May 2017 Playthrough - Syberia

[singlebanana]

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

You want to Syber with us?? Sicko.

[Pam]

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.

[singlebanana]

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. 

[singlebanana]

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

[Addicted]

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. 

[Crabmaster2000]

@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.

[Crabmaster2000]

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.

[Pam]

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!!

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.

[Crabmaster2000]

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!!

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.

[singlebanana]

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.     

[Addicted]

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.

[Crabmaster2000]

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.

[singlebanana]

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.

[Pam]

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.

[douglie007]

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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