Contents:
The Intro
Title: Syberia
Release year: 2002
Developed by: Microïds
Genre: Point-and-click adventure
Platform replayed on: PC
It’s the journey, not the destination.
Perhaps an overused cliché in general, and one arguably applicable to any adventure game.
But Syberia is an adventure game quite literally about a journey.
I remember playing this around the time it was released, and still have my physical copy.
I’m not sure how I heard about Syberia, but I’m not surprised I have it in my collection, being a big fan of point-and-click adventure games. It was highly regarded at the time, in a time when point-and-clicks were not as popular as in their heyday in the late 80s/early 90s.
I recall Syberia having a larger focus on the story than on the puzzles, and I remember finishing it as I can remember the ending very clearly. This may not seem like anything worth mentioning, but when I reflect on story-driven games, I can’t always recall exactly what happens at the end. For example, I’ve replayed Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis here on Present Perfect Gaming. I know that our hero Indiana Jones wins the day in the end in both games (particularly in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, given that it’s based on the film), but ask me to describe the endings in detail and I wouldn’t have been able to do it prior to my replay. This is even more interesting, given Syberia is a title I haven’t touched since my original playthrough, where I had played both Indiana Jones games again since first playing them.
So what was it about the ending that made it so memorable?
Let’s take a look. It’s time to journey to Syberia…
The Game
The story in Syberia sees protagonist Kate Walker, an American lawyer, having just arrived in the fictional small French town of Valadilène. She’s there to sign a deal securing the takeover of a family-operated toy factory at the heart of the town’s economy.
It’s a “big fish eats small fish” premise, but it quickly disappears into the background as the real journey takes over. Kate becomes invested in finding the missing heir to the company, whose signature she will need to complete the takeover.
But it’s not just a physical journey for Kate, as she chases a signature across Europe, but also a personal one. She faces challenges from friends, family, and colleagues from home, all distracting her from her job and ultimate goal of getting the deal signed.
In terms of gameplay, Syberia is very accessible. The interface is very simple for a point-and-click adventure game. There are three basic actions when it comes to interacting with the environment. Kate can pick up objects, interact with objects, and talk to people. You don’t even need to toggle between the actions, as when you hover over anything you can interact with, the appropriate action is selected.
There’s quite a lot of reading in Syberia, as you collect a lot of documents along the journey. There’s also a lot of dialogue, in person and on the phone with Kate’s contacts back home.
Combined with the exploration, Syberia is a slower-paced point-and-click adventure. It feels more like interactive fiction than a true puzzler of a point-and-click adventure game. And that’s not a criticism, but it does require that as a player you get yourself invested in the characters and story.
And with that, let’s meet some of these characters as we join Kate upon her arrival in the French Alps, in the small town of Valadilène…
The Replay
Syberia begins with Kate arriving in Valadilène with the rain falling, and the town in mourning.
Unfortunately, Kate has arrived too late to conclude negotiations for the sale of Voralberg Manufacturing.
Current owner, the elderly Anna Voralberg, has died, and there’s no immediate succession plan.
Kate’s first task is to speak with the local notary to see how the sale can continue. This is where we learn of the terrible Voralberg family secret—there is a living heir. Anna’s younger brother Hans, long thought dead, is still alive.
Not quite the arrival Kate was hoping for, and as Hans’ whereabouts are unknown, it’s a complication that could potentially jeopardise the sale.
However, unavoidable delays don’t seem to generate any sympathy from first her partner, and then her boss.
These calls from home were the first in what turns out to be an unfolding drama for Kate in both her personal and professional life. Kate and her partner, Dan, seem to be drifting apart, with Dan seemingly unable to understand how an international lawyer could possibly get delayed. And Kate’s boss, Edward Marson, simply doesn’t care what’s happened in Valadilène, and puts pressure on Kate to complete the sale through any means necessary.
With Kate at a loss as to what to do next, she starts exploring the town. And this is how we learn more about just what kind of company Voralberg Manufacturing is.
The Voralberg name is associated with luxury mechanical toys and automatons. Valadilène is filled with these automatons, and they are central to the story in Syberia and the journey Kate is about to take.
Interacting with these automatons also provides a lot of the puzzles you need to solve.
Check out my playthrough of the first twenty minutes of Syberia on Youtube as Kate arrives in Valadilène.
It doesn’t take long before Kate meets Oscar, one of these automatons. Oscar is a fairly advanced automaton, and can speak. He’s not completely autonomous though, and is bound by a set of protocols.
Before Oscar is going to be of any use, you must work out how to complete him. You see, when you first meet him, he doesn’t have any feet (this interaction reminded me of one of my favourite films, Edward Scissorhands, where Edward was similarly left unfinished).
With Oscar completed, Kate learns that his function is to operate a train stationed in Valadilène. The destination? Hans Voralberg.
Finally, Kate has found a lead.
Before Kate can depart though, she learns of the events that lead up to Hans’ so-called death. In 1930, a ten-year-old Hans discovered a cave near Valadilène, which housed seemingly mystical murals of mammoths. Yes, mammoths.
One fateful day, Hans takes Anna to the cave. Once there, he spots an object on a high ledge. Grabbing what turns out to be a mammoth figurine, he suddenly loses his grip and falls.
What follows over the next few years is a sad tale, as Hans is never able to recover from the accident. Physically and mentally stunted, Hans barely speaks, is very attached to his older sister Anna, and is obsessed with drawing mammoths.
It’s a challenging time for the family, with Hans’ father giving him a job in the toy factory to try and give him a chance at a normal life. Here he shows quite the aptitude for building automatons. Oscar is one of his creations.
But Han’s obsession with the mammoths and where they came from does not let up, and he decides he wants to leave Valadilène. His father however, does not support this and locks him away in his workshop. When Hans escapes, his father fakes his death.
Kate learns that at the time of her death, Anna was writing a letter to Hans, indicating that she was intending to meet with Hans. The train that Oscar can operate was designed by Hans and built by Anna for this journey.
With Anna now having passed away, Kate decides to complete this journey. After all, she still needs that signature…
The story in Syberia is front-loaded, with all the background and context provided early on in Valadilène. It definitely requires an investment up front by the player. There’s not a lot of action, and it’s a lot of reading, particularly Anna’s diary.
The remainder of the game is about the journey Kate takes on this mysterious mechanical train to find Hans.
After a long journey, the train pulls into Barrockstadt, a university town. Immediately, you can sense why Hans may have scheduled a stop here.
For a university town, it’s pretty quiet, with hardly any students around. Kate soon learns that it is an institution well past its prime.
This is a common theme in Syberia, as Valadilène’s glory days were also long since past. Two once-great towns that have been left behind by progress and the modern world.
Regardless, it’s an important stop for Kate, as she uncovers more about Hans. He spent some time at the university, and got to know a paleontology professor.
The professor shares his research with Kate, which is on the Youkol people of Siberia. Yes, this time it’s the real “Siberia”, and not Syberia. It turns out, the Youkol lived on the island of Syberia, off the coast of Siberia. Got all that? Unnecessarily complicated for a work of fiction, if you ask me…
The Youkol domesticated mammoths, which no doubt interested Hans, and further encouraged him to continue his journey east.
Of course, all this information isn’t free—this is a point-and-click after all. It turns out there are a lot of errands Kate needs to run for the university staff before she can wind her train up and follow in Hans’ footsteps, er…train tracks.
Throughout Syberia, you find music boxes, which Hans had built to communicate with Anna. Kate discovers these, and the responses Anna would send to Hans.
Syberia is a game about relationships. As we know, Kate has her own issues with those back home. But the relationship between brother and sister, Hans and Anna, is central to the story.
But how will this play out, now that Anna has died, and unable to take her journey to Hans? It seems Kate is now serving two purposes. She still has to deliver the sale of Voralberg Manufacturing. But she’s now trying to complete Anna’s journey to Hans, albeit a sad one bringing news of her death.
The next stop is Komkolzgrad, an old Communist-era mining town. It’s yet another relic from the past, and has been all but abandoned.
Hans has also had an impact on this place, though it did cause Anna to worry what he might have been involved in.
The story takes a strange turn here, and the focus moves from Kate’s journey, to the eccentric director of Komkolzgrad. Serguei Borodine is the antagonist in Syberia, in a story that I didn’t think would have one. All of a sudden, an adventure of discovery turns into a thriller involving theft, a ransom, and kidnapping.
Where did this all come from? Well, Oscar’s hands have been stolen.
Borodine is behind this, and he’s got something he wants before he gives them back.
Kate finds Oscar’s hands locked to an automaton pianist, and Borodine wants a special performance. You see, Borodine has a rather unhealthy obsession with Helena Romanski, an old opera singer who once performed in Komkolzgrad.
All Kate needs to do is locate Helena Romanski, and bring her back to perform in Komkolzgrad. What could be simpler?
After Kate finds that the elderly Romanski is staying at a seaside spa in Russia, she just needs a ride there, given that the train is out of action for the moment.
Enter Boris Charow, a drunk ex-cosmonaut (who, for those familiar, reminded me of Cid Highwind from Final Fantasy VII, as when we first meet both Boris and Cid, they’re trying to launch something).
Boris was excited to become a rocket test pilot for the Red Army, thanks to Hans. But when Hans disappeared, Boris turned to the bottle.
As Kate’s fate would have it, Boris can help Kate operate an airship so she can fly to the spa, if she can finish what Hans started.
With Kate successfully launching Boris on his way to who knows where, she turns her attention to the airship. It’s at this point I had to suspend my disbelief, as Kate manages to pilot the airship herself.
It was also during this section in Syberia that Kate’s personal life had its most significant impact. Kate’s partner and her best friend had begun an affair. At first it was emotional, but ended in a one-night stand. Kate essentially just shuts it out, as she’s by now so invested in her mission to find Hans that she can barely think of anything else. In the end, this part of Syberia just left me wondering why it was included at all.
The end of the story in Syberia comes fast once Kate arrives in Aralbad, the spa where Romanski is staying. It’s a beautiful setting, but again a place that is past its heyday.
Unsurprisingly, Hans has also made a visit to Aralbad.
Kate, ulterior motive in mind, meets with Romanski and manages to convince her to come out of retirement for one last show.
Convincing Romanski came down to mixing a cocktail she used to drink to bring out her voice. This was one of the more enjoyable puzzles in Syberia.
I have to admit, this all felt a lot like kidnapping, but the show must go on.
As it turned out, it was kidnapping, as Borodine wants to keep Romanski forever.
I didn’t really enjoy this diversion, but thankfully it was short. It was quick and easy to rescue Romanski, and escape with Oscar’s hands. In an out-of-place Hollywood blockbuster style exit, the trio depart Komkolzgrad on the train.
The train takes them back to Aralbad, where a mysterious package is awaiting Kate.
And just like that, Kate finds Hans at Aralbad. Not quite sure how or why Hans appeared here, Kate wastes little time getting the deal signed.
Hans has little interest in the deal, and is only concerned with taking his train to Syberia and sending Kate home.
And that’s it for Syberia. Job’s done right? Time to go home.
Well, not quite. And this is why I remember the ending so well. Kate decides not to go home, but to join Hans and continue the journey.
A cliffhanger! Memorable, yes. Abrupt, yes. Satisfying? Hmm.
I said it was a memorable ending in the introduction. Now that we’ve got to the end of the journey (kind of), what did I make of Syberia overall? Was it memorable for the right reasons?
It’s time for the verdict.
The Verdict
Let’s start with the ending, and work back. I clearly remember Kate jumping on the train at the end of Syberia, and riding off to Syberia. It was obvious that Syberia was clearly designed as part one of an ongoing series.
You could get some satisfaction from the ending here, assuming Kate goes off to Syberia and lives happily ever after, throwing her previous life away. But in order to finish this story, you really need to play Syberia II (2004) which continues the story right where Syberia left off.
I have played Syberia II, but I can’t recall how the story ends. All I remembered from this series was the cliffhanger ending to Syberia. I did say in the beginning though, this is a game about the journey and not the destination. I guess I shouldn’t focus so much on my disappointment at not getting to Syberia…
What of the journey then?
In short, I enjoyed the premise, but not so much the execution. I look at the journey in three parts.
The first is the physical journey Kate takes across Europe. All of the stops Kate makes along the way show places that were once successful, but that have long since been left behind by the progress of the twentieth century. It’s ironic that Valadilène developed automatons, yet likely declined due to the increasing reliance on technology and automation in the second half of the century.
Syberia is about change, and what is left behind. Which brings me to the second part of the journey, Kate’s personal story. I found this a distraction while playing the game, but I can understand its place. If Kate is to give up her life back home and continue to Syberia, there has to be something to leave behind. I just felt it was too obnoxious. There’s the self-absorbed mother, the abusive boss, and a selfish partner and best friend falling into an affair. No wonder she gave them all up—they’re all very easy to dislike!
The third part of the journey is exploring the relationship between Anna and Hans. And like Kate visiting places affected by change, and Kate’s changing personal relationships impacting her decision to stay with Hans, the relationship between Anna and Hans is about change too. They were always close siblings, but after Hans had his accident, their lives were changed forever.
I enjoyed exploring these journeys and themes in Syberia. But it does require an investment. You have to spend the time reading the material you pick up, listening to the conversations you engage in, and exploring the locations.
And speaking of locations, Syberia is a beautiful looking game. I also enjoy Steampunk-themed games, so this “Clockpunk” variation on the theme appealed to me. I also enjoyed the historical backdrop of Anna and Hans’ story, post-World War II and Stalinist Russia.
The locations themselves are very picturesque, but if there’s one criticism, there are a lot of screens that serve no purpose other than to walk from one place to another.
The execution in-game of the journeys is what lets Syberia down. As mentioned, Kate’s personal relationships are not well explored. They’re superficial and one dimensional. They felt like a distraction, and unnecessary.
I also didn’t like the abrupt change of pace that came with Kate’s arrival in Komkolzgrad. It felt out of place to introduce an antagonist late in the game and change the focus from Kate onto someone else.
It’s also difficult to end my journey with Syberia, as it feels incomplete. I’m not at the end of this story. I think I’d rather have played both games and looked at them as the sum of their parts.
But that’s a journey for another day. I’ve reached my stop, and it’s time to jump off this train.
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