May 2017 Playthrough - Syberia

[MetalFRO]

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.

[shane]

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.

[BuriedOnMars]

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

[douglie007]

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.

[shane]

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.

[douglie007]

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

[Pam]

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.

[singlebanana]

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.

[douglie007]

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.

[singlebanana]

Checkpoints are now up!

[douglie007]

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

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[singlebanana]

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.  

[Pam]

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 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!

[singlebanana]

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.

[singlebanana]

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