Twelve years is a long time for anything, let alone a video game. Just think back to the year 2002 and the video games that were released at the time. Can you remember any, or better yet, can you remember any PC titles that would still hold up today? Syberia is one such title that has managed to stand the test of time. Sure, it does show its age in spots with its dated mechanics, but it’s hard to gloss over the games incredibly original story and logical puzzles.
Syberia came out in 2002 for PC and never had the wherewithal to anticipate where console gaming would be in 2014. As a PC game Syberia stood out in a world of First-Person Shooters (yes, even back then the genre was everywhere, just much less CoD like) with its take on the adventure genre. This time around the game has been given a slight graphical upgrade, but unfortunately this is not an HD remake of the original PC gem.
Instead we get some cleaned up models and a game that better fits with the resolutions our monitors and televisions output today. I just purchased a 55 inch LCD television and being the person that I am played a game from 2002 on it to test it out. To be able to play Syberia on a screen that large is a real treat to someone that remembers the days hunched over a desk looking at a tiny 15 inch CRT.
Being on the PlayStation 3 gives Syberia the chance to take advantage of the increased processing power, but at the same time causes a few problems that didn’t exist before. Yes, the game looks much improved and runs smoothly on the system, but its now antiquated design will lead to much frustration, especially for new players to the series.
Anytime a point-and-click adventure makes the transition to a home console much of what makes it special, in terms of control and exploration, is lost. The use of a mouse to click and explore made Syberia a relaxing experience that allowed players to put the emphasis on the story. A mouse just never quite translates correctly to thumb-sticks, no matter how well done it is.
Moving around now becomes a clunky affair and many times you will find yourself getting frustrated by how your character interacts with the environment. It’s an obsolete design that has long since been surpassed by other adventure games, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work. Yes it’s and old-fashioned way to program movement, but that’s not to say it’s broken with regards to the game. Mapping movement to a 3D environment is the biggest problem that Syberia has. Frustration arises because finding objects to interact with becomes more difficult than it needs to find. Even when I knew what needed to be done next, from my many playhroughs over the years, I still had trouble finding objects and environment points to interact with.
On PC you just pointed and clicked and that made pixel searching something simple. Roll the mouse over something that can be interacted with and the game would respond. Now on the other-hand, you have to deal with tank like controls when trying to line yourself up with something. It never ruins the experience, but it does make it more frustrating than it needs to be. I’d almost wished they’d have just kept the original point-and-click interface. I recently played Syberia again last year when the game came to mobile platforms (android in particular) and being able to touch to move and interact made it a much smoother experience.
Some clunky controls aside you’ll want to play Syberia for the game and story underneath. You take on the role of one Kate Walker, a lawyer representing a law firm in the process of gaining ownership of a toy factory in the French Alps. This is no Ace Attorney by any means as Kate’s job is one that’s pretty mundane by most accounts. A simple few days to get some papers signed will eventually turn into an adventure that sees Kate traveling to the depths of Siberia on a quest to not only find a lost heir, but herself as well.
This leads to a lot of classic adventure game puzzles, but unlike other games most of the puzzles you’ll encounter are set up in a logical manner. You’ll be able to solve problems in a manner that feels natural instead of feeling like you are in some sort of Rube Goldberg machine world. Sure, there are some silly parts that Kate won’t be able to get by without some silly object, but for the most part it all flows nicely.
But where I think Syberia really shines is in its narrative. Kate goes from an average person, full of insecurities and issues back home, and grows into a strong protagonist without the help of anyone but herself. There is more character growth within the game than in a dozen others like it combined. The world is also populated by all sorts of characters from strange and excentric people, to strange and charming automatons. Interacting with characters is genuinely interesting with fully voiced characters all around.
If you can ignore some of the shortcomings that the game suffers from its age you’ll find a deep and rewarding adventure game at its core. It just goes to show that while graphics may change every generation a good story will always be remembered fondly and last the test of time. What’s more, after looking into whether or not we’d be getting the next chapter in the Syberia series updated for home consoles, I found that Syberia 3 is currently in the works for a 2015 release. It’s a good time to be a fan of adventure games.
(A PS3 copy of the game was provided by the publisher for this review)
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