Modern Game Weekly - Syberia

Welcome to Modern Game Weekly, this series will be focussed on more recent releases and is based around the 0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games series, with information on what the game is, the gameplay, story, critical reception and availability of the game. The story section will not be the entire games story, just a small section to give you an idea of the plot, spoilers will be kept to a minimum where possible.

The games chosen for this series are at random from my own ratings database, the database currently contains the majority of console releases from 2016 to February 2018 with releases up to April of 2015 added as well, with each game rated and ranked. Each game has their own rating broken down into five different sections.

The first is the numbered ratings, this uses a scale of 0 to 100 with a total of 10 of these ratings. One of the things that a part of this rating are critic review scores, these scores come from all console platforms the game is released on.

So for example Okami HD, which was recently released on PS4 and Xbox One, as well as previously being released on the PS3, all three of these releases factor in on the games overall rating. As a result shoddy ports of a game will seriously hurt the games overall score.

The reviews section takes a total of 12 reviews for the game if that number are available, both the six best review scores as well as the six lowest scoring reviews for the game, this covers reviews for console releases only. Information here will not be full reviews but snippets that stand out from the reviews.

The Availability section works exactly the same with a look at how available the game is assuming they are not digital only releases, with retailers Gamedude, eStarland and Amazon.com, while Retrogames may feature as older games are added to my database, the site currently only covers games up to the Xbox 360 and PS3 era.

Syberia not to be confused with the 1994 MS-Dos game Cyberia is a 3^rd person graphic adventure with puzzle elements and a steampunk aesthetic that was developed by Microids and first released all the way back in 2002. The game has been a feature of the last 16 years with the game re releasing on multiple platforms during that time.

The games initial released was for Windows back in 2002 with the game releasing worldwide, the game was adapted for console release the following year with the game releasing on the original Xbox and PS2. 

The game would also get a port in 2014 to the next generation of these consoles, the Xbox 360 and PS3, in addition to mobile platform releases and a Nintendo DS release back in 2008.

Even to this day the game is still relevant with it receiving another re release as recently as 2017 when the game was released for the Nintendo Switch. Nintendo’s latest system received a release of the game worldwide on the 20^th of October 2017.

Notable people who worked on the game, Benoît Sokal who is best known for his work as a comic artist and his Inspector Canardo series. He has however been involved in the video game industry since 1999 and the previously covered game Amerzone The Explorer's Legacy, with Sokal designing the game, writing the scenario and being Art Director on the game.

He would also play a major role in the development of Syberia and the Syberia series as a whole, with Sokal working as Art Director on both Syberia and Syberia II, he was the Author for all three Syberia games as well as working on the Game Design for all three games. Sokal also worked on the 2006 title Paradise and the 2007 title Sinking Island.

Nicolas Cantin who worked as 3D Modeler and Texturing on Syberia went on to become Lead Artist on the follow up Syberia II in 2004. Following this Cantin would go on to work on Assassin’s Creed in 2007 as the Pre Production Art Diector.

Following his work on Assassin’s Creed he went to work on Tom Clancy’s EndWar as the UI & Menus Art Director. Most recently he worked on the 2014 reboot of Thief, with Cantin working as the games Art Director and Production Director.

Frédéric Gagné who worked as the Lead 3D Animator on Syberia, as well as being Lead Animator on the sequel in 2004. Following this he would go on to work on Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands before moving on to the Assassins Creed series.

Gagné worked on five Assassin’s Creed games with Brotherhood, Assassin’s Creed III, Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag, Rogue and Syndicate all on his resume, with Gagné working on the Production side of development. His most recent credit is for the 2017 release For Honor with Gagné working as a Producer for Ubisoft Quebec.

Patrik Méthé who worked as a Game Designer on the first two Syberia games would later go on to work in the same role for the 2010 released Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction. He would later go on to work on both Far Cty 3 and Far Cry 4 as a Production Director.

Syberia is a third person graphic adventure and puzzle game that was originally released on PC as such the original release of the game was mouse driven, with the player having to solve various puzzles and follow a certain approach in order to progress the games story. The games mechanics are very similar to those that were introduced in Broken Sword, but with the latter having slightly more action for a point n click adventure.

For any controls that are mentioned in the game, they will be for the PS3 version of the game. Syberia is made up of interconnected screens that the player traverses through solving puzzles and unravelling the games story as they progress.

The games player controlled character Kate Walker is manoeuvred through these screens with the left analogue stick. While taking many cues from games like the Broken Sword series the game is not a point and click adventure, as the left analogue stick moves Kate around the various screens. Kate can also run, when moving the left analogue stick if you press either L2, R2 or R1 Kate will begin running.

While traversing around the games locations, like many adventure games various icons will appear, these icons signify what actions Kate can take. The first of these is the movement cursor, this appears as a circle with a direction arrow pointing in the direction that you will move to the next screen.

Other characters that can be talked to have an icon that is in the shape of a magnifying glass, just like the inspect cursor but the speech cursor has a speech bubble within the magnifying glasses lens area. When interacting with NPC, Kate’s notepad will appear on the top left of the screen, on the notepad will be the various topics that you can discuss, using either analogue stick or up and down on the D-Pad will scroll through these topics.

Pressing X the action button on one of these topics will initiate a conversation between Kate and the NPC, the games NPC’s are all voiced with a dialogue box also appearing at the bottom of the screen. To back out of a conversation the Circle button is used.

The inspect cursor which appears as the previously mentioned magnifying glass appears in areas that Kate can inspect more closely, when inspecting an area more closely for example a desk, the game will zoom into that area with the camera focusing in on the desk as you inspect.

There are two other types of cursor, the interacting with an object of using an item in your inventory are shown as a half magnifying glass with it attacked to the item that can be interacted with. The fifth and final cursor is the hand cursor, this appears when an item can be picked up.

Any item that has been picked up by Kate can be found in the item menu, items on this menu can be selected for example a key, the player moves over to the desired item and presses the X button, a small icon will appear on the bottom right of the screen to signify that the item is equipped.

Also on the item menu you can re read any letters or notes that you have picked up, again moving over to the desired item and pressing the Triangle button will bring up the document for you to read, the documents are displayed very clearly and are very easy to read. You can navigate through longer letters by pressing up or down to scroll through the documents.

Kate also has access to a mobile phone for contacting her various sources, pressing the L1 shoulder button will bring up Kate’s phone in the bottom left of the screen. Hitting either up or down on the D-Pad will scroll through your available contacts, pressing the action button X will ring that contact. Kate will also receive intermittent phone calls from contacts, such as her boss.

Puzzles in the game are inventory based with the player picking up the various items that are needed to complete the puzzles. There are also mechanical puzzles, where the player must fix a mechanism in order to progress.

One example of this is one of the earliest puzzles where the player needs to find four cogs to fix a door mechanism, these cogs are found in the opening village, once collected the player then must select them from their inventory and put them in the correct position to repair the door.

The player controls Kate Walker a lawyer that been sent to a remote French village to finalise the take-over of a Toy Factory. Upon arrival In the village Kate learns that the woman who owned the factory has recently passed away.

Once Kate has arrived in the French village of Valadilene and witnessing the funeral of Anna Voralberg, the owner of the factory, she heads off to the Notary to finalize the purchase of the toy factory. Once she finds the Notary she is informed that Anna on her death bed revealed that her brother is not dead and lives somewhere in the North East.

With this new found information Kate must set out and find Anna’s brother, Hans Voralberg who has now become the sole owner of the toy factory after Anna’s death, and as such the factory can not be sold without Hans’s approval.

With no other options available to Kate she sets out in the search for Hans, during Kate’s research she found out that Hans was injured in his attempts to retrieve a prehistoric doll of a man riding a mammoth, the resulting injuries stunted Hans’s development leaving him mentally handicapped and Hans’s sole goal since is to find mammoths to ride as the doll depicts.

Starting with the Zero2Zed rating for the game, Syberia starts off with a good opening score with an 80, however the games first half ratings take a nose dive quickly with a 73.6 the next rating, with the game hitting a low of just 66.6 for the first half ratings.

The second half scores while saving the game from falling into the deep dark pit of averageness, the final rating on the second half a 73.3 definitely saving it. Only just however with the second have scores quickly hitting the low to mid 60s range, with the game bottoming out with a disappointing 43.3 rating.

Critic reviews play a major part in this scoring system and Syberia received a very mixed reception, while the game was quite well received on the switch and got plenty of decent scores on the original Xbox, it was the port to the PS3 that hurt the games overall performance. With Syberia hitting lows as bad as a 20 from one critic and a 40 from another. A good number of average 50 scores also hurt the overall rating of the game

Grading wise the games first half grades stared promisingly with a B grade, this B grade however was for an 80 rating, which is never a good sign when this is the first score. Things rapidly went downhill from here with two C+ grades and two C’s to round off the first half of grades.

The second half was not better with the game peaking at a C+ grade, with three C- grades as well. The game however took a serious nose dive for the final grade with Syberia hitting a E+. On a final note, while the console version was received with a mixed response from critics the PC version of the game was well received and is recommended over the console version.

On to the first critic review which comes from XGN for the Switch port of the game, the reviewer rating the game at a very good 90. the reviewer found Syberia for the Switch to be a beautiful game with a  great story. The reviewer did find that the games visuals do sometimes look dated they still found the game to a classic that you should play.

Next up are Cheat Code Central with a second 90 rated review, this review is for the original Xbox port of the game. the review had the following to say on the game, Syberia is anything but old school. It possesses a life of its own which is altogether unique, otherworldly and strangely believable.

The next review is another original Xbox review, this one coming form GameSpot who rated the game at a good 81. the review finding that aside from a few rough spots, Syberia is a superb adventure with an engrossing story.

The reviewer also found the game world to be truly imaginative, and with stunning visuals, moving story, memorable characters and puzzles that are enjoyable. Concluding the reviewer had the following to say on the game. you get a superb gaming experience. Syberia proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the adventure game genre is still full of life.

Heading back to the Switch for the next review which comes from NintendoWorldReport who rated Syberia at a good 80. The reviewer finding that Syberia is an ideal game for the winter, with it’s roughly 10 hour story and is not a high action title that makes you have to have quick reflexes to win.

They continued by saying. There are no guns, fights or scary scenes, just a good adventure with some engrossing puzzles. The reviewer found that for them the game was best played in handheld mode, the reviewer iterated that there were no issues when in docked mode, just that the game felt better as a moble game. Concluding the reviewer had the following to say. I am interested in seeing where Kate goes next, which makes this great, as both the sequels are also already on Switch as well.

Official Xbox Magazine are next up with another 80 rated review, the reviewer found the game to have lavish graphics and cinematic cutscenes, with the review commenting that they are worth the $19.99 price tag alone, while the reviewer did find a couple of annoying bugs, they do not take away from it being a mature, intelligent journey that will entice any true adventure fan.

Back to the Switch and the review from Cubed3 who rated the game again at a good 80, with the reviewer praising the work done by Microids in their porting of the game to the Switch. With the reviewer finding that Kate Walker's epic first adventure in Syberia is every bit as gripping today as it was 15 years ago when originally on PC.

The reviewer finding that the game fits perfectly with the new Nintendo System, with the reviewer commenting that it bodes well for the upcoming Syberia II and Syberia 3 releases. Concluding the reviewer said. Hopefully this is the first of many point-and-click adventures brought across to Nintendo Switch.

Heading to the other end of the review scale we find out first PS3 review which comes from Gameblog.fr, the reviewer find the game as a real personality that emerges from its décor and special atmosphere. The reviewer did however have some issues with the port on the whole with This port on PS3 / Xbox 360 and mobile platforms Apple offers a simple transposition of the title, adapting its handling pad and touch screens, after an Android version already released a while ago.

The reviewer found the PS3 port of the game to have jerky or bugged movements as well as some camera angles that prove very troublesome. Concluding while the reviewer found the game to have a real personality and well written story, the overall game has not aged well, coupled with something of a lazy port and movement and camera angles that can be horrifying at time.

PSNStores are next up with a 50 rated review, the reviewer finding that in the end Syberia is old, while the reviewer says this is not a bad thing, some aspects of the game they found like the writing, movement and direction have aged with time. The reviewer did however find that the style of the world, puzzles and story make up for the shortcomings.

GameOver.gr are next up with another 50 rated review, the Greek publications reviewer had many technical issues with the game, with environments on a modern screen looking dull, faded and ambiguous, and being unable to hide their age.

The reviewer continued by saying. It is truly sad that a text based on the beloved Syberia is spent on technical issues, but unfortunately these are the ones that disturb more than anything, since they really do damage to the experience.

The reviewer had major issues with the character movement, screen freezing when moving between scenes and some low resolution envoironments. Concluding the reviewer had the following to say. Syberia is an all-time classic which we adore. On the other hand, this edition is deeply flawed, never doing justice to the original vision of the creators.

We head over to the Switch for the next review and another 50 rated review this time from Switch Player. The reviewer finding that even thought the game is 15 years old it features reasonably good voice acting and beautifully detailed locations. The reviewer praised the port for the inclusion of touch controls which makes portable playing on the switch a breeze, the reviewer also found that the controls have been tightened up as well.

However the reviewer found the puzzles in the game leave a lot to be desired, with the reviewer finding that the puzzles are there for the sake of being there. The reviewer was also critical of the sheer amount of walking in the game, with the reviewer once having to walk through six empty screens to pick up a single item.

The reviewer also had issues with the Switch’s HD screen, with the choice of 4:3 aspect or to play in widescreen, the latter the reviewer found just stretches everything out and leaves them looking a disproportionate mess. While the reviewer did admit this is more a symptom of the game being a direct port of the original release, the reviewer did find that it does expose the minimal optimisation made to the game.

Concluding while the reviewer did enjoy playing Syberia, they took real issue with the price of the game, £26 for a straight port from the original with no enhancements except for some controller adjustments, which the reviewer found doesn’t add up.

The reviewer continued by saying. It’s not as if the Switch’s unique feature – portability – is new as the game is also available on iOS and Android. Seeing Syberia knocking around on other platforms for, at most, less than half the price is a joke.

The penultimate review comes from Xbox Nation Magazine who rated the game at a below average 40, the reviewer finding that the Xbox port of the game appears to be a rush job, with the reviewer finding the game riddled with inexcusable bugs and persistent crashing as well as invisible walls that prohibit movement.

For the final review we head back to the PS3 version and the review from DarkStation who rated the game at a poor 20, with the reviewer playing through the first chapter of the game before quitting in disgust and frustration, with the reviewer finding the PS3 version a half assed product.

The reviewer continued by saying. Anuman broke what didn’t need to be fixed and in the process, they killed the magic. I’m left asking myself, why does it exists? Was it some contractual agreement? Who is this for? Nostalgic PC gamers? They already have the better version.

Concluding the reviewer said. Is someone trying to capitalize on Grim Fandango’s re-release buzz? Did someone need quick money? Whatever the reason, the best thing to do is walk away. Don’t waste the money on this incredibly inferior product when the better one is just a few mouse clicks away (to purchase Syberia from Good Old Games

This is the part of Modern Game Weekly where is visit four online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com, eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk for older generation titles and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific, but from a podcast I listen to, I’ve heard they have a huge stock of games, Ebay has now been dropped unless the game is unavailable at other retailers.

So lets get down to business with Gamedude and starting with the Playstation versions of the game. where we don’t find the Playstation 2 release of the game listed, the same goes for the Playstation 3 release of the game. So we will quickly move on to the Xbox releases of the game.

We find the original Xbox version of the game listed, if you are looking to trade in your copy of the game you will be looking at just 5 cents for your copy. If on the other hand you are in the market for an original Xbox copy, you will only have to pay $2 for a copy from Gamedude. The Xbox 360 version of the game is not listed on Gamedude, neither is the Switch version of the game.

Moving on to Retrogames.co.uk where we don’t find any copies for any system available. So we will quickly move on to eStarland.com. Where we find the original Xbox version of the game listed, with two copies currently available.

The first of these copies is a disc only copy of the game, this copy is priced up at $4.57. The second copy that is currently on the market comes without a manual and is priced up at $4.68. Also on offer at eStarland is a trade in for this game, with up to $1.75 being paid for a complete copy of the game.

This is the only home console version of the game that is listed at eStarland.com, these is also listed the Nintendo DS version of the game. With two copies on offer the first is a cart only copy which is priced up at $8.13. The second copy on offer is a used and complete copy of the game on offer for $12.50. A trade in is also offered with up to $5.50 being paid for a complete copy of the game.

Lastly we head over to Amazon.com where we find the Nintendo Switch version of the game, the original Xbox version and the Xbox 360 version listed. Starting with the Switch version we find only three physical copies of the game available, all three of these are new copies of the game.

Prices for one of these new copies start from $28.44, this copy comes with free shipping as well. The second new copy on offer is priced at $29.94 once shipping fee have been added in. The final new copy on offer is shipped by Amazon and is price significantly higher at $39.99.

The Xbox 360 version of the game has a good supply available on Amazon.com where we find the cheapest complete copy of the game is priced up at $7.46 and comes in good condition. We find a copy with a professionally refurbished disc and comes complete with case, manual and covers for $8.85, another couple of very good condition copies are also available for $8.99 and $9.58.

If you are looking for a better condition used copy there is a handful of like new copies on the market, these start from $11.76, with like new prices reaching a current price high of $29.09. A fair number of new copies of the Xbox 360 version are available, with prices starting from $18.97, with a decent number priced between this and the $20 mark, with most copies peaking at the $29,95 mark, a few new copies do go beyond this point with a current price high of $44.58

Lastly we have the original Xbox version of the game, this version has two listing on Amazon.com the first under Syberia by Microsoft, for this listing we find two copies listed the first is a good condition and complete copy for $14.99. This copy is however shipped by Amazon, so the free shipping will only apply to Prime users and those spending $25.

The second copy that is on offer for this listing is a new copy of the game, this copy will set you back a significant $65.34 once shipping costs have been added in. Moving on to the second listing, this one is titled under B Sokal Syberia and we find three copies on offer.

The first copy on offer is a good condition and complete copy of the game for $12.66. A second used copy, this time in very good condition and also complete can be picked up for $13.49. The final copy that is available is a new copy of the game, this one can be picked up for the more reasonable price of $35.

Written by

P J Gibbon