Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant and Beautiful
Review: Syberia 1 and 2 are the best video games I have ever played. Finding the clues and items is difficult but always interesting: strategies are never simple and cannot be solved with brute violence. Characters seem to jump out of the screen with their very human qualities. All happening in the most beautifully designed scenarios I have ever seen in video games. I recommend it greatly.
Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary beauty and a first-rate story
Review: Syberia 2 is an experience of great power. The graphics are gorgeous and the story can bring you close to tears, one gets so involved. There are very few games that can manipulate your feelings, but this one can and does. The puzzles are apt and interesting, but since I always use a walkthrough, being a total klutz at games, the degree of difficulty does not apply to me; but I am sure the puzzles are of a design to please just about everybody. It is strongly recommended that you play Syberia before the sequel because of a long dream experience going back to Valedilene of the first game and I don't think you'll fully understand the dream's implications without prior knowledge. The ending of Syberia 2 is a cliffhanger, and the magicians who created this splendid series have to write Syberia 3 because Kate, your alter ego and heroine, is left alone on Syberia with only a funny dog-like intergeneric creature called a Youki to keep her company. You can't leave her there, Mr. Sokal, that would be horrible!
Rating: 
Summary: Lovely to Look at - You Need Patience to Play
Review: Syberia 2 is out. For those who didn't play Syberia, it involves an intrepid young woman who goes around solving puzzles that seem to crop up along every stage of her journey through frozen tundra.You can read my Review of Syberia to get a gist of what this series is about, because for better or for worse, Syberia 2 is more of the same. In essence, you're on a quest to find mammoths. The first Syberia was maddening in that it ended the game without even achieving your quest and without warning you that this was only "part 1 of 2". So it was a big let-down. Also, Syberia 1 had a REALLY annoying sub-story involving your boyfriend having an affair with your supposed best friend and lying to you. I really hated it. But that all being said, moving through Syberia and Syberia 2 is like walking through a hall of gorgeous paintings. Sure, the snow falls in the background, but your world is a static one. You have one angle that you see a given room at. That's it. You wave your mouse around the room to see if anything highlights to work with. So while the rendering is gorgeous, we're a long way from the days of pre-rendered rooms to wander through. I'd much rather have the room a real, interactive one that you could turn around in. Also, as much as the puzzles are made to be part of the plot (since you're travelling around with Hans, a puzzle maker), a lot of times they are just maddeningly tedious. Take this example. You discover that in order to cure your sick friend, you need to get a special cloth, put it on his face, and take it to the doctor. This isn't a mental challenge. But it takes you a full FIFTEEN screen moves to get from the location of the cloth to him, never mind walking back again. And each screen move means you sit there watching Kate, the Hero, walk slowly from one side of the screen to another. The hot spots to "move to the next screen" change each time, so you can't even leave the mouse in one spot for the clicking. Speaking of tedious, some of the inane conversations you have with people go on literally for 10 minutes or more. I fold origami in my spare time, so I kept a pile of origami paper next to the mouse. I could finish sets of cranes in the time it took for Kate to get through talking to a single person. Click. (talk 4 minutes). Click. (talk 3 minutes). Click (talk 6 minutes). Yes, some of it was cute. But much of it was just filler. Anybody who lives in a cold region knows that people in the cold don't tend to stand around and chat. It's too cold. If they wanted to make this world full of incredibly talkative people, why not base it in the Jamaican Islands? I can easily imagine a pair of people in Montego Bay lounging by the beach, holding 2 hour long conversations about trains and stations. But here Kate is desperately looking for coal and trying to save a dying friend ... and she has time to hang out and chat for 20 minutes with the shopkeep? I don't think so. On the other hand, if you just zip from start to finish in either of the Syberia games, it's over very quickly. There isn't a lot of "gameplay" involved. So the only way to stretch the game out and make it worth your cash is to treat it like a long graphic novel. Don't try to rush. Pour yourself a glass of wine. Chop up some cheese clices. Put on some cool background music. Then sit back and go through the scenes slowly, enjoying every nuance. Recommended for puzzle solvers who enjoy painting-watching and who have a lot of patience. I enjoyed this a lot myself, but I can understand those who got frustrated with it and quit part way through!
Rating: 
Summary: Good graphics, but the gameplay falls apart
Review: The first two days I played this game, it was really cool. The graphics are really great. The gameplay is good, and the puzzles were solveable if you were careful and thought about what you were doing. Then, about halfway through the game, things start to fall apart and some crucial items become nearly impossible to find. At this point, you realize that there really aren't many objects and puzzles in this game period, and that you just spend most of your time walking by endless, empty backgrounds. I don't know why they can't do a little more testing on these games or at least spend a little more time thinking of what would make good puzzles to solve.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: The game, like the first one was gorgeous. The game sucked me in and didn't let me go until I was done with it. I finished it in one night. This may be a good or a bad thing. It is very short. I wish that the first game and this game had been put together. The puzzles are a little more incoherent than the first game but they're still fun as hell! I would not recommend this game to anybody who has not played the first Syberia. There is a story recap but it's not very thorough. This books feels like a great novel and it leave the same great feeling when you finish it.
Rating:
Summary: The best of what's out there in this genre but a few hitches
Review: The graphics are spectacular, the scenery lovely. This is an adventure that doesn't hurry. A little mystery, a little magic and a goodbye. If you loved Syberia 1, you will most likely be a fan. I am writing this for would be gamers to let them know that there ARE a couple of problem areas that don't seem to be written about. Save often of course. There are places in the game (I found two) where if you make the wrong choice -- forgetting to pick up an item or preforming an action which seems logical but is the WRONG action in the game developer's mind -- you CANNOT, no matter what you try get a second chance to rectify your mistake. You must go back to a previously saved game and do the steps in the "correct" order. This appears to be a programing problem and happend to a friend of mine also so does not appear to be system related. So, if you figure out what you SHOULD have done (or read some hints) and can't get back to where you can preform the action ("no point in doing that", says Kate), just go back to your last game and repeat the steps. Yes, it's a pain, but the graphics are worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Good-looking, but short, easy, superficial gameplay
Review: The SYBERIA series, which so far comprises of two adventure games from 2002 and '04, is supposedly a big-budget and ambitious endeavor from designer Benoît Sokal, one of the great illustrators in Europe. But if you are a hard-core adventure gamer you may be disappointed. The SYBERIA games are neither groundbreaking nor challenging. Nor can they compare with the great adventure games in the past, such as THE LONGEST JOURNEY or DAY OF THE TENTACLE. The decent story involves a mysterious toy-maker named Hans Voralberg and his obsession with a lost paradise island called Syberia. You play the main character, Kate Walker, a lawyer from New York who seeks out Voralberg and helps him in his journey. You go to quaint and exotic places, which are all exquisitely rendered in 800x600, highly detailed graphics. You go through danger, mishaps, surprises, but the atmosphere of the game is always peaceful and relaxed. This is a game, like many adventure games, that is still largely influenced by MYST, the best-selling adventure game from 1993, with its laid-back, peaceful, and unthreatening style of play. This game is clearly not intended for the GRAND THEFT AUTO or MAX PAYNE crowd. And the game is obviously not made for serious gamers either. Gameplay lacks challenge, complexity, and, typical of the adventure genre, originality. You still play the game pretty much the same way you play KING'S QUEST, a 20-year-old game that pioneered the genre: you pick up items (and keep them as your "inventory"), you talk to people you meet, you interact with external items, and you use your inventory items. The inventory system of the SYBERIA games is one of the most primitive and underused I have ever seen. You rarely have more than 5 usable items in your inventory at any given time. And you cannot combine inventory items. This makes for very simplified gameplay. When you solve puzzles that require using the right inventory items, the paucity of items in your possession often makes the solutions pretty obvious. If you expect puzzle-solving of the caliber of those MYST games, you will be disappointed. The puzzles in the SYBERIA games are never by a long shot as complex and challenging as in the MYST games. The toughest puzzle in the first SYBERIA game is one that involves mixing a cocktail drink, which had me stumped for half hour. In SYBERIA II, I can't think of one puzzle that can be called challenging. The most difficult puzzle is probably the one where you manipulate a mouse into obtaining an exotic fruit for you. The lack of depth and complexity is further evidenced by the fact that, unlike a typical traditional adventure game, your character does not say anything about the things you click on the screen. For those unfamiliar about this aspect, adventure games used to be so much more fun to play because whatever you click on the screen, you hear your character comment about it, sometimes humorously, and sometimes helpful to your puzzle-solving. In the SYBERIA games, with no commentary from your character, all the pretty things you see on the screen are often just eye candies. Of course, the lack of commentary greatly reduced the amount of dialogs that needed to be recorded, saving money for the game's designers. Adventure game fans have been vocal in their support of adventure games. But it is hard for the genre to attract any new fans, partly due to shallow titles like SYBERIA, and partly due to the inherent difficulty for the genre to evolve into better forms. It is the genre that is driving gamers away, not the other way around.
Rating:
Summary: Good-looking, but short, easy, superficial gameplay
Review: The SYBERIA series, which so far comprises of two adventure games from 2002 and '04, is supposedly a big-budget and ambitious endeavor from designer Benoît Sokal, one of the great illustrators in Europe. But if you are a hard-core adventure gamer you may be disappointed. The SYBERIA games are neither groundbreaking nor challenging. Nor can they compare with the great adventure games in the past, such as THE LONGEST JOURNEY or DAY OF THE TENTACLE. The decent story involves a mysterious toy-maker named Hans Voralberg and his obsession with a lost paradise island called Syberia. You play the main character, Kate Walker, a lawyer from New York who seeks out Voralberg and helps him in his journey. You go to quaint and exotic places, which are all exquisitely rendered in 800x600, highly detailed graphics. You go through danger, mishaps, surprises, but the atmosphere of the game is always peaceful and relaxed. This is a game, like many adventure games, that is still largely influenced by MYST, the best-selling adventure game from 1993, with its laid-back, peaceful, and unthreatening style of play. This game is clearly not intended for the GRAND THEFT AUTO or MAX PAYNE crowd. And the game is obviously not made for serious gamers either. Gameplay lacks challenge, complexity, and, typical of the adventure genre, originality. You still play the game pretty much the same way you play KING'S QUEST, a 20-year-old game that pioneered the genre: you pick up items (and keep them as your "inventory"), you talk to people you meet, you interact with external items, and you use your inventory items. The inventory system of the SYBERIA games is one of the most primitive and underused I have ever seen. You rarely have more than 5 usable items in your inventory at any given time. And you cannot combine inventory items. This makes for very simplified gameplay. When you solve puzzles that require using the right inventory items, the paucity of items in your possession often makes the solutions pretty obvious. If you expect puzzle-solving of the caliber of those MYST games, you will be disappointed. The puzzles in the SYBERIA games are never by a long shot as complex and challenging as in the MYST games. The toughest puzzle in the first SYBERIA game is one that involves mixing a cocktail drink, which had me stumped for half hour. In SYBERIA II, I can't think of one puzzle that can be called challenging. The most difficult puzzle is probably the one where you manipulate a mouse into obtaining an exotic fruit for you. The lack of depth and complexity is further evidenced by the fact that, unlike a typical traditional adventure game, your character does not say anything about the things you click on the screen. For those unfamiliar about this aspect, adventure games used to be so much more fun to play because whatever you click on the screen, you hear your character comment about it, sometimes humorously, and sometimes helpful to your puzzle-solving. In the SYBERIA games, with no commentary from your character, all the pretty things you see on the screen are often just eye candies. Of course, the lack of commentary greatly reduced the amount of dialogs that needed to be recorded, saving money for the game's designers. Adventure game fans have been vocal in their support of adventure games. But it is hard for the genre to attract any new fans, partly due to shallow titles like SYBERIA, and partly due to the inherent difficulty for the genre to evolve into better forms. It is the genre that is driving gamers away, not the other way around.
Rating:
Summary: Great continuation of Syberia
Review: This game has taken some heat from professional reviewers for not being up to the caliber of the original Syberia. In some ways, I agree with those reviews. As a stand-alone game, I don't think Syberia 2 measures up to the first game. HOWEVER, this is a continuation. Playing Syberia 2 without having played Syberia is akin to opening up a 1000 page novel and starting at page 500, and then wondering why you don't care much about the characters. Yes, Syberia 2 picks up exactly where Syberia left off, and for fans of the first game, this is great. It means there's no contrived rehash of events or reintroduction of characters. The story just moves along. In fact, I'd like to see Syberia 1 and 2 bundled as a single, huge game, since that's really what they form. The beginning of this game is actually a bit better than the beginning of the original. There's more to do from the outset... more characters with whom to interact, more places to go, fewer locked doors. Overall, it's just a more interesting start. Unfortunately, whereas the first game had a great mystery to keep you occupied once things got going, this game doesn't. Your one goal is FIND SYBERIA. Why? Who knows. Just because some old guy wants you to. In that sense, the plot isn't as compelling. Still, Syberia 2 makes up for its weaker plot in other ways. In the first game, the pacing was almost too structured-- reach a new locale and stay there until you find a way to get your train moving again. Syberia 2 varies this formula a bit. I can't tell you how this is varied without giving away some fun plot twists, but rest assured, the progression from one locale to the next is more interesting. Overall, Syberia 2 is a very welcome follow-up to a great game. As in the original, this game features a cast of involving characters, phenomenal graphics, fitting music, a great sense of atmosphere, brilliant cut-scenes, and well-integrated puzzles. Perhaps most impressive is the fact that both Syberia games are able to stir up emotions better than almost any computer game out there. This is due in part to the high production values, but more importantly to the sense of story and character development that make the experience of playing Syberia more like watching a really good movie, which just happens to be interactive.
Rating:
Summary: Great story, great game
Review: This is definitely not for those who like "Hack n' slash" or shooter type games. However, if you liked Myst, you'll probably enjoy this one. It is more of an interactive novel than a game, really. The plot is non-cliche', although they could've done without the side plot of the detective, which I too felt was unrealistic. I mean, come on. In the real world, if you go AWOL from your job without calling in sick, that's generally seen as quitting. The company would probably just have replaced her and not bothered with the detective at all, especially after finding out she was alive via her cell phone. But still, the main plot was pretty good. I do wish they'd have explained Kate's reasons better though. Yeah, she has a good heart, but even the most kind-hearted souls probably wouldn't follow someone to the ends of the earth without strong motivation. And what exactly was her dream, anyway? To get away from her boss and annoying mother? I have to say this is the only computer game that ever brought tears to my eyes at the end. I really hope they do a sequel. It could be Syberia III: Return to New York.
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