Is "Syberia" any good???
 

Hey, I'm looking for a new adventure to play, and I was wondering how Siberia is? It's gotten very mixed reviews, from very high to very low, so I don't know.

Is the story good?
Are the puzzles intelligent or just random combining?

It's definitely a classically interfaced adventure game. But it is DULL. I never played it personally. I started it with my wife but I couldn't take it anymore and she continued and finished it herself while I watched every now and then. Both games (they're pretty much all one big game). Maybe it was the so-photo-realistic-graphics-it-looks-incredibly-bland art style or the well-orchestrated-and-high-quality-live-recorded-but-boring-and-ambient soundtrack that turned me off. The story wasn't that gripping, to be honest. Others may praise it more, though. For what I'm not sure...

Also it's "Syberia" with a "y."

People are split on it. Half the people are like MusicallyInspired and find the game very slow and dull, then the other half are like me and absolutely adore the games (both games are essential, if you choose to play either). Personally, I make sure play the games once a year.

It's definitely a very fine polished and well-produced product with some very nice voice-acting work (unlike Keepsake, for example, whose voice-acting was horrendous). And, ironically, I think every adventure lover should have copies of both Syberias despite what I've said. It's just not my particular adventure taste.

Thanks, thats very helpful.

I think it's pretty cheap now, and I can buy is straight to download online, so I'm gonna give it a shot.

I didn't care for the 1st myself. A very well done game technically, but I found some of the characters almost too annoying to tolerate (Momo, and the boyfriend, for example). That said, I may break down and get the 2nd just to see how the story ends. Having said THAT, the obnoxiously arrogant and obvious way the ending of the first was designed to make you drool for the second makes me NOT want to get the second in protest. ...I'm torn... :)

Well, I for one really liked the mechanical puzzles.
There's a certain charm to how they are built in the Syberia world :)

As for the characters - I never found them annoying. They fit the world they belong to.
The only thing I felt lacked a bit, was the ability to interact with ALL the beautiful and interesting items etc. you encunter on your way.
The puzzles are - IMHO - quite logic and well integrated in the story.

I only liked the first one, for the story and how the puzzles are integrated into it.

The second one has terrible puzzle design, harder than necessary and definately not fun. Also, too often trial and error.
There's barely any story in there anymore anyway.

I like the ending of the first one. It concludes the main plot line, but leaves some things open for interpretation.

I could say more, definately, but it would take so long........

Syberia is one of my favorites. I fell in love with the story and most of the puzzles made sense.

Well, it's no Gabriel Knight, but it's not a bad game. It's beautiful to look at, has an original story, and decent puzzles. I disliked the lack of interactivity, some artificial moments, and the overall mechanical-ness of nearly every challenge, but I'd say that any adventure game fan should play it through once. The ending is worth it.

I liked both games a lot, recently I re-played syberia 2 and still love the ending! :)

Syberia is the greatest adventure game ever!

Indeed, so beautiful and imaginative, with all those maginificent environments and its melancholic story (N’en déplaise Ã* Lee Sheldon).

I liked them both, but not a LOT. I think Kate Walker is well fleshed out as a character, although I did find her a little dull and bland for my taste. The second one especially, I found the characters quite compelling. I love the aesthetic, particularly the clock work mechanisms. There's some really beautiful scenery and the sounds work is great.

On the down side, Oscar the robot conductor drove me nuts. I don't recall the puzzles being particularly difficult, although I do think I had to look at a walkthrough a few times, but they did feel a little tedious at times. Lots of fetch quests to persuade people to help you, you kind of get to feel like, sigh, here we go again every time you pull into a new station. There were a couple instances of pixel hunting, I remember one point where you have to pick a flower and the hot spot is so absurdly tiny that its hard to hit even once you know where it is. I agree with people that didn't find the game world interactive enough, especially since there was about a thousand doors you could click on to hear Kate say, "no need to go down there." The closing cut scene of the second game is really very lovely and even made me sniffle a little.

Best advice? Download and play the demo, and see if you like it.

Just last week I replayed both games. I love them, but form your own opinion.

Personally, I never loved them as many people do. I did like them, but that was it. I've never been so much into mechanical puzzles either, eventhough in this case, these mechanical puzzles blended in with the story and were justified.

The game had very unique atmosphere and story though. I'd give both Syberias 3 out of 5 stars if I was to review them, and that in my book is usually very much worth playing the game. ;)

Oh, I`m crazy about Syberia! I played it many times, and it was hard for me to find something like it. Thanks to Syberia and of course to Benoit Sokal I fell in love with adventure games.:)

Memories
 

Syberia, Syberia... A classic point'n'click adventure and a very dear game to me. I think that when talking about Syberia one shouldn't necessarily consider the eye-candy or the special effects, the game 2D pre-rendered graphics are beautiful as they are, but one should very carefully consider the plot and its implications. Syberia was more like a journey to find oneself... a very similar game that comes to mind from that point of view (inner journey portrayed by a long and complicated trip on the road) is The Longest Journey. I found myself totally enthralled by Benoît Sokal's ideas and his concepts of the world.
Also, keep in mind when playing Syberia that if you like it you'll most than likely want to play the sequel which is a little bit different, but not too much. I do hope you'll enjoy this game!

I didn't think the ending was that great at all. Though I've never personally seen it. My wife has beaten it, however, and she's a pretty sappy person, but she didn't think it was an amazing ending either.

I seem to go against the stream here, but I quite frankly hated the Syberia games. Seemed to me utterly boring. There are only a few AGs I didn´t finish and Syberias are 2 of them (after giving up on the first one halfway through I decided to try the second one, but with the same result).
But I´m a huge "Benoit-Sokal-no-no" kind of guy as I also didn´t like Paradise nor Sinking Island.