Syberia

Rating:
Summary: Can't wait for the Sequel to Syberia
Review: The best adventure/puzzle game I have ever played. The graphics are state-of-the-art and the story line is very original and most intriguing. The puzzles were challenging enough to make you think, but lacked the frustration I have encountered with other games. It was a nice relaxing game with the appeal of a great novel, except I got tired of Dan and Olivia (two minor characters). I agree with some of the other reviews that the ending was slightly abrupt. I wanted to see a full-size automaton mammoth. Hopefully there will be a sequel continuing Kate's journey.

Rating:
Summary: Great Game!!!
Review: Anyone who is a true adventure gamer will love this game!! Yea, the puzzles aren't unsolvable, the characters actually seem real. I see why PC Gamer declared it the best adventure game of the year! Wish there were more like this. I felt like I was actually in the game. ...One of the best! Please make a sequel!

Rating:
Summary: Magnificent Adventure Game
Review: I personal found the game to be Magnificent. Though I felt the game was alittle short and did leave me hangin at the end. The game it's self had a great setup and control format and the graphics were the best that I've seen in awhile. Over all I did enjoy the game and finished it in 3 days. In some ways I'm glad the game did not drag out and that I was able to finish it. To sum up things, I kinda hope that they will come out with a second version of the game to finish where the first one left off at. If your looking for a Great Role Playing game in Third Person, this is a game to buy. The game will keep you thinking and wanting to finish till the end. I finish every few Adventure games and this is one that I did finish.

Rating:
Summary: the visuals make the game
Review: there have been many reviews commenting about the quality of the pictures in this game and they are correct. what the designers have done is to take a series of very depressing environments and render them exquisitely into an overall picture that is strikingly appealing. starting off in valadilene (?sp) a town in decline, with an unused, decaying factory with partially completed "automatons", weed overgrown churchyards, and discarded equipment, we progress to another town (barrockstadt ?sp) that, despite its fancy university, appears to be a burned out war zone filled with depressing characters. From there, we move on to a delapidated, creepy, abandoned, rusting, polluted soviet factory and space research facility, and, lastly, to a seedy has-been resort on the aral sea that appears to have been for the enjoyment of well behaved communists. this is a singularly depressing set of environments, but the authors bring it off wonderfully. these levels are consistently populated by lazy bureaucratic malingering workers, which makes me think the authors are commenting on communist, or even present day french, labor, but which, at the same time, they render humorous.

the level of detail in these visuals is to me astounding and accounts for the appeal of the game. the main character, kate, who is supposed to be a lawyer from new york, is about as american as charles degaulle (notice her clothes). she matures considerably during the game, from an aggressive shallow narcissistic yuppie to a woman who comes to realize the world is full of genuinely interesting things, places, and people. the gameplay here is not particularly good, which is why i am rating it 4 instead of 5. i think it is much too easy (always remember to try the cellphone). despite this, i would definitely recommend buying this for the scenery and story alone; also, as in a newspaper comic strip, i cant wait to see the continuation.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: This game should not be in the Adventure category. It is a puzzle solving game with good to excellent graphics. There is no player involvement other than "point and click". There is no suspense. The game is more suited to children in the 10 to 13 age group than to the 13 to adult group. "Shooters" are not my thing but this game is simply boring. I gave it 2 stars only on the merits of the graphics.

Rating:
Summary: Finally!! A TRUE Adventure Game!!
Review: I have been a big adventure gamer for years and played many computer games. I've noticed lately that these types of games (where you have to interact with other characters to get clues for your game, etc...) are slowly fading. This game is just like all those older adventure games! There are several characters to interact with, and the puzzles aren't too hard. It leaves a lot to enjoy. One of the even more important aspects, I believe, is you can't die. It's all about finding your way to this heir of a factory and that's it. So, you don't need to worry about saving your game before a battle with anyone, because it's all about using your mind. The graphics are amazing!!

Definatly recommended for the true ADVENTURE gamers out there! Great game :)

Rating:
Summary: Not Challenging, but Very Enjoyable
Review: I found Syberia to be less of a game and more of an interactive story. The puzzles are, for the most part, quite obvious. So, if you're looking for a challenge, you won't find it here.

On the other hand, the story is wonderful and quite captivating. I enjoyed working my way through the story so much that I wasn't really disappointed by the lack of problem solving required. The graphics are absolutely beautiful -- probably the best I've seen in any game. The music is quite good, as well. Some people complained about the abrupt ending, but I found it to be quite appropriate to the story.

Even though the game was not much of a challenge, Syberia reminded me quite a bit of the Monkey Island, Longest Journey, and Morpheus adventure games. If you like the style and atmosphere of those games, you'll probably enjoy Syberia.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely amazing!!!!!!!!
Review: No PC owner should miss this game. It's simply the best game of 2002. The ending alone gives the game five stars. It's just unbelievable and sets the story for the sequel which will come out this year. DO NOT miss this game by any chance. And as for the bottom line i must note that this game has one of the most original and brilliant plots in the history of videogames.

Rating:
Summary: Read this; it's incisive
Review: I've scrolled through most of these reviews and can't say I disagree with any, no matter how they rated the game. Yes, the "sets" are lovely (but static) and, while the story is pretty absorbing, it ultimately does little beyond setting the stage for a "Syberia 2." My main problems were with the interface and the characters. If you compare this with a *really* richly textured game with good characters (my touchstones are the Tex Murphy and Journeyman games as well as Longest Journey), Kate's ability to interact with her world is a little thin. The dialogue menu and many of the responses remain the same (as opposed to, say, Tex Murphy, where they add in new dialogue choices as you "earn" them) so you have to keep clicking on the same 5 or 6 choices to get the one that gives you the info you need (and where the new material ends up is not always logical). The 4 or 5 choices with no new info (including one with a sophomoric pick-up artist at Barrockstadt) end up being tedious because some of the conversations are quite long and frequently pointless, and they always get repeated. The characters, unlike those in the other games I mentioned, are uniformly unlikeable. Other writers can pick characters like this and somehow make them endearing (or merely eccentric, or at least really sharp villains) while most of these, including Kate and her friends and work relations, have little to commend them. From the write-up, I was expecting her "guide" to play more like the AI Arthur in the Journeyman series; instead he's more neurotic than Woody Allen and comes off as a wimp with no initiative who does little beyond make the game more tedious. I have to admit I did like the ending; being forewarned may have made it seem less abrupt. Kate has obviously changed quite a bit at that point. I just feel that the writers violated the basic writers' credo of showing rather than telling till that moment; Kate's friends comment that she seems different, but she'd still being pretty abrasive and shallow when it comes to interacting with her world. And, yes, like many others, I found the build-up to finding the land of Syberia without a commensurate payoff *really* irritating (although the final scene really is lovely and touching). I'll probably play Syberia 2 for the sake of closure, but I won't pay full price.

Rating:
Summary: Potentially great but doesn't deliver
Review: This game has a very interesting premise, nice graphics, and potentially interesting characters. I would recommend this for gamers like myself who are starved for good adventure games, but don't expect to be thrilled. It is very frustrating for a game to have this much potential and then not deliver. Once the premise is introduced there is nothing but puzzles to solve in order to find the lost heir. The cell phone plot adds very little to the story, and Kate doesn't seem to be much more grown up than when she began her journey. The locations are beautiful and creative, and I loved journeying from one place to another, but was dissatisfied at the end when the story finally started going somewhere. Overall, a decent game that should satisfy your craving for adventure for a few hours.