Along with The Longest Journey, the first Syberia game can be credited with resurrecting the adventure genre. The game boasted a very emotional story, unsurpassed graphics and a high quality soundtrack. Production-wise, the second part of Kate Walker's quest to find the legendary island of Syberia easily surpasses its predecessor. Unfortunately, technical problems and especially a much weaker script detract from the overall value of the game.
The story so far...
In the first Syberia, Kate Walker, a New York lawyer, was sent to secure a toy factory after its last owner died. She discovered that an heir was still alive, and so she decided to find him. Once she did, she learned that he was looking for mammoths in Syberia, and she reluctantly agreed to help him. The second part of this series follows Kate as she helps Hans, the old and mentally challenged heir to the factory, fulfill his dream. They have to cross Russian wastelands, fight natural and not so natural obstacles, befriend a backwards tribe and finally make it over to the island.
One of the main strengths of the previous part was the emotional attachment the player developed with Kate and most of the other characters. Almost everybody I met had a very deep background, and the few hints the people dropped here and there used to spark my imagination. In addition, the journey in Syberia was as much psychological as it was physical. Kate was trying not only to find Hans, but also to get to know him and his motives through people who met him before. I didn't really mind solving puzzles and slowly advancing from one city to the next in my quest to find Hans, as I was being constantly rewarded by additional insight into his personality and previous life. Rarely have I seen such a well-written game, and I've never become so emotionally attached to the characters as in Syberia.
Unfortunately, Syberia 2 seems to be a little rushed in this respect. The story is extremely linear, other characters are very one-dimensional, and solving puzzles is not as rewarding as in the second part. The most disturbing aspect of the story is the relationship between Kate and Hans. Kate adores him and does everything he asks for. He, in turn, treats her like a piece of furniture or another of his automatons. As Kate's alter ego, I felt insulted by his dismissal of all my efforts to solve the puzzles.
The story itself misses the psychological undertone that was so strong in the first part. In this game, your goal is to get from point A to point B, and the whole journey is chopped down into tiny segments, each involving one to six puzzles, which makes the gameplay extremely linear. The developers have tried to offset this deficit by including a parallel story, in which Kate's boss sends a detective to track her down and bring her back to New York, but I couldn't make myself care about the outcome of that story at all.
The puzzles themselves are slightly tougher than those in the first part. While many of them are very logical, there are a few whose solution is almost random, as the clues to solve them appear much earlier in the game or are so obscure that most likely you'll never notice them. Still, there are a few puzzles that I found very original, such as trying to get a lemming through a unique maze.
The interface didn't experience any changes, which I was very happy about. Even though some may complain that a few of the hotspots are hard to notice, I still consider the traditional point-and-click interface the only appropriate one for an adventure game. Unfortunately, the interface also inherited the one serious problem from the first game, the inability to manually combine items, which ruled out a whole category of possible puzzles.
Technical issues
The title experiences a major software conflict with a long list of applications, which you can find on the official support page. In addition, it will not run on certain disk players. If you are unsure whether you have one of those drives, or if you have one of the problematic applications installed, you may want to wait to purchase Syberia 2 until this bug is fixed.
Gameplay - 6
Syberia 2 is a standard, albeit a little short, adventure game. The story, while relatively consistent, lacks the emotional quality of its predecessor, and it's not as rewarding for the gamer. In addition, some of the characters are a little too flat, and some clues for solving puzzles are too obscure to notice. Furthermore, the way the game is structured, where you need to complete a journey but are always held back solving minor problems, may get quite frustrating and is very linear. Finally, a major software bug may prevent the gamer from playing the title. Despite all these problems, the game still offers an above average gameplay experience.
Graphics - 9
The graphics are superb. They have a very subdued, almost poetic quality, with their simple color palette and organic drawings. The game takes great advantage of fog and other weather effects, and the part when Kate is in a dream world offers the most artsy graphics I've ever seen in a game. Just for this part alone the game is worth purchasing and playing. In addition, the title is full of lengthy cut scenes, all of which are very professionally made and fit so well into the context of the game that sometimes I've had problems distinguishing between cut scenes and the regular actions of my character. The only gripe I have here is that the game is locked in a 800x600 resolution, which makes the characters a little jagged on larger monitors.
Sound - 10
Syberia 2 sets a new standard for soundtracks in gaming. This is a title you must play with your headphones on, in order to enjoy the superb soundtrack, which plays almost always, and which creates an unforgettable atmosphere in the game. The voiceovers are also very professional, with all recurring characters retaining their voice actors, and the new characters all sounding very authentic. While some may argue that the main Russian villain didn't sound too realistic with a thick British accent, I found it a nice contrast to all the honest Russians with their accents.
Replay value - 4
Maybe I'm a little spoiled by The Journey to the Center of the Earth, but I found this game too short to warrant the $30 price tag and too linear to make me replay it anytime soon. Syberia 2 has a certain replay value only when combined with the first game in the series, and one day I may replay both. However, as far as adventure games go, this title is a little overpriced.
Overall - 7.3
As a standalone game, Syberia 2 is a very good adventure title. However, as the sequel to the excellent Syberia, it is quite disappointing. The story is too segmented to be enjoyable, the puzzles are not as rewarding as in the first part and most importantly, the game fails to elicit the same kind of emotional response from the player that its predecessor did. In addition, technical problems and a short game length further detract from the overall value of the game. On the other hand, the superb soundtrack and almost poetic graphics make this title eye candy for everybody who likes to relax with a game where the speed of the progress doesn't matter. If you look for a good-looking title where you don't have to use your brain too much, this game is right for you. Serious adventure gamers, however, may want to consider waiting for a price drop or the inevitable Syberia compilation.
