RF Generation Message Board

PARTICIPANTS:
Addicted
BuriedOnMars
Crabmaster2000 (Xbox)
douglie007 (Xbox)
GrayGhost81
MetalFRO
Pam
singlebanana (Xbox)
shane

CHECKPOINTS:
Week #1: May 1st - May 8th: Meet with Oscar and leave town by train
Week #2: May 9th - May 15th: Guide the barge through Barrockstadt Lock
Week #3: May 16th - May 22nd: Interrogate the drunk cosmonaut
Week #4: May 23rd - May 30th: Finish the game.

TIPS & TRICKS:
- Don't us a walkthrough unless you get stuck and after using it to get unhinged, put it back down. Enjoy the game as it makes you happiest, but using a walkthrough to buzz through this game can negatively impact the intended experience.
- Take time to read over all of the documents you find. It will enhance your story experience.
- Know your controls and take a quick look over the manual: (Xbox) Shoulder buttons zoom in and out on documents. Black and white buttons on lower right of controller page through documents.
- Listen carefully to the dialogue. It will often reveal your next location to search, tell you to make a call on your phone (saved directory), or get you where to look for an item.
- Try multiple dialogue choices on NPCs. Often having the correct conversation will lead to your next objective.

The May Playthrough game announcement is here. Who's joining us?

I'm there dude.  I beat this last year, but up for it again

I wanna give this one a go. Probably can't join until 2nd or 3rd week of the month, but better late than never!

Happy to have you guys aboard!

A friend had this on PC way back. Don't think we ever made it anywhere though

Just happened across a cool little article with the creator of Syberia and how he got into games!

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/295079/QA_Benoit_Sokal_on_Syberia_and_his_comics_career.php

This is a game that's been on my to play list pretty much since it came out, but one I never got around to. I'm in!

Somehow I knew that this would be a Pam game. Ha ha!

Also, I'm curious about what system everyone is playing it on, so when you sign up, be sure to let me know and I will update the initial post. Thanks!

Apparently I own this game on Steam. I'll see if I can put aside some time for this game.

I'm gonna have to dust of the old Xbox. Can't remember the last time I fired that sucker up!

Apparently, there's a nice physical Syberia collection on the PS3. It's not cheap though...

Haven't come across it yet unfortunately. I know I have the Xbox version, but I'll upgrade if one happens across my path before next month.

I have it for the original Xbox and ps3.  I played it on the ps3 last time so I think it's Xbox time

Assuming I'm not still totally engrossed in Breath of the Wild, I'm going to say yes, I will join this.  I have the Xbox version, so I'll probably rock that, unless I come across the PS3 version later.

I've owned this for a long time and never played it, and my recent read through the Guide to Classic Graphic Adventures reminded me of it. I'll be playing it as well.

The wife says I will really dig the story in this one so count me in!

So i just found a copy of the game at Game stop for $2.50 (4 for 10 $4.99 and under sale ) on the DS.   I will be playing it on the DS now, just to see what they do differently. I assume the PS3 and Xbox are very close, but the hand held may be very different.

I always thought the DS would be an excellent platform for point and click adventure ports.

getting excited to start playing tomorrow!  I have been playing Dragon Quest 5 on the DS... do I just carry 2 DS systems, one for each game, or chance loosing a cart :)

I started playing this on PC. I will wait to post further thoughts until checkpoints are up, but boy do the visuals remind me of The Longest Journey (on of my favourites) - the characters, the backgrounds. I just lacks the colour palette.

Thanks for posting Pam. My apologies to everyone for not having the checkpoints up yet, I intended to take care of that this weekend, but have been under the weather for a few days. I will have something up soon, but as you know, no plot points can be discussed until the first week has passed. And only then, only things up to the first checkpoint. Anything else about the game is fine to post as long as it doesn't reveal anything essential about the narrative.  If you have some things you want to mention and are worried you might forget them, just use the spoiler tags. Thanks everyone! Hope you enjoy the game.

So as I have been playing the DS version, in some places I try to tap to look as something and she walks to the next area... what I can find is that some objects might only have like a 4 pixel block... I may go back to the Xbox, only because I enjoyed the voice acting, and having to read everything kind of takes from the experience.

Checkpoints are now up! :D

So the music repeats like crazy on the DS, so I turned it off... now there's no sound at all unless I pull up the menu or use an item... now I see why this version got such a bad score

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So I started Syberia last night and I have to say that as odd as it is to play a point and click game (since faster paced games are typically my norm), it's kind of nice to slow it down and really think about what you are doing and what you next move might be.  

The menu is fairly intuitive, but some of the controls (Xbox version) take some getting used to, but I attribute this to more of me being lazy and not reading the instruction manual....  For instance, documents appear sort of blurry and hard to read on my screen, but you can use the shoulder buttons to zoom in and out. Also if you need to turn the page of a document, you have to use the smaller black and white buttons below your typical colored buttons.  The phone is an added feature and it has a history of numbers you can call. If you get a dialogue that you need to call someone, DO IT. Paying attention in this game is key. Seems simple, but it's the simple things that can get you stuck.  Dialogue choices are limited but I like the menu and try to learn everything I can from the various villagers and inhabitants.

However, my biggest advice for this game is...........Don't use a walkthrough unless you are really really stuck.  The worst thing you can do is rush through this game, since a big part of its immersive nature in terms of narrative is slowing you down and getting you to read documents/journals and interact with the NPCs.  I'm always for advocating make the game fun for you, including the use of walkthroughs, but this is a game with puzzle elements and the nature of it is to make you think through situations and explore.  Again, use it if you get stuck, but then, put it down and continue on.

I have to say that even though the inputs can be a little non-responsive, this game is simply beautiful. I am constantly captivated by the amount of detail in the setting of the game.  You can tell that this effort was a labor of love.  The details are impressive and the steampunk and natural environments work really nicely in contrast to each other.

Best of luck to all. I will be posting some Tips & Tricks in the initial post. :D  

I have a big walkthrough problem when it comes to adventure games. I go on my own until I get frustrated, and then I look up a walkthrough. My issue is that once I've cheated once I just keep doing it and walk myself through the whole game.

I'm all for reading and interacting but I'm not a fan of walking through half a dozen screens without knowing what my objective is. There are a lot of screens during the first portion of the game and not a whole lot to do in most of them. When I first left the hotel I went up to every single door, only to find it locked. Finally I found the right building (which is not very distinguishable from the others) and was able to progress. My patience was spent rather early on.

I sure like the automatons though!

I can certainly understand Pam (agree, that building was not distinguishable....I mean it wasn't purple or neon yellow, haha).  I had an issue finding the "key" to where the records were.  Not really the type of key we all assume.  Yeah it seems like there are several screens to navigate that amount to nothing but setting, but it doesn't bother me that much.  I'm so use to playing the King's Quest and Space Quest games of my childhood and grinding like hell in early RPGs like Dragon's Quest, that running around for a while doesn't phase me that much.  I know that at some point I'll have to grab a walkthrough (I mean less than 1 month to complete and limited adult time), but I plan on keeping it brief.

Also, anyone need a copy of Syberia??  I have an extra Xbox copy I'll sell at what I paid.

I'm more with Pam than Rich on the walkthrough question, which should surprise no one who follows us. I get zero enjoyment out of "what the hell am I supposed to do?" scenarios and this game, so far, is full of them.

I'm trying to use the walkthough as more of an "on rails" guide, and then interacting with everything else once the main steps are done to get more of the story context that Rich mentioned.

I agree that the graphics are great (I'm playing on PC) and the voice acting is well done.

As always, it is nice to be playing a game that has been in my consciousness seemingly forever. To me this is the ultimate bargain bin xbox game. I remember there was a copy at my local Rite-Aid for years when I lived in NJ. It's cool to be actually experiencing the game now. I may fire up to Xbox and DS versions too so I can add to the discussion about the version differences.

I wont be able to start until next week, but I always approach adventure games as "if I need a walkthrough it's not a well made or fun game". I don't mind getting stuck or asking a friend for a second set of eyes on a particular puzzle/screen though. Using a walkthrough on an adventure game is akin to the newer Mario games when they give you the Gold Items that let you God-Mode through the level. Why play the game if you're not enjoying it enough to learn the design and improve your skills?

This sentiment seems like a continuation of the Child of Light discussion. For myself, I have no interest whatsoever in "improving my skills," especially in the point and click adventure game genre. All I want to do is cruise through the game and enjoy the story with minimal fristration. It's just a different mindset, and I would just be repeating a lot of what I said in the CoL thread if I elaborated further.

I'm also running behind on starting this game. I'll try to start this weekend as time has been scarce and my article takes priority.

I view RPGs and Adventure games as very similar skill sets. Basically you just need patience in both genres and then neither becomes challenging.

I completely understand someone putting the Konami code into something like Contra to ease the learning curve considerably. With most RPGs and Adventure games where they typically only ask the player to "pay attention" it seems silly to me to cheat your way through.

And to reiterate, I'm not saying to not use a walkthrough, I'm just saying to give it a good ole college try first.  My main point is that a part of the narrative of the game is solving a mystery, so if you as the active participant in this narrative are not willing to take the time to solve the mystery, then you're pretty much selling the experience short.  To me, that's a shame.  Again, I have zero issues with walkthroughs, but not even bothering to struggle a little to get to a solution takes out the designer's intent and disregards all of the work they put into their puzzle designs and the game overall. Hell, if the characters in Scooby Doo didn't work hard to find clues, we would have been pretty damn bored with 3 minute episodes as kids.  

This is what I was trying to get across, but probably didnt do a great job. If you're playing a puzzle game and don't enjoy being puzzled, I guess I just don't get it

When it comes to adventure games, there are all kinds of draws. The story is usually a big one. Sometimes humour. There's an exploration element, which for me is a draw when there are cool things to discover, but a turn-off if it just means me getting lost or not knowing my objective. Puzzles are another factor but there are lots of different kinds of puzzles. There are logic-based puzzles which have a set of rules they play by, like sliding block puzzles (I hate these) or sequence/math/logic puzzles (I love these). Inventory puzzles which may make sense... or may not. Sometimes the solutions are logical, sometimes it gets to the point of just trying to combine every single item. There are conversation puzzles. There are some adventure game puzzles which I really think I would never figure out on my own because my brain just doesn't work that way.

I'm totally willing to trial and error my way through Insult Swordfighting because it's entertaining and funny. Whereas I don't think I would have ever figured out that Gabriel Knight needed to make himself a mustache out of cat fur and maple syrup in order to impersonate this friend (who doesn't even have a mustache) without cheating.

That's a good point and of course Syberia falls mainly under that inventory puzzle category (from what I have seen so far).  The thing about this game is that there are very limited things to interact with; most screens have nothing and those that do typically only have one or two.  Also, this interactive things are easily spotted by simply mousing over an area with a decent sized magnifying glass cursor. I'm finding that if I explore everywhere (which so far the areas aren't what I would call "vast"), I'm finding all the items I need. Sure, sometimes I have to do a little backtracking, but nothing has felt excessive or overly annoying so far.  I guess time will be the biggest tell as to whether what I deem "fair" puzzle play holds up, since I am still early in the game.

Other issues with the DS version if anyone cares lol, they removed some puzzles, so I remember what I need to do and it won't let me, I moved on and I didn't have to do what I was trying for... worst part is they left the dialog referencing the missing puzzles

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Adjusted the first checkpoint to have us finishing the errands and leaving town by train. I think it's just a cleaner checkpoint. ;)

I installed it on Saturday and I feel like I'm getting close to the first checkpoint. The slow walk speed is getting to me. I know I can speed up Kate by double clicking but it still seems slow.

Interesting. There is simply a run button you can hold down on the XBox version.  It's really nice.

My only complaints so far about movements are (1) that sometimes it's annoying to find the proper edge of the screen to be able to move to the next one, and (2) the way the direction you are going can reverse from screen to screen and thus the orientation can make you accidentally go right back to the screen you came from.  Other than these issues, I haven't run into any major issues with the controls. However, I do think that having to do an action to walk up and down stairs is silly.

Convention is over. Should be able to join in the Syber-fun tonight!

So I think I came to a part of the DS game where the puzzle is broken.  Or they removed it, I can't get her to find anything at the school, I have talked to everyone and searched everywhere to move on, I did look online for help but the reviews I found never made it passed the first area, and no walkthrough for the DS... I think I took a game I really liked and ruined it by trying to play the worst port ever.

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You want to Syber with us?? Sicko.

I took Singlebanana's advice and eased up on the walkthrough. But not until after the first checkpoint, so I'll save that for later.

My initial impressions of the game:
- It looks really good, I love the backgrounds
- The story is quite unique, I'm interested to see where it's going
- I feel like the first area of the the town is too large, with too little to do in it. Combined with the slow move speed, even when running, it made this first area seem very slow paced. I'm of the opinion that adventure games should not have too many screens where there is nothing to interact with.
- So far none of the characters are all that likable? Kate immediately kind of bothered me when the first thing she said was how she couldn't possibly carry her luggage another step, and her further complaints about not wanting to pick up a dirty piece of wood or needing a child to push the turnstyle for her made it worse. The clerk in the hotel was lazy and a liar.
- I kinda like the cell phone element, and how it bookends parts of the story. However, I also dread picking up the phone. Who's it going to be? The jerk boyfriend? The jerk boss? The mother who seems to live on another planet?
- I still really like all the scenes with the automatons, and the train scene was great.

Agree on all points Pam. Do you think that the running speed is too slow, or is it that some of the screens are kind of too far stretched in some places?  I also like the use of the phone in this game and think that it's well-implemented.  It makes sense that people would be calling to checkup on her, so I think it fits nicely and gives us a better insight into Kate's background without boring us with a prologue. 

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that porn stars seem to "like" my Syberia posts on Twitter.................no idea why.    :facepalm:

This game still proves its a video game and we can just ignore things like this....

Kate: Look at me I'm an adventurer! What would Dan say now? ... but I won't touch that oar... it's wet.

Game: We don't call them Robots. We call them Automatons (TM).
Gardner: I don't know what to do since the robot died. I have to do all the work.

Game Tester: I think Kate's run animation is too slow.
Game Designer: I know that's why we called her Kate Walker.  :facepalm:

@Addicted - That's hilarious!

I got started tonight. Didn't make it too far yet. Apparently I need to play adventure games more often as I made the biggest rookie mistake and got stuck in the first building because I didn't check my inventory and find my cell phone for WAAAAAY to long. First rule of Adventure game is check your starting inventory and I forgot immediately!!

I'm in the building in the cemetery right now after that initial embarrassment. I like the setting a lot. I'm cool with Kate so far. The Automaton/brother back from the dead thing has me intrigued. I don't have an issue with the walking speed, but I do have an issue with the walking. It's just super sloppy and I don't always end up where I want to go and often end up changing screens when I don't intend to or getting wedged into a corner that I need to work my way out of.

So far everything that Kate has put into her inner jacket would probably actually fit (paper, small cogs, keys, phone), but I'm eagerly awaiting for her to continue to shove objects into her jacket and see when it gets ridiculous.

Also forgot to mention that for such a late Adventure game it's very frustrating to be constantly told I can't interact with things that show up as objects I can interact with.

Speaking of inventory, I don't understand why it's split into two screens. At first I thought the initial page was items you could actually use and the second was items you could only read but that isn't the case. Train tickets and visas are used with people or objects, but go in that seconds screen for some reason. That gave me a bit of trouble at first.

Very true. That's an incredibly unusual and unintuitive design choice.

As I have been playing the game, I too have questioned some of the design choices.  It's important to note that the designer, 
Benoît Sokal's background is in the area of comic art.  I think that Syberia is one of those titles that mirrors it's designer in that while the art is lush and fantastic, the small things (some may argue big) in terms of fluid game design are lacking.  I equate this scenario to a home improvement project that we took on last year.  We had an interior designer come in and tell us all of the creative things that we could do with a space, but then we cut out the middle man and brought in a contractor, who had done the physical work multiple times, and gave us the true options for the space. Not hard to figure out who we went with, right?  In other words, I think that Sokal has the grand vision of how this game would look, the narrative, and what he wanted to include, but when it came to game design, he was a bit out of his realm.  Still, I am quite impressed with this game and getting lots of enjoyment out of it.     

I just finished checkpoint #2.

Did anyone else notice Scruffy just sweeping the same spot back and forth in the first train station?

Also Sam reminds me a lot of Crispin the owl from King's Quest V. I wonder if I'll have to throw a pie at a Yeti in this game.

Kate Walker has the same weakness as Simon Belmont.... stairs.

Got a little further tonight. Opened up the gate that leads to the factory/train/garden that I walked by a bazillion times without noticing. Was really obscured into the background and caused me to wander town for quite a while before stumbling on it by mistake. Makes me nervous that there will be similar items/areas I miss because they are not easily seen.

Stumped at the moment. Used all of the non-paper items I had in my inventory so I'm obviously looking for some new ones to open up more options. I know I need something to pick up the oar......cause its wet (really?!!?), and need something to continue interacting with the machine in the factory and a paper that I can stamp at the notary. Gonna have to do another sweep of these new areas to see where I missed some of those things.

For the oar, make sure you talk to someone for help. ;)

Knowing the developer is a comic artist makes things make a lot more sense. A lot of the time playing this game I was thinking that the levels were designed in a way that emphasized the art and backgrounds without much thought into how they impacted gameplay. As I sort of mentioned before, a lot of screens are pretty but offer nothing for the player to do.

Crabby, I've had some of the same problems with just missing doorways or exits out of a screen.

My ongoing attempts to actually play the DS game is going a little better. I found what was missing, so I can move on now. The one thing is nice, no boyfriend at all in this port. I didn't like his whiney butt.

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I find the most interesting part of this game are the flawed characters. No one can take the moral high ground and everyone's actions are only to further their own agenda. Kate herself has no problem breaking and entering in to a preist's quarters as long as it moves her agenda forward.

I've arrived at Barrockstadt now and have explored the area a bit. I find that pretty much everything I played in my last session was making my suspension of disbelief wear very very thin. Most of the initial game was set in a largely "realistic" type setting. Just a slight suspension of disbelief for some of the mechanical automatons and machines. Oscar REALLY changed that drastically. The game took a drastic nose-dive into fantasy and/or sci-fi that I wasn't expecting with him having some kind of "soul" built into him. And why were his legs made out of wood? Every part of every other Automaton was metal. I didn't understand that. On a side note was there any indication as to what color you needed to choose on that machine for his legs in a journal or something that I overlooked? I had to make him 4 different sets of legs until I got the correct color and don't remember any intel having to do with building parts or legs. Beyond Oscar the University I'm finding to be a huge stretch too. It's grand and massive, yet largely uninhabited. They have things like this humongous Atrium, but it doesn't seem like almost anyone works or attends the school to maintain it or any of the other displays or the epic library, yet the only thing not functioning is the bandstand? Odd.

The story is progression is getting sloppy too. Kate finds out that Hans may still be alive and her only clue is that he could be in Syberia. So instead of buying a plane ticket to Syberia or searching locally for more info she decides to hope on a train with an unknown destination when she knows she was a strict time limit or her job may be in jeopardy? The second she arrives in Barrockstadt the first thing she says to Oscar is "Hans was here!" based on absolutely nothing too.

I'm quite disappointed with the puzzles so far too. Every single one to this point has been incredibly obvious to figure out. The challenge just comes from finding them with the awkward movement and easily miss-able area transitions. Besides getting stalled by not seeing the gate area in Valadilene I overlooked the transition that leads you to Oscar in the factory half a dozen times before just running alongside the edge of every screen hoping for the best. Once you open up these areas and find an item it's always very obvious what to do with each new item though.

The item collection is also very silly. And to be fair this is a problem in nearly all adventure games, but seems more out of place in this one I think because of the real life setting. How are you supposed to know to collect random cogs or ink vials until you encounter a place to use them? Why would a person pick those things up and hold onto them just in case? When at Barrockstadt in a library with tens of thousands of books you climb a ladder and just happen to know you need a very specific book about one kind of wild mushroom? What?? Also I'm gonna steal it along with this book that someone else obviously was interested in and took to the table to read about rare birds too! Was quite the stretch to just assume I need to know the info in those two books without knowing why yet. And the Rectors had incredibly detailed knowledge of a student they had indirect contact with 50 years prior. And Hans can design an Automaton that has a soul, but he can't walk in a green house because he will instantly rust? What?? Priorities man! And that barge and the area it can travel is so convenient it hurts. If there was no boat how was a person supposed to move the train to the rewinding station? And again you can make an Automaton with a soul, but mis-judge where your train needs to refuel by several yards?

I've also encountered 3 glitches all just in my last session. 2 of which were minor, but one could have been quite the issue. After I freed Oscar from his weird crucifixion (why wouldn't he talk to you when you entered the room prior to being lowered?), he left the room. While exploring before deciding to leave he reappeared in his hanging position, but in the spot he was sitting on the table. I wasn't able to interact with him, but I thought maybe I missed something and messed around trying to give him items and speak with him for a few minutes. Upon leaving and re-entering the room he just disappeared.

In a conversation in Barrockstadt both Kate and an NPC say their speech over each other at the same time. This kept happening and I wasn't able to separate them. Didn't seem story relevant though so no biggie.

Most annoyingly when I was in the cave looking or the Mammoth toy I got caught in an animation that wouldn't let me walk, but only pivot. The more I pivoted it would slowly inch my character across the screen off the walking path. This eventually left me completely stuck in the wall and had to reload. Thankfully I only had to replay about 10 minutes to get back where I was, but that could have been a huge issue depending on where I saved. Now I'm a bit paranoid with my saves in case it happens again.

PS - Was kinda funny getting trolled with the service phone call to try and raise the water level for the barge. Part way through I was chuckling to myself about playing a game where I had to phone into a call center and navigate my way through an automated service call, when they told me they couldn't do anything for 48 hours anyway. I've had to do that in real life just this past week to similar results. Who thought that would be fun to put into a video game!!

@Crabby: At first I was jarred by the seperation from reality and then I thought screw it let's see how far down the rabbit hole this goes.

At least it was early enough in the game, unlike something like Uncharted. That one really bugged me.

I used a walk through for the part about Oscar's legs and it said to match them to the colour of the rest of him. But the correct legs didn't match the rest of him, so I don't know. Also, him hanging there and being lowered was extremely creepy.

I'm not having an issue with the lack of believability though. In terms of inventory and things I just accept that as typical point and click fare.

However, I do think the amount of time spent on making the train move is a wasted opportunity. I haven't played through yet, but it seems like we'll be doing that for a third time since there's another stop after Barrickstadt. I don't know what's going to happen when we get to Syberia, but it feels like that would be more interesting than constantly winding up a train and having to do Oscar's bidding (without getting the chance to kick his annoying automaton ass off the train).

Just got to Aralbad today and saved my game. I'm leaving town in a couple days for a week so if I don't finish by then I should still have time to finish it up just before the month's end.

I keep running into the same issue with this game where I get stalled out and can't figure out how to progress and it's always a screen transition that I didn't see in my initial exploration of an area. As soon as I find the new area I make a ton of quick easy progress as nearly every puzzle is super straightforward (although occasionally very roundabout [ie. Rector-Groundskeeper-Paleontologist-Rector-Groundskeeper---Berries!!]). I don't understand how this University survives. Even during the cut-scene with the lecture there was a total of 5 students (one of which kept annoyingly yawning while I was trying to study!!).

I was super pumped to finally get the train wound up again and almost immediately pissed at Oscar for being a tool. I went all the way back to talk to the Rectors and everyone else at the University to get myself a travel Visa because I couldn't spot the screen transition behind his dumb ticket booth. Wasted a lot of time there. I also don't really understand what happened with the general and the weird science powder. I just put some random chemical in his drink that I found in a science lab that made him more open to suggestion instead of poisoned him? Anyone able to shed some light on what that was all about for me?

The next area starts off kinda cool. Abandoned industrial mining operation with huge cool soviet mechs guarding it........then goes promptly into insane and ridiculous territory. Firstly Oscar is useless. He can't come help out because the air might corrode him.....while he hangs out in an extremely open and exposed to the elements train car?!!? What?!!

More importantly than Oscar being a useless tool is that there are a million easier ways to get your train moving again than the ludicrous tasks you embark on.

Spoiler (hover to show)

Launching a Cosmonaut into space off of spring-loaded launch pad so you can learn the secret to starting an automated blimp during your search for an old Opera Star who was last scene at Spa in the middle of nowhere 15 years ago as reported by your mom's current lover that you saw in an old scrap book in order to coax her back to meet a creepy stalker of a fan so that he can show her his elaborate Phantom of the Opera-esque robo-shrine to her which will get your Train Engineer his hands back is just a little bit off the deep end compared to everything else so far. I need to keep playing this just to see if the next chapters get even more insane.

PS - Did anyone else expect the bandstand that you have to fix to play something uplifting and triumphant. It was so melancholy I almost left punished for fixing it!

PPS - I know Dan has got some flack in this thread, but Kate is a tool too. Dan calls to apologize and says something innocent like "you're into mechanical engineering now?" to which Kate replies "Don't be stupid Dan, it's just my automaton Butler and Train Engineer" like he should obviously know all about this stuff that she hasn't told him yet.

Olivia is totally doing Dan though, isn't she?

The DS was even more depressing.. it just played the normal back ground music and a small 2 second video.

I just got to Aralbad in my playthrough. I'm sort of back on the walkthrough again. Not that I couldn't figure things out myself, it's just that if I miss something on a screen it takes so long to get back to it. For example (spoiler tags since this is from the 3rd checkpoint)

Spoiler (hover to show)

It seems like you need to go to the worker automaton in order to trigger Oscar's hands being stolen. So that happens, I talk to Oscar, but I miss the shears on the floor. Then I got back to the automaton, move it twice, get out, look at the building, can't do anything. Go back in the automaton, move it twice, get out, run 5? screens back to the train, pick up the shears. Run back 5 screens, get in the automaton, move it twice, get out, use the shears on the wall. That's a lot for one missed item. And all of that was just to get a spark plug.

There's a lot of back tracking and travel time in the game in general, but when you miss something it gets that much worse.

I've figured out one of my other main issues with the game. There's very little observation on Kate's part. You explore the different areas and get to see some nice art, but there are very few times when Kate will look at something and just comment on it. This is a mainstay of point and click adventures and it really makes it feel like there's something missing. It doesn't seem like exploring rewards me with anything that isn't absolutely necessary for progressing.

Also, I agree with Crabby - Dan and Olivia are totally boning.

You're 100% correct Pam. I couldn't place why this game felt "lacking". It's absolutely that Kate doesn't interact with anything that isn't game essential or with the environment in general or just offer any insight into her character that isn't directly game related  (outside of the cell phone calls). That's an adventure game staple and it's totally absent in Syberia which can make for some dull stretches when you're exploring or stuck.

So sorry to anyone who read my previous posts before I added the spoiler tags. I really really really thought there was a whole other chapter to this game and I was talking within the current checkpoints, but it turns out I was talking ahead of them for sure.

Finished Syberia off tonight:

Spoiler (hover to show)

I was really caught off guard by the credit roll. Felt like I was just finally starting the actual game and then the credits rolled. I basically just played a whole game about starting the same train over and over again. Really thought I'd get some cool Hans revelations or uncover some cool truths about the Yokuls or get to ride a Mammoth, but at the VERY least thought I'd get to Syberia. Ending was far to abrupt and unexpected.

Seems like the point of the game was just to see Kate grow as a person. It failed pretty miserably at that if that was the goal though. If Kate did have some transformation it happened before the game started since she follows a consistent story arc the entire time you have control of her. She likes to remind people on the phone a lot that "maybe I've changed", but the character you control is always the same old Kate from start to finish. She's go with the flow/see where this lead takes me, consequences be damned, inquisitive, bold, confident, cold and distant, humorous, and a poor planner from A to Z.

All in all it doesn't feel like a full story. Maybe should have been called Syberia Chapter 1 or something along those lines because I'm sure Syberia II continues the "adventure" which was not really an adventure until maybe the very end where you had to incredibly easily escape from the stalker that you knowingly (by both his previous behavior AND a warning that he was dangerous from the only person that had lived in close proximity to him for some time) brought a defenseless old lady to be trapped with. Outside of that excitement you're really just doing menial tasks that even Kate rarely seems excited about.  

Like Pam mentioned recently this game doesn't really need a walkthrough. It'll save you some time from searching and backtracking is about all, but the "puzzles" where weak from start to finish and most of which weren't even puzzles. The game is more like a Where's Waldo? book in video game form. Find thing/path and pick it up/take it to progress. Felt like a pre-curser/beta version to an adventure game rather than a full-fledged release.

Curious to know if Syberia II made any improvements over the first.

I was also mistaken that my friend had this on his PC as kids. He must have had the sequel or I confused it with another game since nothing in this game was familiar to me.

Just finished Barrickstadt last night and I have to say that I am having very similar feelings about the game at this point.  In the first chapter, I had a good time with the puzzles, but became quite annoyed with the "how do I get the train to move" fetch quests.  It seems that a lot of your time is spent doing this and as a result, it really takes away from the overall narrative by breaking it up so much with unnecessary running around.  Though the areas aren't excessively large, which makes it easy to know where you are going while constantly backtracking, the constant back and forth to attain items or talk to "the right person" is incredibly time-consuming as you often have to pass through multiple screens with slow ass, stair-challenged Kate.

As far as walkthroughs go, I have only have to peek at one twice so far.  One of these was due to a glitch in the first Chapter of the game. I had made it to the train with only the toy mammoth and no music box (forgot to take it after the animated cut scene).  After placing the mammoth and trying to leave the room, my character would go out of the room, but immediately turn around and walk back into the room.  That being the only exit, I was completely stuck.  Luckily, I had accidentally created two saves and one was about 30 minutes back from where I was.  Still, it was incredibly frustrating and I'm pretty lucky that I didn't have to restart my entire adventure.  From what I have read from a few of you, this game is really buggy.

I can see how the narrative has its holes at times, but I find myself really caring about Kate and having a great deal of sympathy for her.  I think I can identify with having a really crumby job situation (thank goodness I'm in a good place now) and the crappy parasitic relationships in her life.  She seems to be the product of a big city, self-important, and consumer driven environment, and this "quest," as it becomes, makes her a stranger in a strange land and causes her to reevaluate her current situation.  Other than having a useless, robotic companion, she is alone and must power through a great deal of adversity. I don't know, there's just something that clicks with me.  I'm hoping that there is some sort of big epiphany that makes her dump Dan and the lulls of her upper middle class, extravagant lifestyle. 



Congrats Crabby!  I hope that even though you had some issues with the game, that you still got some enjoyment out of it.  Thanks for all of your feedback on this title and we appreciate you joining in the playthrough.

I always enjoy playing along with friends, regardless of the game. It's a pleasure to be able to discuss thoughts on these games with others instead of just having my own thoughts to work with. Much like you I've had this game sitting on my shelf for a long time and I've been curious to try it out. Even though I didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped I would I'm glad to have played through it and get some insight into the series.

I've now finished the game too. I have many of the same thoughts as Crabby.

Spoiler (hover to show)

Those end credits do come as somewhat of a surprise. I can't say I'm satisfied with the story of the game. I figured, with a name like Syberia, that we would actually get there at some point. It almost seemed liked this was a very lengthy episode 1 of a series. This thought was reinforced when, after the credits, the game asked me if I wanted to play Syberia 2 - though clicking yes did nothing.

I guess the main driver of the game, from the beginning, was getting that contract signed to sell the toy factory. Not a super interesting thing to build a game around but a thread that persisted all the way though. You can also look at it as a journey of self-discovery for Kate. She travels, learns about herself and decides she'd rather go on adventures than return to her superficial friends and lawyer job. As a concept this is fine, but the game didn't really sell it. I agree with Crabby that Kate doesn't really seem to develop or change. I think my earlier point of not getting any of Kate's inner thoughts is a big part of this. But also, I just don't buy that spending 90% of the game getting a train to move and doing menial tasks would cause one to leave their old life behind. Sure, the travel is nice, but the rest of the game and things Kate had to do were hardly a rollicking good time.

I've been pretty absent from this thread so far for two reasons. I didn't want to be too negative and also all of you guys have already posted all of my thoughts exactly here on the thread.

As we discussed last month, nobody is expected to love every game we play, all we tacitly ask is to tell us how you feel without being a Beavis or a Butthead. Having said that, I have to agree with the consensus that the gameplay here was rather hollow at best, the characters were completely unlikable, and the story is completely lacking. The best thing the game had going for it was the visuals, but they were negated by how little interactivity there actually was. The music was good, but the voice acting was hit and miss, with some of it being atrocious.

I don't want to speak too much for Rich, but I think both he and I were hoping for much more with game. I found making Kate "WALKER" walk around was almost more than I could handle, and I found myself checking my phone, or a book, or some points even playing my PSP while Kate took her leisurely strolls.

Many times for these playthroughs I have come out of my comfort zone and been rewarded for it. This is not one of those times. Though it is by no means broken or unplayable, Syberia may very well be my least favorite game we've ever done.

When looking up the original PC version of the game, I see it got overwhelmingly positive reviews. I'm wondering where the disconnect is. Some games don't age well, but I don't really think this game suffers too much from the passage of time. I have gotten a little more impatient with adventure game puzzles, but the puzzles were the least of my complaints. Graphically it still looks pretty good.

Maybe it was so widely enjoyed because adventure game fans were just desperate for games in the genre at this point? In 2002 the big adventure game studios, LucasArts and Sierra, had pretty much given up on the genre. There were still good point and click adventure games out - Broken Sword series, The Longest Journey (which I think is the closest parallel to Syberia but superior in every day), some of the earlier Sherlock and Agatha Christie games, but these were not as popular or well known. Maybe people just really wanted a new adventure game? (I just talked about the "death" of adventure games in a video I recorded so this topic is top of mind right now).

I just finished the DS version they really rushed it, the bulk of the story was there just most of the puzzles where gone and all of the npcs that didn't have to go with the plot was taken out, I see why it got a 4 out of 10

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I was going to save some of this for later but I agree with Pam 100%. The answer to the question of why Syberia exploded is marketing. Syberia had a huge marketing push behind it. Take a look at who provided the quotes on the back of the Xbox version. The quotes also signify the target audience.

http://www.rfgeneration.com/cgi-bin/getinfo.pl?ID=U-075-S-05680-A&type=bb

From Rock Paper Shotgun regarding Syberia 3:

The original Syberia was released in 2002, a time during which I paid my rent by writing reviews of the endless sloughing of barely translated adventure games from Europe into our shores. Games like Curse: The Eye Of Isis, Dracula (Resurrection), The Black Mirror, Schizm: Mysterious Journey, and Jerusalem: The 3 Roads To The Holy Land. (All of which are reviewed in my archaic archive of early reviews, fans.) And oh boy, the hate I would receive for giving these dreadful games the low, low marks they deserved. Oh the forum wars that would erupt, the furious missives on the PC Gamer message boards, the angry letters. Because, as I’ve said before and I’ll say again, adventure game fans are like heroin addicts: any game is a hit.

Into this mire of bubbling shite appeared Syberia, looking like it was going to be exactly the same as the rest, the same overly glossy pre-rendered sheen, the same generic white 20-something like-a-cop female with a mobile phone that starred in 90% of them, the same ludicrous premise and cruddy menus. Here I went again, I thought. And then, out of the blue, like a shining golden goblet atop a mountain of rotting arse, it was… fine.

I gave it 78%! This was a game about a New York lawyer who’d been sent to France to sort out some sort of issue with a will over a clockwork toy factory. Why? Because it was 2002, man, you weren’t there. But as dull as that premise might sound, it belied a sweet, moving story of a broken family, an attempt to understand the life of a recently deceased brilliant mind, and the experience of his astonishing (well, impossible) clockwork automatons. It dealt with autism with a delicate hand, in an era when it still wasn’t being sensibly discussed. And it wasn’t terrible!

It wasn’t great, of course. It was fine. Fine! Which, in those dire years, meant it was The Holy One, to be revered like the appearance of Jesus in some bridge mold, adventure game fans making pilgrimages to its birthplace. So, when two years later a sequel was released, expectations were high. Or, you know, moderate, because the first game had been fine.

One of the best quotes I've read about this game:

Syberia is noteworthy for bringing many of the best characteristics of Myst and its imitators into a third person game. At the time it was made I think those were the best graphics in a third-person adventure game ever.

Thanks for quoting that article Addicted. I looked it up and read the whole thing and really enjoyed it. I'd personally rate Syberia as much lower than a 78%, but it does put things in context.

@Pam: You're welcome. I've heard the period from 2000-2005 described as the great European Adventure Game gold rush. From 2000 to around 2004 globalization we were seeing the effects of globalization and how technology came to dominate our lives and Syberia deals with this in some interesting ways.

Very awesome to see the game put into perspective like that Addicted!

I just have to say that the great discussions on the playthrough forums over the last few months have been what I envisioned when I came on to help take them over several years ago.  Thank you all so much for playing and taking the time to put down your thoughts!  Though we may not always respond to each comment, none of them go without being read.  THANK YOU! 

It was poring rain today so I was able to stay inside and put a few more hours into Syberia.  Seems like I'll only be repeating what has already been said here.  Love the backgrounds but the gameplay is is meh overall.  I feel like I 'm just walking around more than doing something.  I can't like everything, I guess.  I like the Steam punk robots though!  I'm going to get a head start on Enslaved instead of finishing this one.  I'll listen to what you guys have to say about the ending on the show.

Syberia parts 1 & 2 are currently 99 cents each on GOG in case anyone wants to continue the story....

https://www.gog.com/promo/20170529_weekly_sale?pp=4d89d294cd4ca9f2ca57dc24a53ffb3ef5303122

Finished the game today. Interesting ending....

Last day of our Syberia playthrough.  Seems we've had a lot of good discussion so far, but curious to hear some other final thoughts.  We are recording this Friday, so if you have any questions regarding the game, or just for us in general, please let us know.

As always, thanks for joining us for another great month of playthroughs!

Just no one ever torture themselves with the DS version

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We will be sure to mention that. Ha ha! Thanks for the effort.