My wife and I started playing Syberia last night (the XBox version). I expect it to get better, but my first impressions are a little disappointing.
The writing seems somehow sub-standard. I’m not sure yet why. Maybe it’s the word choice, and the way the NPC’s are expressing things (especially in written-letter form). Was it translated from French, maybe?
This is made worse by wooden voice-acting. The last three games we played were Indigo Prophecy, The Longest Journey, and Dreamfall (TLJ 2). Maybe my expectations for voice-acting are just too high now. Thinking back to prior games – Monkey Island 4, Still Life, Broken Sword 3 – the actors in Syberia just don’t seem very enthusastic.
I know this first part is setting up the story and mood, but it seems kind of… still and boring. I don’t expect big action right away, but there are times when it’d be nice if it was all more immersive… okay, example. When I first called “my boss” on Kate’s cell phone, she was just standing in the hotel, with nothing happening around her. She didn’t go sit down or anything. When it rang later – two calls, actually – she was just walking down the street. She stops (in the middle of the street), with absolutely nothing happening around her, and has a conversation. I’m just looking at a screen with her standing still. If this was Dreamfall, there would be things going on in the background, she’d sit or lean, she’d at least move and give some sign of life.
I have to think the PC version was better in the graphics department, too. It’s not that the graphics are bad – they’re just… lifeless, somehow. And the XBox resolution just doesn’t seem good enough to handle the tiny text on the faxes Kate receives. I had to walk over to the TV – and it’s a fairly new 32" one – to try to make out the blurry gibberish on the pages.
So far, we met with the Notary and have entered the gate to the factory. We’re just getting started. These disappointments aren’t enough to deter us, but I hope it gets better.
We got around to playing an hour or two more last night, and the experience was better. I didn’t find the voice acting so lame, and I found that the left and right triggers will zoom in and out of viewing documents and letters, which makes it far easier to read. Some new locations we found were really pretty, making me appreciate the graphics more then before. It looks like it’ll be a worthwhile game after all.
I’m reviving this 17-year-old thread because I can. I played through the first ~2/3s of Syberia.
This game is absolutely crazy. It is a game about someone who creates brilliant machines. However the game itself functions like a bad machine with extremely slow walking speeds, hotlinks that only sometimes highlight, and tables and room corners that you never knew existed.
The icing on the cake is that, after solving moon logic puzzles with your own wits (or, if you’re me, a walkthrough), you have to deal with a bureacratic robot automaton that sends you on countless menial backtracking missions. Contrary to the OP’s comments on voice acting, I am deeply sympathizing with Kate Walker’s voice actress’ frustrated voice acting here.
It’s a good thing it looks so good and the story is so intriguing, because I am genuinely invested in it. But I have to watch a Let’s Play instead… I’m sorry, I can’t keep playing.
Btw, the reason I own this is because it shares a developer/publisher and voice actress with Return to Mysterious Island (or rather its sequel), which I enjoyed.
I also wanted to note that Syberia’s cell phone puzzles are kind of interesting. One of the first puzzles in the game requires you to figure out you need to call a number on a document. This is a necessity because you don’t really have much of an inventory to work with.
After that, it’s kind of downhill from there as things move toward object-placement and object-combination puzzles.
Then in the third act, the game tries to pull off an even more complicated cell phone puzzle. I had given up at this point, but it’s quite fun to watch this longplayer’s epiphany starting at 18:04.
Honestly, the game would be better if it went all-in on you playing a mergers-and-acquisitions lawyer, getting rid of all of the inventory management. Instead make 90% of the game involve reading documents (it wants you do that already) and calling the right people at the right time.
Further watching the longplay, there is a third cell phone puzzle where you have to call a bartender to get a drink recipe. That phone number is listed on a directory of hotels, and you have to deduce from conversation that he is at a certain hotel.
I think this is a pretty good approach to puzzles, but the fact that these cell phone puzzles only happen three times in the game means that they come out of left field.
The fact that 90% of the time you are passively receiving calls rather than making calls also discourages the player from using the phone, because it seems like a burden rather than a tool.
This does however line up with one of the themes of the game, which is Kate’s self-volition and desire for adventure, versus the fact that these tasks are being imposed on her. (The degree of one’s autonomy also extends to the machines in the game, hence the game’s insistence on the word “automaton” rather than “robot”, probably, even though the words “autonomy” and “autonomy” aren’t really related).
Another thing that makes the cell phone puzzles frustrating (in theory) is the fact that European phone numbers don’t use dashes, so any number in a document is not necessarily recognizable as a phone number. However, only the first and third puzzles involve dialing; the second involves the phone’s memory, so this isn’t really a problem.
Aside: You do “need” to read documents for other reasons — not just the above cell phone puzzles. In one part of the game, you need to read a document to find out what color a set of robot automaton legs needs to be. But a few options are very similar, so I had to solve that puzzle through trial and error.
In another part, a document indicates that birds eat a certain type of berry, but that berry is the only thing in your inventory that that the birds might be remotely interested in. Which means that reading that document isn’t really necessary.
Ah, Syberia, the memories… all bad ones xD Me and my brother were all like, weeee point and clicks are back! And then, boom, exactly all the points that the OP makes above. The robot that sounded like a wannabe C3PO. The very lame puzzles. It was all very boring in a sort of snotty way, while the game kept telling you, hah, I’m so funny and whimsical! No you’re not, game. You’re an attempt at a highbrow take on what Lucasarts did with pulpy glee, before you, better than you. You’re like Sartre reenacting a Marx Bros gag.
Gosh, we were so disappointed, I now realize Syberia is where I personally gave up on the whole genre. Apologies for the passion here, but this game was an epoch-making disappointment for teenaged Victor, a kid who was very much into games as story, when the notion was extremely novel (at least in my social circle of the time).
I just want to feed the zombie by adding my perspective quickly. Although I agree with the technical shortcomings of the game (although I played it with some high-res mods which made it look really good), I think Syberia is a game you have to play while wrapped in a warm blanket and with a cup of hot tea/chocolate, and just kinda pass the time with it. It’s not groundbreaking in any way and it won’t make you gasp of excitement, but it slowly grows on you until you can’t help but smile and feel good. Like and old movie from the 80’s that reminds you of your childhood.
And I personally absolutely love the voice acting. Thanks for reminding me!
And I personally absolutely love the voice acting. Thanks for reminding me!
I really like Oscar’s voice, even though it’s just a rip-off of C-3PO. I think it is probably filtered a bit more, so it sounds more like C-3PO than the real one does.
