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From:Global Star Software
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User Rating: Amazon Sales Rank:#6545 |
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20 of 26 customers found the following review helpful:
 Major flaws I'm not willing to overlook..., 2004-09-08
First off, I want to establish that I've never played Syberia I -- and judging from the glowing reviews I'm seeing everywhere on the Web for Syberia 2, it may be a good thing. It seems that with every Syberia 2 review I've read so far, the author is carrying over nostalgia from the first installment. While I understand the sentiment, it's a no-no if you want to review something objectively.
The best features of Syberia 2 have been well-covered in game reviews, but they bear repeating. The graphics are nothing short of jaw-dropping; artist Benoit Sokal took any constraints he may have had (only so much you can do with snow and ice, you'd think) and somehow created one breathtaking scene after another. Time after time, a new scene would unfold and I'd just shake my head in amazement. Screenshots won't do any justice -- you have to experience these views when they're mixed with environmental effects like snow falling off tree limbs or birds fluttering past the camera. The music also fits the mood of the story perfectly; it's subtle yet thoughtful, exactly what you'd expect from a quaint Russian town in an arctic neverland.
Ambience and atmosphere are not a problem with Syberia 2. Even the story itself, though maybe uninteresting on paper, did manage to captivate me. In short, your goal as Kate Walker is to help Hans Vogelberg achieve his lifelong goal of reaching the (fabled?) land of Syberia, quite possibly to verify the existence of wooly mammoths. Again, not your run-of-the-mill adventure formula perhaps, but it does work well in the grand scheme of things.
Most of the characters are vivid and interesting; it's hard not to feel sympathetic for Hans, particularly after experiencing a "dream sequence" where you get a glimpse into his childhood. Even if he is bedridden most of the adventure, you get a real sense that he's involved in the story from beginning to end. There are a number of colorful characters that pop in and out of the story as it unfolds, from giggly Youkol villagers (Eskimo wanna-bes if you ask me) to cookie-cutter bad guys.
The cinematic sequences are, for the most part, moving and aesthetically pleasing. More often than not, when you solve a puzzle you are rewarded with a nugget in the form of a short movie. A nice feature is the fact that you can easily access these movies at any time once they've been shown the first time.
So we have a fairly riveting storyline, interesting characters, and breathtaking graphics. It's a mega-hit, right? Not so fast. True, you will have a difficult time finding any review of Syberia 2 that gives anything less than an A+, even though the authors admit the game has its problems. Well I'm sorry, but my standards dictate that no game deserves an A+ unless it provides what I'd consider a perfect gaming experience. Syberia 2 doesn't even come close.
My first complaint is underlined many, many times. Though it may not bother some, I simply could not ignore it. Think about this: when you first meet someone and learn their name, how long would you continue to address them by their first AND last name? Not long, correct? Well, from the very outset, when Hans and Kate (who are supposedly good friends) talk about their upcoming trip to Syberia, Hans finishes nearly EVERY sentence with "Kate Walker." "Yes, Kate Walker. We just need to wind up the train, Kate Walker." At first, I thought it was just an oddity with Hans, but then Oscar the Automaton followed suit, then Malka the little girl, then the patriarch in the monastery, then... and on and on. They ALL kept calling her by her first and last name! It got to the point where I purposely avoided dialog sequences because it grated my nerves so badly (until I realized some dialog was necessary to move the plot along). I find it damn near impossible to believe nobody at Microids noticed how odd the "Kate Walker" thing was during testing. It's frankly inexcusable and distracting.
Now, for the puzzles. Some of the brain-teasers were actually quite good, requiring abstract thought and an attentive eye. Others, however, are a hardcore case of trial-and-error (which I personally hate). On a number of occasions you will find yourself pressing buttons or plugging holes in different combinations until magic occurs. Or, even worse, you will find yourself running from Point A to Point B, then back, then again, then back, then again, until you've found the solution that works.
But that's not the worst of it. For a few select cases, the answer does not reside in logic at all. There are times when you need to move your mouse cursor over a small area of the screen, effectively hunting for a "hotspot", to perform a specific action. That's all fine and dandy, except many of these "hotspots" blend perfectly into the pristine artwork. You can spend days walking in circles because you failed to scan each and every screen, pixel by pixel, for a hidden hotspot. As a result, the game comes to a screeching halt.
My last real problem with Syberia 2 is linearity. Every item that makes it into your inventory will be used at some point. There are absolutely no red herring items, no subplots, no alternate/optional goals along the way. Also, with maybe one or two exceptions, you can only examine or touch those items which will be directly acted upon.
While linearity is almost inevitable with adventure games, there are ways to minimize the claustrophobic effect. In Broken Sword 3: Sleeping Dragon, you come across many items you'll never use, and you can examine darn near anything on the screen regardless of its relevance to the story. As a result, you really sense the world is open to possibilities. In Syberia 2, the mindset tends to be, "okay, what specifically does Microids want me to do here."
Frustrating puzzles, a finicky interface, and abundant restrictions put a sour flavor on this potentially delicious gem of a game. I regret that I can't join the masses who gush about Syberia 2 and gleefully overlook its major flaws -- I just can't.
75 of 78 customers found the following review helpful:
 Kate Walker, Hans Voralberg and Oscar head for Syberia, 2004-09-07
It was a story about Benoît Sokal's "Syberia 2" that got me interested in playing the game and so I picked up "Syberia" knowing full well that this was a two-part game. So for me it was pretty much one giant adventure and since the original "Syberia" is available at a reduced price nowadays there is no reason not to go back and start at the beginning. There is a recap of "Syberia" cinematic available at the start of this game, but why anybody would skip the first half of the game and miss out on being introduced to Oscar and the other automatons of Hans Voralberg, the eccentric inventor who longs to see the fabled Syberian mammoths before he dies is beyond me.
At the end of "Syberia" our heroine, Kate Walker, the New York City attorney who was sent to Valdeline to close a deal on the Voralberg Automaton Factory had decided to turn her back on her job and family to join Hans Voralberg on his automaton train heading through a frozen wasteland towards the legendary island of Syberia. The first stop is the town of Romansbourg where Kate will end up acquiring a few more companions for the trip, although not all of them are wanted. Hans' failing health will be a problem throughout this journey, but if Kate does get Hans to Syberia alive then nothing else matters.
Players control Kate Walker through the standard adventure game interface consisting of an inventory screen, a document screen, and Kate's cell phone. Fortunately, since Kate has turned her back on her employer, Marston, and her mother (No more calls from Dan the annoying and cloying now ex-boyfriend!), the cell phone is reduced to a minor part of the game. However from time to time we see a cinematic where we learn that Marston has sent somebody after Kate to find her and bring her to her senses and back home (the last two not necessarily in that order). So we keep waiting for this guy to show up and either cause trouble or give Kate some help (I actually liked the way that element played out).
The strength of this game are the graphics. My nephew, who knows a lot more about what is available in the realm of computer games, assures me that these are cool graphics. There are some nice renderings of water throughout both games and I like the attention to detail here where people walking across snow leave footprints. We even have real time snowfall in this one as well. There are also strange mechanical gadgets at every stop along the way and a lot of things built out of mammoth tusks in the last part of the game. The cinematics are pretty impressive and you have the option of going back and watching them over and over again to your heart's delight. The music is also quite good, especially when you get to the key moments of wonder in the story.
The weakest part of the game is finding some of the hot spots. A couple of times in each game I missed some tiny object on the floor I was supposed to be picking up and several times it took a while to find whatever I needed to find to insert a key or throw a switch. So be prepared for some moments of frustration as you know you are missing something and keep going in circles for a while. But there is almost always a point like that in any of these games (I spent three days ranting and raving while trying to find Brad and give him what he needs in "Phantasmagoria").
As you would also expect the puzzles in "Syberia II" are a standard mix of fairly straightforward efforts in logic (I almost want to say "real world" solutions but we are playing a game looking for living mammoths on a mythical island) and those that require hit and miss trial and error for extended periods of time. A big helpful hint would be to take notes of things you see in terms of diagrams and drawings. Unlike "Syberia" there are not a lot of manuscripts and other things that you can pick up and put in your inventory to read later (however, the few you do have are pretty interesting in terms of the story). So a pattern that you see can be the clue to how things have to be arranged down the road. You will also find the quirky uses for things like a Russian doll (you will carry this one around for a long time before you use it), a fish skeleton and a flask of water.
I really think you have to consider the two games as one big one. "Syberia" was a bit more interesting simply because this is where we find out what is going on and what Kate is doing. In "Syberia" the goal was to find Hans Voralberg, who was pretty much a mythic figure. Then, once we found he was a real person, the goal then became to find Syberia, which is the focus of "Syberia II." But then the whole idea that Kate was undergoing some sort of rite of passage here was never a major part of the story's appeal. Basically the mystery ends with "Syberia," but the adventure continues in "Syberia II." Kate Walker does have a character arc over the entire adventure, but it is Han's quest to find the reality represented by the doll of the mammoth with its rider that is the driving force here.
Final Note: There were a couple of points in the game (outside the monastery and on the back porch of the cabin) where there were lines of color on the screen and the game crashed. Do not panic: all you have to do is go into your options and reduce the detail level to low and everything will be fine.
5 of 6 customers found the following review helpful:
 Good game, but very short, 2004-08-09
I just finished Syberia II and overall was pleased with the game. My major complaint is that is it too short. I am an inexperienced gamer and I completed it in a weekend. I spent longer on the first one than this one.
As previous reviewers have mentioned, Syberia II picks up right where Syberia left off. You are on an adventure with Hans. I think that people who have not played Syberia would be missing much by starting with this game. This game is story line driven. The graphics are wonderful. The many of the puzzles seem very difficult, but enjoyable.
[spoilers included] My complaint with the game is that two irrelevant story lines are added. First, her law firm is still trying to bring her back "home." They have hired a PI to look for her, but he never finds her and turns back. Second, a comic relief storyline was added that I thought took away from the game. There are a couple of brothers who want to tag along for their own purposes and end up kidnapping Hans twice.
Overall, it is a game well worth your time and money.
38 of 42 customers found the following review helpful:
 Quest left me cold, 2004-07-28
I used to be heavily into adventure games. This was back in the heyday of the Commodore 64, when Infocom was king. Those people really knew how to tell a story and make puzzling fun. Then the graphics revolution came, and adventures became more about pretty pictures than actual adventuring. I got tired of paying $40-50 for games that looked lovely but bored me. DOOM came along, I got into first-person shooters and I never looked back.
Well, I might have peeked once or twice. That's how this game caught my eye. It was reasonably priced compared to what I was used to seeing, and I remembered reading positive things about it.
I've found that not much has changed.
In this game, you play a lawyer named Kate Walker (an appropriate surname, since she does an ungodly amount of it) who has left her job to assist an elderly toymaker named Hans Voralberg in realizing his dream: that of reaching a legendary island called Syberia, where mammoths still roam. Basically you are his errand girl, making deliveries, doing maintenance, and retrieving items because he's too infirm to do it himself, and his robot companion Oscar is too timid and absolutely refuses to go out into the cold. Will Hans make it? Will you end up wanting to tell both Hans and Oscar to get lost and hightail it back to New York? I won't spoil it for you.
(I hadn't played the first SYBERIA game, but that was okay because this sequel - or continuation, really - comes with a cinematic recap.)
SYBERIA II is easily the most beautiful game I've played to date. The setting, a remote area of Russia, is a veritable winter wonderland, and the attention to detail is superb both in the graphics and sound. Snow slides off roofs to land with a satisfying "floomph," wildlife roams or flies in the background, old structures creak. Kate makes footprints that disappear as more snow falls. It all contributes to an atmosphere so enveloping that I forgot that I was playing it in the middle of summer. There are also some amazing and truly cinematic linking sequences.
The gameplay, however, is another story. The game is heavily scripted, which means you spend at least half the time talking to various characters. Repeatedly. In many cases, several times in a row. It's a very awkward and tedious way of moving the plot along. Why not at least have the conversation continue automatically rather than make the player keep clicking over and over again? As for the puzzles, they aren't so much difficult as simply obscure. At one point, you pick up a cleaning brush. (Why? Because it's there.) It's used to scrub away part of a painting in another room to find a clue. But why would anyone do that, or even think of doing it? There's no indication that the painting is relevant, unless you happen to run your cursor over the hotspot and see it change. That's just one example. A lot of the puzzles require you to pick up random items that seem to be of no significance, and which are very easily overlooked - and then do incongruous things with them. In one scene, you need to know how to operate a HAM radio, and the controls in the cockpit of a small plane. If you're not the game's creator, you're lost. Needless to say, I used an online walkthrough to get through most of it.
When you finally do get to the end of the game, it's so sudden you'll feel like someone pressed stop on a tape. It's a huge disappointment after so much buildup, though the animation is, as always, stunning.
It's a shame that so much obvious care went into the look and sound production and so little into playability. Perhaps SYBERIA II is better looked at as an interactive storybook than a game, though the story does need work. My recommendation is to wait for it to drop to a budget price, find a walkthrough, and enjoy the sights and sounds. Otherwise, it's frustrating.
Syberia II even better!, 2004-07-17
Way to go Benoit! I was looking forward to this after playing the first one and I wasn't disappointed! Again, awesome graphics and music. I sure hope this has a part III!
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