Posted July 02, 2010
A great story, this is what Syberia is. The story of a girl looking for her destiny in a strange but fantastic world, a world that is ancient and futuristic at the same time. Beautiful graphics, wonderful soundtrack and some memorable characters, who you know more through letters, newspaper clippings and conversations with other characters than talking directly to them.
Syberia is like a movie. Its realistic graphics contribute to that. But that's not the only reason. The game may be a little slow -you must read a lot at some points to learn about the plot- but as a compensation, the game is rather easy. There are not real puzzles, you won't get stuck more than, say, twenty minutes. The actions you must do are so obvious that more than one time (and two) you will solve something even before knowing that you need to solve it. Also, when a new important "door" opens, you don't need to go back to the rest of the game places even if you can, because it becomes clear that you will find all the clues in this new situation without walking so much. This makes the action faster and lets you enjoy the real goal of the game: its story.
Another good thing about Syberia as an adventure is its gameplay. You won't never carry more than three or four objects at a time (she is a human!), and there is no possibility of using one of the items of your inventory with the others, which avoids that annoying ritual of most adventures when you don't know what to do. The places where you can use objects in the world are showed clearly without any effort, so there is not any pixel hunting. I mean, the objective of the game is not making you think a lot or annoy you with a difficult interface or a complex gameplay. You can just enjoy the plot while you advance through it. This kind of game needs a name as an adventure subgenre. "Film adventure", maybe.
Comparisons between this Syberia and The longest journey are unavoidable, but they are very different games, although both of them are based on a solid script and a similar environment and both of them have a girl as the main character.
Wether or not you are a classic adventure player, you should try this game. You will notice significant differences between Syberia and other adventures if you are a Lucasfilm kind of player (as I am), but you will enjoy it anyway. Don't try to compare, just relax and play. You will remember this journey all your life.
Syberia is like a movie. Its realistic graphics contribute to that. But that's not the only reason. The game may be a little slow -you must read a lot at some points to learn about the plot- but as a compensation, the game is rather easy. There are not real puzzles, you won't get stuck more than, say, twenty minutes. The actions you must do are so obvious that more than one time (and two) you will solve something even before knowing that you need to solve it. Also, when a new important "door" opens, you don't need to go back to the rest of the game places even if you can, because it becomes clear that you will find all the clues in this new situation without walking so much. This makes the action faster and lets you enjoy the real goal of the game: its story.
Another good thing about Syberia as an adventure is its gameplay. You won't never carry more than three or four objects at a time (she is a human!), and there is no possibility of using one of the items of your inventory with the others, which avoids that annoying ritual of most adventures when you don't know what to do. The places where you can use objects in the world are showed clearly without any effort, so there is not any pixel hunting. I mean, the objective of the game is not making you think a lot or annoy you with a difficult interface or a complex gameplay. You can just enjoy the plot while you advance through it. This kind of game needs a name as an adventure subgenre. "Film adventure", maybe.
Comparisons between this Syberia and The longest journey are unavoidable, but they are very different games, although both of them are based on a solid script and a similar environment and both of them have a girl as the main character.
Wether or not you are a classic adventure player, you should try this game. You will notice significant differences between Syberia and other adventures if you are a Lucasfilm kind of player (as I am), but you will enjoy it anyway. Don't try to compare, just relax and play. You will remember this journey all your life.