Cheap Syberia (Software) (Windows XP, Windows 95, Windows Me, Windows 98) Price

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Customer Reviews of Syberia

Syberia
This game follows the adventures of Kate Walker, lawyer, as she tries to hunt down the heir to the Voralberg toy company. First, I'll talk about the good parts of this game. The graphics were excellent, really stunning. What errors there were (sometimes Kate walked on top of things like lightpost that were supposed to stay in the background), were there, I'm told, because my laptop couldn't handle DirectX 8. And it still looked good, even on my laptop. I loved the cutscenes, they were all really beautiful. The background music was wonderful, as well, which was a good thing, since I would've gone insane in some areas of the game if it hadn't been. The voice acting was mostly quite good, although there were some voices that I found annoying, such as the voice of Dan (Kate's fiance) and Kate's boss.

Now on to the reasons why this game got a 3 from me. If it weren't for how wonderful the atmosphere of the game had been, it would've gotten a 2. First, the puzzles: they were mainly pretty easy, which I don't necessarily have anything against. However, a lot of them involved walking through screen after screen, and it got to the point where I wanted to scream. I really wish there had been a way to get from place to place quickly - even when she was running, it took a while to get Kate from one area to another. And she never ran on the stairs. When the puzzles were basically just something annoying (Oscar, the automaton train driver, was fond of asking Kate to do inanely stupid things, like get a ticket for the train when she was the only passenger planned), I felt like banging my head against a wall. When even the main character of the game is frusterated, you'd think it would occur to the game designers that the players would end up feeling the same thing. Also, this was probably the most linear game I have ever played. My dad, who loves games shoot 'em up-type games, always complains that the games I play are way too linear. However, this game takes the cake. It's literally impossible to do another puzzle until you've finished the first one. I spent much of my time wanting to work on some other part of the game that intrigued me, only to discover that I couldn't do anything until I'd finished something else. If you get tired of working on a puzzle, that's too bad, because you've got to finish it before you can work on anything else. That really bothered me. And the game designers never really took advantage of the fact that the game included these incredible automatons. Sure, they were there, and occaisionally a puzzle required that you had to make one work, but so much more could've been done with one. I wanted to examine how one worked, but the closest I ever got was getting to give one a pair of legs. It was dissappointing. I was, however, relieved that there were never any timed puzzles. Big plus.

Next, although the music and most of the voice acting was quite good, sometimes the music would drown out what the people were saying. I suggest keeping the caption mode on, although, when you do that, you'll notice that the captions don't always match what the people are saying exactly. Especially near the end, I kept noticing errors, too, like words left out and weird punctuation. It was still readable, but it shouldn't have been too difficult to edit the captions.

Now, one last point. I really wish there had been something like a diary for Kate, or a notebook, or that she had occaisionally commented on some of the things that she could interact with (If you've played The Longest Journey, you know what I mean). It would've given more insight into how she thinks. I don't think there was enough of that, and, especially as the details of her relationships with her family and friends became more apparent, that would've been nice.

So basically, the game was lovely, but it definitely had a lot of failings. The ending was a big let-down (I kept expecting more to happen, and then the game just ended), leaving me with the feeling that a sequel is probably planned. If a sequel is made, I'll play it, but I just hope there are improvements in certain areas.

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Gotta have it
It isn't perfect, but it's close. Syberia is a must-have game, on a par with "The Longest Journey", because despite flaws noted in earlier reviews, you'll love this game.

There are two serious problems with RPGs. The biggest is timed puzzles, which to me are fatal -- I stop playing and try to get my money back. None of that here, thankfully.

The second is trial-and-error puzzles, for which you have no clues at all. Syberia has 1-1/2 of those (the lock and the bar). You get a clue for the bar puzzle, but it doesn't seem to mean anything. This is the biggest thing keeping Syberia from 5 stars.

I had no unexpected problems with graphics on my desktop machine, and what I did have was likely due to my dated Voodoo 3000 card.

A big criticism of this and most other games, is that it does not play well with others. This is a multitasking OS, and software is expected to cooperate and multitask. Syberia wants to take over the entire machine, and warns against task switching. I had some problems when I did that. If I ever find a game that simply makes task-switching impossible, back it goes. You are not allowed to take over my machine that way.

Others have noted the abruptness of the ending and the seeming shortness of the game. I'm not sure that's valid, because this is an unusually absorbing, even fascinating game. Coming back to the real world is a real letdown, especially if you've been immersed in Syberia for many hours. I wanted more.

More is coming, there is a sequel scheduled for release in October, 2003. I will be buying it.

One reviewer commented on the frustration of dealing with Oscar, the automaton. I suppose that's a viewpoint issue, because after a while it struck me as quite funny.

All in all, this is a game you have to play, to understand where the industry standards are -- unlike some of Dreamcatcher's earlier bombs.

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Syberia was fun
I am writing this review for my daughter who just finished the game with much hard work and dedication. She says she really enjoyed it and wants to play Part II. She really liked getting to travel to all the different places. Enjoy!