" throughout the game are mindless and, for the most part, lack logic. You might be better off reading a good mystery novel.

Don't believe the HDTV propaganda

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: November 14, 2003
Author: Amazon User

If you run Syberia at 1080i or 720p the game shrinks instead of increasing in detail. I can't believe this isn't called out in other reviews, but I'm pretty sure I'm doing nothing wrong here- I have a very standard setup. I have the XBox High definition AV pack and changed the XBox settings to turn on 720p and 1080i. Even after monkeying around with various options on my HDTV TV the only result I could get was a tiny game screen in the middle and a big black area all around the edge. I personally feel really gipped and wouldn't have bought the game had I known. The only way the game is playable is at 480p, and at that resolution it's very hard to read the text in notes and such.

My second complaint is that the game is of the annoying throwback variety where you aren't playing 1st or 3rd person, instead you're guiding a person around a flat drawing, like in phantasmagoria. Personally I find that to be lame, as you can't walk up to something and inspect it (and at 480p, that's extremely crippling). I was hoping for 11th hour except in high definition and with a first or third person viewpoint- what I got was a low resolution throwback.

Summary: The PC version is decent even if it feels like it was written in 1995, but avoid the console versions at all costs. They just don't work on a TV screen, and HDTV is there in name only.

Atrocious controls

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: June 30, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Maybe this isn't an issue on the PC version, but I'm just about ready to stop playing this game on the Xbox because the controls are so annoying. I don't enjoy pacing back and forth across the floor (when I can even get the character to stop standing in place while I wiggle the joystick) trying to find the one spot on the floor in the left half of the big open room that will switch the view over to the right half of the big open room. Try to walk down the road in the initial town by staying on the sidewalk and you'll get nowhere -- if you don't walk exactly in the middle of the street you'll get stuck in one place. And make sure you release the joystick whenever you walk from one place to another, since chances are the camera angle will change and you'll end up turning around and going back where you came from before you realize it. This is a very pretty game, and the story seems like it might be interesting, but it's like reading an engrossing novel that's been translated into Pig Latin. Not worth the pain.

Very disappointing

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: November 12, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I thought this game was slow and boring. The controls were ackward and movement was difficult. The scenery was detailed, but I spent more time looking around than actually doing anything. I can't really say what was specifically lacking. I thought it was uninteresting, hard to manuver through, and rather dull. I played it for a few days, hoping something about it would grab me, but nothing every did.

Visually Stunning but Lacking Adventure

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 04, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Let me just start off with a positive by saying, the graphics in this game are quite a sight to see. The scenes and environment are beautifully constructed.

The most important quality of this game, however, is missing: Adventure. The story is actually quite dull and the main character is neither heroic nor compelling in any manner. The few puzzles that exist are not challenging, interesting or exciting but they take a long time to complete (and it seems like it takes longer than it actually does because they are so boring). I did play this game the whole way through but only because I have always had to start what I finish. The ending was a dissapointment and really wasn't an ending at all; it was a middle and a prompt for you to buy the second game. No thank you; I will not put myself through the dissapointment again.

I would suggest borrowing or renting this game if you have a lot of free time and have no other adventures to go on. Although I did not enjoy this game in the least bit, it is always good to find out for yourself what you do or do not like.

Are we there yet?

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: December 27, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I got this because I was looking for a game like Myst - which I thoroughly enjoyed. I probably should give Syberia two stars, but I really want to like it and I hope that others might enjoy it more than I do.

It's a whole lot like Myst, but in these kinds of games, there's a fine line between challenge and tedium. Like Riven, (in my opinion) Syberia seems way on the side of tedium.

There's also a fine line between addiction and compulsion. I find that I'm compelled to finish the game, but I'm not really enjoying it. The scenery is very nice, and the artistry is impressive, but it's 2-dimensional and I must admit that Myst-level graphics simply aren't awe-inspiring anymore.

I keep thinking that I should be cleaning the basement instead of playing the game and think occasionally that cleaning the basement would be less work and more satisfying.

You'll see the graphics a lot as you are running back and forth and back and forth and back and forth trying to solve the simple (good) and tedious (not so good) puzzles. When frustrated, the graphics don't seem so charming anymore.

There's also way too much boring dialog. You'll get interrupted by cell phone calls and hear long, dumb conversations from the main character's husband, mother and friend. You can skip through them, but it's hard to know what's important to the game and what's not.

It's the same with various characters that you run across in your travels. Many of them are useless to either the story or the game, which isn't too bad, but they're not entertaining and talk too long.

Moving around is also a problem. Syberia was obviously adapted from a mouse setup to the Xbox gamepad, and it doesn't work very well. It's harder to find things and the direction of travel changes from scene to scene. If you're not careful, you'll find yourself going back into the scene you just left.

The character also just got stuck so that it can't move. Since I hadn't saved the game in a while, I now have to go back and redo a lot of tedious stuff. It will take a good half hour to get through what I've lost, even though I know what to do.

If you have a LOT of time and REALLY like Myst, you'll probably enjoy this game. The creators obviously put a lot into it. I think these kinds of games should be reviewed and edited by a lot of real people before they go to market. A healthy bit of editing would have probably made a huge difference.

Recommendations: 1) Get hints from the web 2) In the game, ask all the questions of everybody 3) Get familiar with the X button and the B button - the first will make you run instead of walk and the second will skip through dialog.

Awful console port of a decent adventure game

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: October 28, 2007
Author: Amazon User

There aren't too many developers who can botch the very basics of walking down a wide cobblestone street. Somehow the dolts at Microids managed. Buried somewhere in all the invisible path blockages, incongruent camera angles, and asinine random button press "puzzles" may be a good game. And you may be better off playing it on the PC.

I really wanted to like Syberia on the Xbox. For one thing, it looks fantastic on a large HDTV that can accept 720p. While they made a weird decision to letterbox the picture AFTER cropping it 4x3, it still looks great in high-res on a big tube. The environments, which are mostly non-interactive static backgrounds, look beautiful. And the sound effects and character voices sparkle. You can draw every conversation out to a short story if desired, or cut it off and get on with the mission. The story path in relation to conversation is nearly flawless; I don't remember a single bad lead from another character.

Physical interaction with the environment, though, is torture. Pathways are blocked off independantly of visible objects. A footpath may die at a brick wall, or ten feet short of it. The only indication of an environmental limit is the sudden unresponsiveness of main character Kate. On more than one occasion this resulted in the inexcusable "stuck" phenomenon. Throw in the tendency of Kate to twirl in an opposite direction during camera seams, or the M C Escher-ish tendency of adjacent environments to not synch up spatially, and it often seems as if tiny goblins have hijacked your controller.

The puzzles range from logical spatial reasoning or process-of-elimination types, to utterly senseless tasks of random object placement. The more difficult puzzles illustrate not the developer's cleverness but rather their total lack of understanding of mechanical principles. For example, the solution to one problem of a darkened hallway is to place a spark plug, yes an automotive SPARK PLUG, in a spinning contraption that somehow creates electrical power to a supply line. Seeing it is still not believing it. This is particularly glaring in a game that features ornate mechanical workings (the "automatons" of the Voralberg family) as a primary theme. And don't get me started on the musical drink mixer. It infuriates me to think that the designer of that little jewel probably considered himself very ingenious due to all the gamers he would stump. Jackass.

Based on this review, it may seem that Syberia is unplayable on the Xbox. No, it's actually still very amusing with a healthy dose of patience and an online FAQ nearby to help navigate the inevitable stuck points. It's just preferably played on the PC.

I would call it an interactive novel

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: February 23, 2004
Author: Amazon User

You can immediately tell that there was a lot of dedication and effort put into this adventure game; the graphics are outstanding, animation is realistic, the dialogue, both verbal and subtitled was translated in several languages including Spanish, German, French and Italian (and Blue Cheese!)

You are in control of Kate Walker, a young lawyer that has a very specific agenda of signing a deal for her company to acquire a long-established automaton factory located in Valadilene, France. What seemed liked a straightforward, ordinary business transaction becomes an unexpected quest in search for a legendary man, known as Hans Voralberg.

The plot is intriguing, it succeeds in grabbing your attention, and the adventure unfolds in a very dramatic and cinematic way, but it doesn't really fulfils the expectations for people who are looking for a challenge.
The game seems more like an interactive novel where you unveil the plot as you progress, than it is a true adventure game. Some puzzles are there to give it a sense of challenge, but the linear approach of it made them very simple to figure out.

The dialog is remarkable, and there is plenty of it in this game. A negative side about it is that in between the entire dialog there are important clues for the adventure, so it is unavoidable to go through all of it in order to progress. There's a button available to skip the dialog, although I would suggest against doing that as there are many instances where the dialog is not repeated.

4 stars for a great effort, and for the overall entertainment value, I took one star out for the lack of a true challenge.

Don't Fight the Addiction, It Only Makes it Stronger

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: October 18, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Once I picked up this game, I couldn't put it down! The storyline is beautiful, with all of the central characters (the Voralberg family) initially shouded in mystery. By the end of the game, I almost felt as if I personally knew Hans Voralberg .

The puzzles, though simple, are seemlessly integrated and completely locigal within the context of the game's universe.
All of the characters are lovable. Even the people you know you shouldn't like, you do. Some of the dialogue gets repetative and can be a little bit out of character at times, but the storyline and the dialogue between the characters is fantasticly written, humorus at the appropriate places, and just plain fun. Towards the beginning, an elderly man says "sit down my dear, so that we may simply enjoy the air together." I found that to be poetic, which reflects the game in its entirety - poetic.
And the clockwork mechanisms, the focal point of the game, are ingeniously cool.

I savor every cutscene in this game. They're beautiful, with the almost requiem ambiance. That also applies to all of the locations in the game...all four of them.

That brings me to the bad news. If you're a pretty good problem solver, you'll breeze through the meager four levels easily (about eight hours). This goes hand-in-hand with the main problem I had with the game - the ending. Don't worry, I won't spoil anything, or at least I'll try not to. If you want you can stop reading now!

As you play the game, you are building up the character of the man you are trying to find (Hans) in your head. Where is he now? What is he doing? Has he accomplished his life's goals? Why is he the way he is? Because of this, you also build up this expectation of how the game will end, which would seem like the most logical conclusion. However, because the game is so short, so is your journey, and thus the game just sort of ends. Where it ends, I won't say, but its seems so out of place, so WRONG, that you'll positively swear that there's been some sort of mistake. You'll simply convince yourself that there's more gameplay after the credits. You'll have a lot of questions at the end, and there won't be any answers.

Please, please understand that the ending didn't lessen my enjoyment of the rest of the game. I do, in fact, plan to go back and play it again, and I still watch the cutscenes (which are saved on the main menu once you've seen them in game) when I need my Syberia fix.

There's alos a demo of the game available for PC, for those of you who don't believe me when I say how enjoyable this game is. I think it's at: www.syberia.info. The only real differences between the PC version and the Xbox version are:

1. The PC version needs several patches in order to work properly, while the Xbox version is guarenteed to work.
2. The navagation on the Xbox version is slightly more troublesome. For example, rather than hover your mouse over something and select it, you have to physically walk up to it. It makes it a little more difficult, because you actually have to walk around the screen in order to find things instead of 'mouse scanning' the screen until the cursor changes into the action icon!

There you go. I hope that's all you need to know about Syberia to make you buy it...er, I mean, make a decision about buying it!

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