Syberia II – PC – Preview

Everyone who played Syberia knew from the open ending that a sequel was destined, so it was no surprise when one was announced months ago. As expected, the story picks up from where the train was stopped at the end of the previous game, and Kate has decided to ditch her meaningless life in New York City and follow Han’s dream of discovering the island of Syberia, with its fabled mammoths.

At the start of the game, Kate must wind up the train (that’s a big shocker, ain’t it?) so it can continue to the next stop. Once she has accomplished this, she must then load up the train with coal. As with most adventure games, puzzles like these are multi-step ones where the character must find and use many different objects in order to complete the puzzles. In Syberia, most of the puzzles were fairly logical and not too difficult, although there were a few stinkers. In Syberia II, the puzzles are of the same mix of difficulty. While for the most part interesting, many do rely too heavily on keys to open and wind up mechanical items.

Syberia was a breathtakingly beautiful game in terms of the characters and environments, with incredible detail of characters and scenery alike. It only lacked slightly in the shadowing department, with less attention, comparatively, given to the lighting and shadows. In this sequel, the graphics have actually been improved, if that can be believed, to new levels of clarity and beauty. The snow, the water, the buildings and the people, have to be seen to be appreciated; it is impossible to describe with words how wonderful it all appears. Everything is brighter and more crisp, while still retaining the somber hues that give the game its tone in terms of location and setting. The game’s characters seem to move a lot more while just standing around, with realistic actions while talking to Kate.

The musical score is as dramatic as before, with orchestral overtones to it all. The only other game that I’ve enjoyed the musical score as much while playing is Gabriel Knight II, which featured Wagnerian style music throughout. The sound effects are impressive, with great attention paid to details like the characters walking, and the sounds people usually emit while standing around and making odd movements now and then. The environmental sounds are also handled well, especially the running water and creaking of machines in the wind.

The voice acting, though, is worse in my opinion. Not for the quality of the acting, that’s actually pretty good. The accents are way off, however. The game is set in Russia, but the voices range from a generic, Trans-Atlantic accent to a strange Cockney accent from a pair of brothers with a very Russian name. The grammar is also problematic at times. To be fair, the game is produced by a French Canadian company and is translated into English, but better attention could have been made to matching the voices with the population the voices represent in the game.

As with most adventure games, this is a point and click type adventure, where Kate Walker explores the various locations, picks up items and talks to everyone she can. The dialogue, as before, is in a dialogue tree. If I remember correctly, in the previous game the dialogue couldn’t be accessed later in a journal or other like device for the purpose of refreshing one’s memory. Here, there is a dialogue section in the Menu, but in this Beta version the dialogue isn’t actually available. Hopefully, the completed version will feature an archive for the dialogue.

My family thoroughly enjoyed Syberia, which was an excellent adventure game. I’m looking forward to the official release of Syberia II, and anticipate that adventure enthusiasts will not be disappointed with this sequel.