Syberia Trilogy - Review
The Syberia games have always been a series I’ve been curious about, but never had the chance to give them a go. Turns out the first two are fairly well regarded games, and being on the Switch made them that extra bit enticing. Now that the three games have been bundled up into a collection, it’s the best time to see what I’ve been missing. Or have I been missing anything at all?
The first Syberia game introduces Kate Walker, a lawyer sent from America to help facilitate a corporate takeover of a once great toy and automaton manufacturer. Just before she arrives, the owner Anna Vorarlberg has passed away. The surprise heir Hans is now required to sign away the family company. As the game sets up the main story, it’s not long before you get glimpses into Kate’s life back in America. It’s high pressure and full expectations, whether it’s her partner Dan or the law firm in a rush to absorb the Vorarlberg’s company. A complicated legal paperwork situation becomes a full fledged adventure to help Hans fulfil his lifelong goal. Along with an Automaton called Oscar, Kate is on a journey across this fictionalised Europe/Russia as she grows tired of the life waiting for her back home.
Syberia II is a continuation of Kate’s story, the game even catches you up enough on the events of the first game if you want to jump right into the second game. Having left her job behind, Kate and Hans with automaton Oscar in tow are continuing on their journey to Syberia. Kate’s law firm is not too happy about her failing to secure the lucrative contract that started this chain of events, and has sent a Private Investigator on her tail.
After a 13 year gap between games, Syberia 3 continues the adventures of Kate Walker. Following from the events of the second game, Kate has left the island of Syberia leaving Hans and the home of the Mammoths behind. After being saved by the nomadic Youkols, Kate decides to help them with their very important migration. All the while still being chased by the Private Investigator. There are new over the top villains behind Kate’s and the Youkol’s troubles. If you want to play a more modern take on the adventure game with some Telltale Games style dialogue options, you can watch ‘previously on’ to catch up and dive straight into 3.
The plot across the first two games tells a story in an interesting world. It is built around a steampunk style setting, in regards to the Automatons and the other mechanical wonders made by Hans. There are also strangely modern elements such as Kate and her now outdated mobile phone, and the mundane task of legal paperwork with a company that happens to have made fully functioning mechanised beings. All wrapped up in a European/Russian setting to make for a unique world. What makes the third game an oddity is that it exists at all. The story seems to wrap up after the second game, but turns out this doesn’t stop most franchises from lumbering on. Syberia 3 feels like a side story, more of the characters you love, only in a story that doesn’t matter. There’s also the iffy portrayal of the Youkol people, and these nomadic people’s reliance on an American stranger who’s name everyone messes up (a long running bit that feels awkward).
The Syberia games were originally point and click adventure games, although there were also console ports way back when so direct controls were needed too. The Switch version is directly controlling Kate, with points of interest showing up when you’re close to them. Because of this, you’ll often find yourself wandering everywhere on each screen just to make sure you’re not missing anything. A button to show all points of interest on screen would work wonders for these games.
Puzzles never usually took too long to work out, once you’ve found where it all comes together. Although I did find some puzzles were a bit obtuse, because of the game not passing on enough information to what you need to be doing. To the games credit there is a notebook a button press away to bring up a list of objectives. It lays out the main goal and some smaller ones to help steer you in the right direction. One of the most frustrating moments across the three games happened early on in the first game. The game doesn’t always clearly mark if there’s another location when you go to walk off of that screen. So, an important area wasn’t indicated in any way, nor did the environment give any hint that I could walk that way given most of that area was blocked off. Camera angles don’t help.
Syberia 3 does have something positive (only just) to add when it comes to puzzles and it’s in the form of getting more hands on. Being able to view an object from various angles and interact with the various moving parts more directly is a more modern approach to adventure game puzzles. Most of the time it is clunky and difficult to control, even the first experience with this form of puzzle where it was the most straightforward became a fight with the controls. Every part of Syberia 3’s interface feels needlessly clumsy, which makes it really difficult to enjoy what signs that there might be an alright game under it all.
While Syberia II is a bit shorter than the original game, Syberia 3 play time will set you back around the combined time to play the first two games. For the first two games their length is reasonable, but even then too much time is spent slowly running from area to area as puzzles are spread out across several screens. The third game does the same, only now there’s more of it. The exact opposite of what anyone would want.
The visuals of the first two games can be really nice, even nearly 20 years later. At a time where there were a lot of 3D games that did not age well, Syberia’s art style and steampunk aesthetic still look good today, for a series from nearly 20 years ago. The same can’t be said for Syberia 3. While stepping away from the painted backgrounds, they do try to retain the same feel from the world they’ve built. Unfortunately the move to proper 3D environments combined with technical and performance issues really hold the game back. The framerate and awkward movement really make it hard to enjoy this game in motion, it’s one of the few times framerates bothered me.
The music of Syberia across all three games I enjoyed, it often faded into the background and would go unnoticed. When the story was moving along the music would build up and it was nice to listen to, the theme for the first game particularly stood out for me. The other sounds of Syberia are much more hit or miss. The first two games (again) have okay voice acting, a stand out is Kate and Oscar. Then there’s Syberia 3. Voice actress Sharon Mann returns after all this time, but even Kate sounds like she’s not feeling it this time around. So many voices sound completely out of place. The other two games tried to at least have characters try an accent. There’s also constant voice issues with bizarrely long pauses, or instances where words will cut off.
After missing out on this series for so long, their bundled release on the Switch has given a great opportunity to check out these adventure game classics. Even better is that the first two games tell a fairly complete story. The less said about Syberia 3 the better. For those still invested in the series there is a fourth game being made to hopefully get the series back on track. The Syberia Trilogy on the Switch is one of the better ways to experience these games. If you’re willing to put up with some of the games more frustrating moments, there are some good adventure games here. It would be best to wait for a sale, the current asking price for the games separately let alone bundled together is way too high when other platforms have it at a fraction of the price. Or just get the bundle of the first two games and save yourself the disappointment.
