[Bastich]

So here it is! My review of Syberia II! I am WAY too lazy to write a real review so what you will get instead is a stream-of-consciousness style ramble. I will try to group things into categories though. I'll be introducing a new rating method too. Instead of the stars used in this site's reviews, I will use emoticons to express my opinion in a similar fashion.

Story
As if the storytelling of the first game didn't leave a bad enough taste in my mouth, Syberia II expands on it and mires it further in the muck of mediocrity and ridiculousness. I didn't really expect it to improve very much though, truth be told. I am not going to spoil it for you by telling you any details, but Kate Walker dies at the end. Ooops! Did that slip out? Just kidding. I would have rated the story 5 smilies if that had happened, especially if it was gruesome. If you have played the first game, you already know how it is going to end anyway. Still present are the ever ridiculous ties to the real world that do nothing but interrupt the game, are the subject of much eye-rolling, and that on occasion are just plain laugh-out-loud bad.

Anyone who has hung out in coffee shops long enough has met that guy. You know, the aspiring screenwriter who is serving you your cup of tea to stay afloat while he finishes up THE script that will be his big break. It isn't long until you are offered a sneak peek at his work. Invariably, the script is a well meaning attempt at something great that turns out to be something that would be far more appropriate for daytime soap operas. At best. Transfer this to Syberia II (and the first for that matter), and you have a pretty accurate description of the storytelling quality.

Now, I would be lying if I tried to imply that Syberia II reigns alone in the above description, as many AGs have bad stories, but the implementation in the game was execrably bad. Almost from the very beginning of the game, dialogue continuity errors and other problems were readily apparent. I had painful flashbacks of Post Mortem at several points. These errors are right from the script, or from poor dialogue scripting in the game engine.

Here is one example paraphrased and mildly altered for humorous exaggerative effect and also to minimize spoilage.

Kate (yelling): "I need to speak to frickin Person X, God damn it!!!!!!!!"
[Bastich: Um. I just came from talking to person X]
[Bastich clicks on next dialogue choice]
Kate (calmly): "I just spoke to Person X and..."

There were several examples of this in the game. Was there no QA department?

There were other interesting inconsistencies such as Kate having amnesia of very basic facts in parts of the dialogue that she absolutely should have known. They weren't informative points for people who didn't play the first game either. I could go on for quite some time with more examples and such, but I want to leave room for the rest of the review.

Graphics 1/2
Without a doubt, the strong point of the game. The developers should be very proud of their accomplishments on this end. There is pretty much nothing to dislike here as far as the artwork itself. I did notice something really strange though. I clearly saw jpeg-like artifacts along high contrast edges in many of the backgrounds. I am not sure why they needed to compress the images so strongly. Fortunately, those without a discerning eye may not even notice the artifacts at all. The movies however, showed some more serious artifacts, which is strange as I don't recall it being so in the first game. I think it has more to do with how "busy" the movies are. There is a LOT of movement in the scenes, particularly with all the snow and such. The lack of gamma correction in the options screen was sorely missed also. While other games look fine on my computer, the graphics seemed a tad bit washed out at the default settings. The manual also showed resolution selection and color depth options in the menu, yet there were no such selections there. As for animation, it could of used a little work, but was above par for a PC AG.

Sound 1/2
I don't really have much to say here. The music was subdued and not very noticeable for the most part. It seemed decent though, and there really weren't many sound effects to judge. The voice acting was variable, but overall was quite decent.

Gameplay
Now to the most important topic. You may not be aware of this, but I have an insider who leaked me a design document for this game. I'll paraphrase some of it below.

A<------------------------->Z

The above is a simple graph the developers used to plan out how to place items/goals and most importantly, pad the game length. Here is how it works:

"A" is the point where the player gets an objective. "Z" is the point farthest away from "A" in the game world. The prime directive was to place the goal of the objective at "A" as close to "Z" as possible. This adds an hour or two to the game length. Bonuses were handed out for successfully complying to the graph. Those who handled the Youkal village were promoted after the release of the game.

Note to developers: Play Black Mirror. Take note of how travel was implemented. Copy it. Nobody wants to see the main character run/walk across the screen for the nth time...

The puzzles? Imagine, if you will, a graph that shows a range of healthy food where the left is analogous to a complete puzzle game (healthy for the brain) and the right is the first Syberia. In fact, I will just show you the graph. The star represents Syberia 2.

Broccoli & Water<-----------*--->Double Whopper w/Cheese & Chocolate Shake

Syberia 2 is a Big Mac with a diet Coke. Definitely an improvement over the first game, but overall, not too difficult. The only thing that resembles difficulty is that you get feedback on virtually nothing in the game, and as such there is very little reason at times for you to try certain things. Some puzzles are simply trial and error with no logic at all. Not that I could find anyway.

There was some funny "illogic" in relation to some of the puzzles. There is one place where you have to get someone to leave, so you have to get a clock working to trick the person that they have to be somewhere. You talk to them and tell them the clock doesn't work. They acknowledge it. You then try to get the clock working. If you click on a certain part of the clock before getting it working right, the game acts like the chimes went off, yet there is no sound. The man looks towards your direction (from whence no sound has come) and then checks his pocket-watch. 2 seconds later, you get the clock working and he leaves. Now, he knows the clock is broken and JUST checked his watch. Why is he fooled? There is some other fun stuff like this in other parts of the game as well. What he does before leaving is even more nonsensical, but allows you to progress forward. I already know what some people will say to this, but it is still lame. I won't mention it to avoid a spoiler.

The interface is simple and yet stupid at the same time. Why is there a separate window for documents? Particularly when you never have enough items at any time to even fill the primary inventory screen? It even looks like they may have implemented a scroll bar. Who were they kidding?

Conclusion of 5

This game ultimately reminds me of certain late-night cable movies that I have seen in the past, which for some reason, all seemed to star Shannon Tweed. Which is to say, that you don't watch such movies for the story at all, but for the, er, view. Apply said logic to Syberia II. In reality, if you liked the first game, you will probably like this one. If you didn't like the first, there is nothing new to redeem it and you should save your money.

[Bastich]

I just noticed that there might be some confusion as to my grades. 3 emoticons is not 60%, but more like 75%. They are meant to roughly correspond to school-like grades as below. 4.5 would equal an A-/B+ for instance.

5 = A
4 = B
3 = C
2 = D
1 = F