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As a gamer who has played through countless shooters, RPGs, and platform games, I had started to grow weary of games. There really wasn’t any thing interesting coming out anymore. How many times could I be satisfied with saving the world and killing monsters? I needed a game that gave me an incredible experience that didn’t revolve around killing enemies. Surprise, surprise the answer came in the form of an adventure game, which the genre had considered to be dead and buried. Syberia comes through with its stop and smell the roses environment. This game has renewed my faith in the adventure genre and even the game industry itself.
Syberia is an old fashion adventure game where you play the protagonist, Kate Walker, who is a lawyer from New York who has been sent to a quaint village in France to arrange a takeover of a small automaton factory to a major toy company. But things go wrong as the owner of the factory dies and in her will leaves the factory to her brother, who has long thought to be dead. Here Kate has to embark on a journey around Europe to find this brother to seal the deal over the takeover of the factory. Along the journey she will meet really interesting characters like a self aware mechanical robot, a drunken Russian cosmonaut and countless others. You will also visit many exotic locations like a tropical jungle inside a railway station, a mechanical factory, and even a luxurious hotel snuggled away inside a valley.
This game is for the casual gamer since the puzzles are not frustrating. I finished this game mostly without a walkthrough. If you have a lot of patience in checking every single scene for clues then you shouldn’t have any problems in beating this game. The graphics are gorgeous. The prerendered backgrounds of the beautiful European landscapes remind me of the paintings from the Renaissance era. The music of the game features classical violin music which fits the tone of the game. The artwork has been rendered with care and thought.
The only drawback I can think of, is the length. The game is too short and left me wanting more. I finished it in around 8 hours. But then again the game only costs around $20 which is its suggest retail price so I think I got my money’s worth.
The storyline makes up the best part of this game. While the adventure itself was worthwhile, this game is one of the few that lets the player explore the protagonist. As I went deeper and deeper into the game, I felt a strong connection to Kate Walker and really felt that I was really in her world when she is confronted with family problems and I really liked the ending, which I will not reveal, since it would spoil the game for you.
Yes you won’t find space aliens, zombies to battle with in this game. Instead you are confronted with realistic characters and an adventure that is more about self exploration then the adventure itself. If you hate novels and you prefer shooting than exploring then this is not the game for you. This game has shown me that the game industry has not run out of ideas and that games are not for immature geeks who have a wet dream of some heroine in tight shorts and big boobs. Kate Walker is a sophisticated lady who I think the game industry should model after when creating a female protagonist. If you enjoy a well crafted storyline and want something different then go spend your $20 on this game and let some culture enter your lives. -- Byron Pham, PGNx Media
---- Sep 21, 2002
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