Syberia Review

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Syberia

Review by JenJuly 2002

Benoit Sokal is a French graphic novelist renowned for his series of Inspector Canardo comics about a hard-drinking, fast-living duck P.I. His earlier game, L’Amerzone, grew out of one of these Inspector Canardo comics, entitled, strangely enough, L’Amerzone, although the game itself bears little resemblance to the graphic novel, stylistically speaking anyway.

In turn, Syberia grew out of the game Amerzone, although really it is completely different both in appearance and in gameplay.  Originally conceived as Amerzone 2, Syberia instead developed into a story of madness and genius, mechanical marvels, and increasing self-awareness on the part of the heroine. Amerzone (the place, not the game) is referenced several times in passing in one of Syberia’s locales, but that’s the extent of the ties between the two games.

Whereas Amerzone was a lonely first-person game, Syberia is played in the third person and contains considerable interaction with other characters. Many a writer has drawn parallels between Syberia and The Longest Journey, and not without good reason. Both games feature women protagonists who explore both their external environments and their innermost selves, both games are a joy to behold, visually speaking, and both have that certain ever-so-rare magical quality that carries the player body and soul into their worlds.

There are some differences as well. The Longest Journey relies heavily on magical and fantastical elements, and Syberia takes place completely in the modern world where all of the magic is manmade and (almost) believable. The story of The Longest Journey was written by a man and Syberia was written by a woman; thus, to my mind anyway, Syberia’s Kate Walker is a slightly better-realized and more plausible young woman than TLJ’s April Ryan. Only slightly …

In Syberia, you play as Kate Walker, a pretty, intelligent but rather vacuous young New York lawyer. You are sent to a small village in France that is home to an aged windup toy manufacturing company, your job being to finalize a deal for your client to purchase this factory. Upon your arrival, however, you find the aged factory owner has just passed on, leaving only a letter indicating the presence of a mysterious brother and heir who had disappeared a great many years ago and was thought to have died as a lad.  Your boss instructs you to hurry up and find the heir and finish the deal, so you set out to find clues to the whereabouts of this Hans Voralberg, who is rumored to be in Siberia, in order to obtain his signature on the contract.

Your journey carries you eastward across Europe, following in Hans’ 60-year-old footsteps, using various interesting modes of transportation. Wherever you travel you encounter sumptuous decay, sad remains of mechanical wonders wrought by Hans, all needing attention to one or two small particulars to return to working order but never quite realizing their former splendor. All the while your boss is hounding you and your personal life is spiraling out of control and yet you are too far from home to exercise any manner of control over these events.

There was one portion of the game where I felt a big fat moral compunction about what I was required to do, and if it were real life I would never have done this thing. Exactly what I feared was going to happen happened … but it all turned out right in the end. Sometimes I wish these game designers would script in an alternative in these areas so we players wouldn’t be forced to do these stupid things. But that’s really beside the point—this is only a game after all, merely a collection of microscopic holes on a plastic disk. Amazing, isn’t it, how such can seem so real …

Syberia’s graphics are vibrantly detailed, incredibly vital. A flight of birds cavorts overhead, the water of a nearby stream ripples and effervesces along its path, a bubbling fountain gives you a moment of cheer … And yet the air is always still. Leaves don’t move, hair doesn’t lift in the breeze. I don’t know whether this was intentional on the part of the artists or merely a technological limitation, but it rang a somehow discordant and unsettling note that lent itself well to the atmosphere of the game.

Syberia is a pure point-and-click adventure with no timed sequences, no action whatsoever, and no mazes. Gameplay occurs over four discrete areas; in most instances once you’ve finished one locale and moved on, you cannot go back again. Puzzles are all straightforward with abundant clues. There is never a need to refer to a walkthrough but the game is not so easy that you don’t feel a sense of accomplishment for successfully completing a task. To my way of thinking, this is the perfect level of difficulty for an adventure game—it is appropriate for novices and experienced adventurers alike.

The music is incredibly good, particularly one sequence where … never mind, I don’t want to ruin the discovery for you. For the most part it is rather sparse, with swelling crescendos from time to time when necessary. In the sound department the game relies largely on realistic effects—for example, your character’s footfalls echo on tile floors, crunch on dried grass, and so on.  The high quality of the voice acting also was a treat for this player, whose previous two game choices were The Watchmaker and Jazz and Faust, both of which scrape deep gouges in the bottom of the barrel in that regard. Syberia’s characters are given voice either by professional actors or talented amateurs who actually lend a bit of personality to their roles instead of merely reading the script aloud.

From madness to mechanics, war machines to windup toys, head wounds to heart wounds, Syberia’s epic tale covers more than half a century in game time and allows you to spend about 15 to 20 of your real hours playing it, or rather almost living it. It is really hard for a run-of-the-mill writer like me to do justice to Syberia in describing it. Ultimately all I can tell you is this: Play it yourself! It is not likely you will be disappointed. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Microids Publisher: Microids Release Date: June 2002

Available for: Windows

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System Requirements

Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP PII 350 MHz (PIII 500 MHz recommended) 64 MB RAM (128 MB recommended) 16X CD-ROM drive (24X recommended) 400 MB free hard drive space (1100+ MB required for full install) 16 MB compatible Direct3D video card (32 MB recommended) DirectX 7 compatible sound card

      Copyright © Electric Eye Productions.  All rights reserved.  No reproduction in whole or in part without express written permission.

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14 Responses to Fear Factor

  • Fear Factor | Tap-Repeatedly.com | Reality Topics Blog

    […] nobody@flickr.com (graftedno1) wrote a very interesting post today.   Here’s a quick excerpt:My greatest fear is to be trapped alone in a confined space with a blind human, in total darkness. They have a heightened sense of smell and hearing, and. […]

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    Lewis, you made me think of the scariest moments I’ve experienced in gaming, and we’re very similar people.

    Bioshock had two moments – the dentist and the flooded room filled with mannequins.

    Thief had Return to the Cathedral, which was terrifying to me. Thief 3 had Shalebridge Cradle, which is so scary it ought to be fined.

    System Shock 2 kept me on the edge of my seat, but it was more lonely panic than true fear.

    Korsakovia was so scary that I uninstalled it.

    And STALKER. Oh, god, the haunted labs in STALKER. The latter two games don’t have scares like that. Few games do.

    It’s especially rare for a game to have more than mere “moments” – for a game to be scary from beginning to end, that’s a triumph.

    Wonderful article. As if Gregg’s review wasn’t enough to convince me that Penumbra is not something I have the courage to play!

  • DPenn

    I’m with you Lewis … I’m a bit of a puss. I just have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of dread as entertainment.

    Still, I’m drawn to dark stories when they have something interesting to say, whether it’s a game like Thief or a film like, say, Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible. So I’ll push through, sometimes peering through my fingers.

    The trouble with games, though, is that if you look through your fingers, you’re probably just going to have to play through the scenario again. :~)

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    I wanted to play this game. I downloaded the demo but the controls were just too wonky for me to get my head around. I liked the atmospheric vibe a lot. I think I’m a bit desensitized from an overdose of horror movies in my youth so I don’t so much get the dread thing from these games as a nice creepy vibration. If only the controls were better…

  • Lewis B

    @ Mike, what’s wrong with the controls bud? As someone who despises poor control schemes, Penumbra’s is just like any other FPS, except to examine things you right click on them.  To use things you left click.  I’m not sure that can be considered difficult 🙂

  • Gregg B

    @Steerpike: Yeah my greatest shit-scared moments were with those games too. A few spoilers below people, so beware.

    Bioshock – Haha, I remember the dentist. I didn’t really find the game that scary overall but the bit where you go into the wine cellar and notice a mannequin facing the wall and after upgrading your weapon it’s stood directly behind you motionless and quiet just for a moment before attacking you. I shat a brick. I also missed that bit originally until Lew told me about it.

    System Shock 2 – same as you really, more unremitting tension all the way through rather than specific terrifying moments. Oh actually, theres a bit where you call a lift and it breaks then you realise a service droid is coming to fix it… I do remember having sleep issues after my first encounter with the cyborg ninjas though.

    Thief: The Dark Project – The Sword and Return to the Cathedral and Down in the Bonehoard and well, loads of them. The Sword made me break out into goosebumps though because there was a bit where you could hear this creepy giggling which seemed like it was following me about then it suddenly changed to this horrible throaty noise. What made matters worse was that the EAX (bless you Creative) made my foot steps sound like somebody else was there with me. That level was incredible, a bit too incredible as it seems I missed great chunks of it because I was so eager to leave.

    Thief II: The Metal Age – Trail of Blood where you end up in that opening with those damn tree beasts. God the first time I saw one of those hurtling towards me I actually died shortly afterward. Do you remember that Mechanist child walking around on one of the levels? That was a little creepy.

    Then there’s Penumbra: Overture – quite a few bits but I’m not mentioning them here.

    Oh and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – The brain scorcher lab just because it was so damn quiet. My imagination seriously got the better of me there. Those stuffed animals and heads I’d seen in various buildings led me to believe that those creatures were lurking somewhere in the Zone, specifically that lab.

    @Mike: My control setup was perfect after some tweaking (as well as the simple weapon swing fix). If you ever fancy giving it another go, give me a shout and I’ll let you know my setup.

  • Lewis B

    I’m not sure why guys, but one of my starting paragraphs had gone missing, even though I copied it straight from the original source, and It was fine earlier. 

    Incase you missed it due to some technical issue you might want to re-read just after “Well no she wouldn’t in truth, but in Penumbra: Overture you don’t want to move anyway.” at the very start for those who’ve already read the article. Apologies 🙂

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    Lewis, it was the weapon swing. It had this terrible, unresponsive feel to it, like trying to hit through molasses. I couldn’t stand using it. I tried the .ini fix as mentioned in the review but it didn’t seem to help. Of course this was the demo…but that shouldn’t have made any difference. I might try the second game instead as I guess they did away with the weapons thing.

    I’m see your first paragraph just fine. It’s the dialogue, right?

  • jdeuel

    I like the argument that weapons can remove fear, but even loaded to the teeth with ammo in AVP’99 the Marine missions were frightful because the enemy was anywhere at any time.

    As for Penumbra Overture, if the controls are anything like the original Penumbra they need to hack in some Wii-Remote 3d controls. I did not like using my mouse for 3d movements.

  • Gregg B

    @Mike: I’ve read that many people avoided conflict altogether in Overture which incidentally is something forced upon you in Black Plague. As somebody who has been renovating a house over the last 6 months with no DIY experience I can safely say that swinging a hammer is significantly easier in real life than it is in Overture without the fix. The fix balanced that for me.

    I’d highly recommend completing the first Penumbra because it’s one big build up to Black Plague which spoils the ending to Overture in the intro. And it’s a great ending too. Just so you know!

  • Lewis B

    @ Steerpike, those moments you mention are all my worst too!!  Do you remember the Robot labs in SS2? Absolutely terrifying, waiting for robots to burst out on you! 🙁 oh and have you ever player Condemned?

    @ Mike, The use of weapons in Penumbra is different to say HL2, where the player is physically holding the weapon, as in Penumbra it floats slightly infront of you.  However, if you change the control method to normal weapon swing, it’s no different!  Speak to Greggi and he’ll tell you what to do 🙂

    @ jdeuel, AVP the original and its sequal were scary however what type of fear do you think it is? I don’t think it’s anything more than sheer tension.  Having a Smart Gun makes you feel incredibly powerful.  I can honestly say in Penumbra the fear is sheer unrivalled terror, where you actually have to force yourself to play on.  It genuinly is that scary! 🙂

  • Jason Dobry

    It’s so true, an arsenal of weapons and ammo rapidly deflates any sense of horror or uneasiness in any game for reasons you already mentioned. Sakey, I thought Bioshock was more “lonely panic,” while I was pretty much always terrified in System Shock 2. I really, really, REALLY did not want to enter The Many’s nursery, and my weapons were so unreliable and ammo so scarce that I never felt safe.

    Silent Hill was terrifying for the same reasons. Ammo was rare and I frequently had to rely on my pipe for self-defense.  Even when I had ammo, the game mechanics prevented my character from being anything other than marginal with any firearm.

    Fear had one moment for me: I was climbing up a ladder, and as I reached the upper platform, my guy briefly looked down as he climbed off. As my perspective looked up again, that Ring-esque little girl was RIGHT THERE, reaching for me. I screamed and she was gone.

    What else…the original Aliens vs. Predator sent me into a locker room and I could only hear the facehuggers scurrying about somewhere within. I had to go in there. I advanced about three steps before the damn thing screamed and filled up my screen with its repulsive underside as it implanted me with its spawn. My roommate made fun of me for weeks for screaming like a girl child.

    Korsakovia–meh.  I was too annoyed and frustrated by the box rearrangement/jumping puzzles to be scared. I uninstalled it after an hour of play, I think. Maybe the scary parts were later, but I doubt it.

    As for Penumbra, I did play through about half of it before other games distracted me. I remember unease and creepiness, but no sweaty fear. I think I’m to blame here, or, more precisely, my daughter, who was still an infant at the time and generally allowed me only to play during the day for 45 minutes at a time. I was denied total immersion and the fear effect suffered. Maybe I should give it another go after I finish Call of Pripyat since she sleeps through the night now. With any luck, Penumbra will keep me from doing the same.

  • Gregg B

    I played the demo of F.E.A.R. but that ladder scare is the only bit I remember. Christ, that made me jump. I’m not too good with cat scares.

    Also I felt exactly the same about Korsakovia. It was creepy at first but then it began to irritate me far too much and it just soured the experience. I stopped playing as a result. Not to mention, when I realised I could bash those smoke-things with my crowbar they didn’t bother me nearly as much.

  • Online Up

    Great article. I look forward to reading more in the future.

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