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79 of 82 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Kate Walker, Hans Voralberg and Oscar head for Syberia, September 7, 2004
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.
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29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Syberia II a stunning completion of Kate and Hans journey., April 1, 2004
Montréal-based Microïds and artist Benoît Sokal have teamed up once again to bring us the final chapter to Syberia, a mythical island where mammoths still roam. In 2002's Syberia (rated Game of the Year), promising New York lawyer Kate Walker traveled to France to oversee a simple factory buyout. The factory owner, Anna Voralberg, had died, and left a mysterious heir--her brain-damaged brother, Hans, who was somewhere deep in the Russian tundra. Kate journeyed across a Europe recovering from the scars of Communism in order to find the heir and be done with it, but along the way she began to care about Hans and his fantastic mechanical creations. The first Syberia ended with Kate jumping aboard the train in Aralbad, leaving her past and journeying towards an unknown future in Hans' quest to reach Syberia.Syberia II picks up at that exact point, with Kate and Hans rocketing along in the snowy wilderness towards Syberia. As in the previous game, there are four worlds to discover: the gloomy border town of Romansbourg, the vast Great North Passage, the Youkol Village and the Last Voyage. Kate revisits Valadilene, Hans' birthplace, in a sepia-toned dream sequence (the haunting music here sounds as if it was composed by Danny Elfman, i.e. haunting chimes, bells and soloists). In addition to Kate, Hans and Oscar (the cowardly automaton train driver), several characters from the first game have cameos here as well. There are multiple new characters to aid Kate on her quest: the spunky orphan Malka, Colonel Emeliov Goupatchev, bartender and surrogate parent Cirkos, a Youkol chief and shaman. There are enemies that threaten to end Kate's quest: the stern Orthodox Patriarch and bumbling villains Igor and Ivan. Animal characters also play an important role in Syberia II: the spirit guardian Harfang, lemmings, man-eating penguins (!), ferocious grizzly bears, and a Youki, a loyal dog-seal hybrid bred by the Youkol people. There are several notable improvements from the first game, including major graphics improvements: reflections in water and glass, ice textures, and uniform fabric and decals; real time snowfall and footstep marks; dynamic lighting and shadows; animated fog; and better in-game animation. The cutscenes are gorgeous and numerous, and can be replayed at any point. The music is as immersive and beautiful as in the first game, and cycles in and out of gameplay. For much of the time the only sounds are of Kate's footsteps, snow gently thudding off branches and roofs, and nature sounds (birds, wind, wolves howling, ice cracking). The puzzles are more organic in nature than the first game and there is more of an action element: Kate must rock climb, scale antennae towers, swing across chasms and outwit attackers (human and animal). An interesting (but unnecessary) subplot involves a detective hired by her employer to hunt Kate down and bring her home. Kate's cell phone, a crucial element in the first Syberia, has several brief appearances, but Kate generally hangs up mid-call (If I were her I would have thrown it off the train!). Syberia II has much more of a spiritual element based on Youkol medicine and shamanism (you must make a Youkol potion, summon a spirit guide, and journey into a spirit world), and the ending ties up storylines from both games. There are several tear-jerker moments in the game. There are optional subtitles for the hearing-impaired, a "Syberia recap" that neatly packages the major events of the first game into an entertaining trailer for those not familiar with the Syberia universe, and replay option for cinematic cutscenes. Syberia II is visually stunning, thought-provoking and a more than satisfying sequel that lives up to the impossibly high standards of the first Syberia. Bravo!
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39 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Quest left me cold, July 27, 2004
Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars
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.
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