I am usually not into adventure games likes this, but Myst3 was the first one where puzzles and graphics were good enough to keep me interested. The storyline was so so and in the end, it took me a while to try another one. Syberia, was supposed to be the latest and greatest of genre. Pictures looked awesome, the press loved it and the price is right too ...

The skinny on Syberia

Before I am going to highlight each feature of the game in detail, I will start with the most important ... the verdict. Afterall, you might have read about the game already ...

After about 1 month of occasional playing (due to limited time available), I am still fascinated by the graphics and the story line, which is close to watching an interactive movie. The camera is static and still it looks like cut scenes from a movie. That and the nicely rendered graphics are the main similarities to Myst3. Everything else is at least a notch up. Still, either game insists on a CD in the drive to be able to play it. This kind of dongle is unfortunately very common these days, as the game can be installed completely on the computer ans still require the CD. However, at least on can choose to install just a minumum to free up disk space. The juggeling of the 2 CDs kept to a minimum in Syberia. Something one could not say about Myst3.

System requirements are in line with the kind of graphics (static) and even though a 16MByte graphic card is officially required it's running basically fine on my 8MByte ATI Rage 128. I know, should be retired from gaming but my laptop is from before powerful chips made their way into mobile computing. The 600MHz PIII is keeping up well though, mainly due to the 256MByte RAM -- of which Syberia seems to use every little bit. I am running XP Home.

Judging from an underpowered system, the only bug I have encountered so far may be just due to such insufficiency. When reaching a point where the game plays a longer video scene, it would exit immediately. Problem is sort of fixed when pressing ESC in just the right moment to skip right to the next scene. The video can be played separately and when doing so I have no problem with it. This issues seems to be limited to Barockstadt though. Good thing, since especially Komkolzgrad and Aralbad have extensive 'videos' to play. A Grande Finale for sure.

Anyway, as mentioned already the games graphics are awesome and even the videos are nicely done. Everything looks and feels as a unit. The sounds are sampled in very high quality and character animation is average in the game and excellent during the cut scenes.

A little flaw is the extensive backtracking necessary to solve one puzzle and continue to the next. With that in mind, the fact that each meter has to be walked by Kate is basically the biggest negative point I can think of when describing the game. Even though, one can choose between walking and running, especially steps slow the main character excessively down. Enough to make one think whether she is much older than her looks suggests.

Due to the nature of the puzzles and the streamlined story, the replay value is with in expectations ... in other words: low. Once a puzzle has been solved there is no incentive to go try it again. ... a basic 'flaw' of the genre. The streamlined story is greatly supported by hints, but also just leaves one solution. That's actually a positiv for me as I need that kind of help. On the other hand, one will not pick this up again and try a different route.

The music is appropriate and never too annoying. In fact, it's well suited for each scene. The puzzles are old fare (in a positive way) and of medium difficulty. Dialogs hint the next step or the missing link to get there. I only found it 2 times so far that I could not solve it without consulting the user forum. (I.e. in Barockstadt to raise the water lever one needs to type in 41* which I could not find any hint despite looking for it.)

Everything goes nicely together and voices as well as sounds in general are of high quality. With one exception, some characters speak a strange mix of German, Russian and what else. Not that it bothers the player normally, but I know both languages enough to feel confused and amused at the same time. (Such characters are translated in the game to English) Subtitles are available in English only.

All in all this is a great game for the genre and a nice break from all the shooting games. Here now the details on the game and story ...

The game's characters

Kate Walker ... is the main character of the game and as such, the player guides her to solve many puzzles. The name could not have been more appropriate, as she indeed walks a lot.

Kate has been sent by her New York law firm to represent the American multinational, the Universal Toy Company. She is thirty years old and has a rather reserved and terse manner about her. She finds herself in at the deep end of an adventure against her better judgment. Her physical appeal lies less in sexiness than in elegance, through the things she does and the way she dresses as well as in the slightly detached way she deals with people and situations.

Psychologically, she is a romantic intellectual who is caught between two contradictory instincts – on the one hand, her consummate professionalism, and on the other, her wonder at the encounters she makes during her journey. Her epic journey back in time across the endless Russian plateaus is a voyage of discovery for her which may well reveal a hidden part of herself

Oscar ... first needs to be found and assembled. The latte because he is a highly perfected automaton, created by the Voralberg factory and designed by Hans. He accompanies and guides Kate on her journey. He is the train engineer but also doubles as the sleeping car conductor. It could be said that he is a stereotype headwaiter – he inflexibly abides by the rules and conventions of his profession. A natural nitpicker, he applies regulations to the letter. Physically, his stiff gait does little to shed the rather snobbish vibe he gives off.

Anna Voralberg ... is a noble lady of a bygone age who devoted herself wholeheartedly to her family and its business. Anna is Hans Voralberg's eldest sister, the one that replaced their mother who died so young. She feels a great love for her brother, a love that is reciprocated despite the distance between them. Brother and sister have remained in contact and have developed their immense complicity.

Hans Vorarlberg ... was born on February 9, 1920 in Valadilene, into a respectable family of artisans. When only young, Hans had his destiny carved out for him. On May 13, 1930, he chanced upon a cave decorated with rupestrian paintings representing several unknown animal species as well as a man riding a mammoth. From that moment onwards, Hans became transfixed by the pachyderm. As he continued his investigation of the cave, the boy fell, striking his head hard on the ground. An accident he never completely recovered from.

The game's story

The lawyer Kate Walker has been entrusted by the Universal Toy Company to negotiate the takeover of an old luxury toy and automaton factory. Over the centuries, the factory has been developing clockwork devices, specializing in perpetual mechanical movement. The factory's ambitions, however, are ill-suited to the contemporary economic climate, and the elderly Anna Voralberg, at the helm of the Valadilene factory for more than half a century, has decided to sell up.

It turns out that the takeover might not be as straightforward as expected. The day that Kate Walker arrives, Anna Voralberg is being buried. What is more is that she has left an heir – her brother Hans. But Hans had left the valley at the end of the thirties and never returned, and was actually believed to be dead.

However, a letter written by Anna in the days leading up to her death reveals that Hans is well and truly alive and living somewhere in… Siberia! Valadilene's elderly notary entrusted to take care of Anna's affairs suggests that Anna find Hans Voralberg as he is now the only person in a position to ratify the sale of the family business. The player will take on the role of the heroine, Kate Walker, as she sets out on her long journey eastwards, encountering cities along the way bearing the mark of Hans' genius, cities that still exude the bygone days of the twentieth century in so many different ways.

The Game's World

... is located in 4 different locations: Valadilene, Barockstadt, Komolzgrad, and Aralbad. Either is relatively big and with several puzzles to solve before being able to progress to the next world. Either one sports awesome graphics by Benoit Sokal, and each a mix of Old World architecture and Phatasia-style ornaments.

Valadilène ... is located in a deep alpine valley. For centuries its only economic activity of note has been the production of luxury mechanical toys – steam engines, wind-up trains, automatons, etc. The craft of toy making has been passed on from generation to generation and over time has reached astonishing degrees of sophistication. The town’s fame for wizardry once spread far beyond the crests of the valley. Unfortunately, with the modernization of the economy it was unable to compete and its technology gradually became obsolete. Valadilène is now largely forgotten and cut off from the outside world. Its inhabitants, however, have not remained idle. They have perfected their knowledge in unimaginable ways, particularly in the realm of clockwork machinery capable of perpetual motion. The death of Anna Voralberg strikes a terrible blow for Valadilène. People are fearful that the disappearance of this formidable woman has sounded the death knell for the remnants of Valadilene's industrial production and that the rich fount of knowledge accumulated over centuries by the Voralberg family will disappear with her.

Barrockstadt ... is most notable for its unusual station. The station building is in fact a huge aviary devoted to the cultivation and breeding of a whole host of rare and exotic bird and plant life.
The heart and soul of the town, however, is its University. Barrockstadt is like Valadilene, historically and geographically cut off from the present and from the rest of the world. Its inhabitants' obsessive preoccupations do little to alter the town's isolation, while the University students make no effort to lift their noses out of their books and could not be bothered about Kate or her questions.
The Barrockstadt wall stands at the frontier between East and West and is guarded by Captain Malatesta. The twentieth century is still very much in evidence in this university town. Prominent too are a whole host of fantastic mechanisms, testimony to Hans Voralberg's passage through the town.

Komkolzgrad ... was intended to be the perfect reconstruction of Communist ideology and is now just the sombre side of an unrealized dream turned nightmare. Approaching it, one sees a dark cloud hanging over the city and several protuding buildings. The city is built around its mine and factory. Its sole inhabitant is its half-crazed director Sergueï Borodine. He is a fanatical music lover and has converted the factory's chimney stacks into one giant organ. When visiting Komkolzgrad, the neighboring space compound is a must-see, and you are bound to bump into the cosmonaut Boris Charov, a colorful character with a penchant for vodka. Since Hans' mechanical flying-wing invention was shelved and his pilot dreams shattered, he has drowned his sorrows in alcohol.

Aralbad ... was a famous spa town where dignitaries of the Communist régime would come for treatment and entertainment. The Hotel Kronski was one of the jewels in its crown and wore its sumptuous decor with pride. Its pier is a true work of art - a reminder of Aralbad's glorious and carefree past. It was even designed with small terraces and protruding jetties along its length so that bathers and divers could take to the water or that pleasure boats could land. Once again, Hans has left traces of his extraordinary genius around the town in the form of his trademark devices. Today the sea has retreated completely from the Aralbad shore, leaving the pier at the mercy of the salt and sand and buffeting winds. The landscape is now bleak. All that remains, beached on gray sands, are the empty husks of boats devoured by rust and desolation.

Interested? Go check it out. It's cetainly worth 30 bucks ...
Need more info? Check out www.syberia.info!

Recommended: Yes