In the past ten years this
reviewer has played maybe 200 games, and reviewed about 50. I think
I’ve played 95% of all adventure games produced in that time. Let’s
start at the ending of the review for once. This
is, without question, the finest PC game I have ever played. If
you have a pulse and are reading this now (duh!), GET THIS GAME! I’ll
repeat that: GET THIS GAME! ……now back to the beginning.

Four
years ago I played a game entitled Amerzone, produced by Microids
of France and based on the work of the very talented cartoonist, Benoit
Sokal. It was a very worthy and enjoyable adventure game. Last year
I read that Mr. Sokal and Microids were developing a new PC adventure
entitled Syberia. I anticipated an Amerzone
style sequel or a similar offering. When given the chance to review
this new game, I readily accepted. I was not prepared for what I got.
This game is not anywhere close to the very enjoyable game, Amerzone.

We’re in a whole new ballpark,
fans. When I installed Syberia and started play, I was truly
shocked. Nobody warned me! The opening cinematic sets the climate
for the game and I am here to tell you that it is magnificent. The
gorgeous pre-rendered graphics, the animation, the musical scoring,
the SFX were truly jaw-droppers. I’ve subsequently invited a few gamer
friends over to watch the intro, and to a person, everyone has said
“Wow, that looks like a movie, not animation”. Its
raining, and every drop of rain that splashes on the cobblestone
street hits, and widens out in circular fashion. Holy cow! The musical
scoring sounds like a John Williams effort for a major Hollywood film.
I’ve played this intro over and over and am still awestruck at its
beauty. This is a very special game.

Syberia
is the story of the quest of a New York attorney (Kate Walker) to
consummate the acquisition of a quaint toy factory located in Valadilene,
France by an up and coming conglomerate, the Universal Toy Company.
The factory has fallen on hard times and its technology has sadly
become obsolete. Kate arrives in the alpine village of Valadilene
only to see a funeral procession. The funeral, it turns out, is for
the owner of the local toy factory. Kate checks in to the local hotel
and subsequently learns of a next of kin of the owner – a Mr. Hans
Voralberg, the deceased owner’s brother. Hans has disappeared, and
Kate needs to find him in order to do the deal.

Therein lies the plot.
Kate must traverse miles of geography in order to, hopefully, find
Hans. She starts in the town of Valadilene where the prominent industry
has been the Voralberg toy factory. Here, they’ve made state of the
art automatons (sort of high level robots) – from wind up toys to
extremely high tech personal assistants. But, unfortunately the factory
has suffered neglect and as a consequence has become somewhat obsolete.
When Kate finds the factory, she finds a partially created automaton
named Oscar – the last automaton designed by the brilliant Hans. Oscar
got caught up in the factory shutdown and needs feet. Off we go….Kate’s
first challenge. She dearly needs Oscar’s assistance and therefore
must build him his feet. That’s just
one “puzzle” in this locale. Once Oscar has his feet he
can offer Kate transportation to her needed destinations. But wait,
there are many, many “puzzles” Kate must solve in order
to “boogie on”. Challenging? Yep! Fun? You bet! Finally
(whew!) all the parameters are met and Oscar becomes the conductor
of a train which will take Kate to her next destination, Barrockstadt.
This is a university town. Lots of cool stuff to do here. A highlight
for me was a professor’s audio-visual lecture. Very nicely done. Shucks,
the train needs power. It won’t move. Mr. Sokal has crafted here a
wonderfully plot driven series of “puzzles” to solve. FYI:
almost all “puzzles” presented in Syberia are contextually
woven into the story extremely well.

Next stop – Komkolzgrad.
UGH – this is a very dark industrial city. Designed as a communist
utopia, it has fallen into an abyss. Kate needs to get outta here.
Diehard zealots abound and Kate and Oscar need to get a passport and
split.

Finally, Kate and Oscar
arrive in the former resort city of Aralbad. Cold and sterile, this
idyllic coastal town was once a refuge for the communist elite. Now,
yuck! However, it is here where Kate makes contact with some very
important persona.

From
here the game progresses to a very surprising and heartfelt climax.
I’ve never played a PC game which had such a wonderfully rewarding
ending. What a surprise!

Okay, on to the technical
stuff. The game may be played completely with the mouse. Right clicking
brings up the inventory, gathered documents, cell phone, and complete
menu. Saves?..unlimited. User friendliness and learning curve? You
could start a rookie on this game. Graphics and animation are the
best I’ve ever seen. The music is the best I’ve ever heard in a PC
game. Game play? Fabulous. Story? The best I’ve ever seen in a PC
game (yes, I loved TLJ
also, but got more hooked on Syberia). Game stability: perfect.
Cut Scenes: all are archived for your subsequent review.

End of review: please
read paragraph one.

Final Grade: A+

Minimum system requirements:

Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP
Pentium II 350 MHz
64 MB RAM
400 MB free hard disk space
16X CD-ROM Drive
3D graphics card with 16MB RAM (DirectX 7 minimum)
DirectX compatible
sound card