Syberia PC
User Score
8.6 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 85 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 78 out of 85
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 85
  3. Negative: 4 out of 85

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  1. smijatov
    Dec 22, 2010
    4
    Graphically, the game is just beautiful!! It is a lot of fun wondering around in such a nicely made environment. However, the game definitely is a bit boring, i'd say. The puzzles are kind of annoying, especially since there is only one way of going around things. I don't know, but I did not like the lack of freedom due to that. Still, worth a bit of playing...
  2. slippery
    Aug 19, 2012
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I have played a lot of adventure games over the years. I've played interactive-story type games, exploration games, rpg-adventure games, escape-the-room type games and a lot more. So I'm not new to adventure games, and I'm not new to games that are long on story and short on action.

    Syberia is a game with very few good points and very many problems.

    The game is beautiful. There's no doubt about it. Now, I started playing games with Pong and Space Invaders, so graphics aren't a big deal to me. But I will say this game is beautiful to look at. However, I would much rather have had much simpler 2d graphic environments and a much better story and much better gameplay.

    1. This game is not finished. I don't mean the plot. I mean the scripts are full of errors. Somebody should have gone back and done some proofreading.

    2. There are several things in this game that, in terms of science and physics, simply don't make sense. And I'm not just talking about the highly improbably c3po-clone who drives the train. Throughout the story I found myself shaking my head at the naivety and just plain ignorance of some of the ideas here.

    3. There were several items that were crucial to the plot that I would not have found without a walkthrough, such as a very small book on a table, or a shelf at a bar where there was nothing to really attract my attention to it, and it was placed quite insignificantly. Likewise there was a door that was crucial to the plot that was very easy to overlook.

    4. The game doesn't have "puzzles" really, or at least not many. Many of the so called "puzzles" are really just a matter of "find A and take it to location X". There were a few things that I found that needed to be done in a certain order, but there wasn't really very much that made me think. There were a few things that had a kind of silly trick to it, but nothing that required logic.

    5. Wasted space and wasted opportunities. There were too many locations where the only thing available to do was to walk to the next location. Sure, it's pretty, but there were no branches, no items, just space. Early in the game there were a frustrating number of "Nope, it's locked" and "No need to go down there." moments. So why have a hotspot at all? With so few hotspots in the game, it was kind of frustrating to find one only to be told that it doesn't do anything.

    6. All of these problems though, I could really overlook if there had a been a stronger plot. The characters in this game are universally abhorrent. I found virtually no one in the game who WASN'T selfish, petty, obtuse, self-important, or simply weak. Even the main character early in the game refuses to get her boots wet and refuses to get a piece of wood from a river because it's wet and dirty ... so she asks a local boy to do it.

    SPOILERS
    The bright spot to the plot was the relationship between the characters Anna (who at the beginning of the game is dead) and her brother Hans. Told through letters, objects and flashbacks, the story -while somewhat improbable- is nonetheless touching.

    The story arc concerns the main character's attempts to find Hans. Being that she's a lawyer, she should know that she does not need Hans. Hans has been declared dead. So the face that townspeople have a rumor that he's still alive is pointless. She could have used Anna's correspondence to show that she intended to sell the factory and gotten the sale put through probate. Let Anna's lawyer deal with the probate and inheritance issues. It's not the main character's job or concern. But this is a technicality in comparison to the fact that the whole plot takes us on a journey during which;

    MAJOR SPOILERS REGARDING ENDING
    The sale of the factory is not resolved (as the main character does not return home with the papers), Syberia is not actually visited, Hans's obsession with mammoths is not made in any way relevant as anything other than a plot complication, and despite the main characters alleged evolution, she remains unconvincing as she still has not actually resolved any of the personal problems she's faced over the phone ... unless you count running away.

    All in all, I found the game amateurish and disappointing.    … Expand

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
82 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 27 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 23 out of 27
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 27
  3. Negative: 1 out of 27
  1. Four Fat Chicks
    100
    It is really hard for a run-of-the-mill writer like me to do justice to Syberia in describing it. Ultimately all I can tell you is this: Play it yourself! It is not likely you will be disappointed.
    Read full review
  2. PC Gameworld
    77
    Plot issues, questionable voice acting and a frustrating control scheme mask an otherwise good adventure title.
    Read full review
  3. Game Informer
    68
    Got really old really fast. [Nov 2002, p.148]
See all critic reviews »