Syberia

Syberia is a 2002 computer adventure game conceived by Benoît Sokal, developed by Microïds and published through The Adventure Company. more...

Home
*Best Sellers
Accessories
Genre
Action, Adventure
Amerzone
Atari Adventure
Bad Mojo
Broken Sword
Colossal Cave Adventure
Day of the Tentacle
Discworld
Full Throttle
Gabriel Knight
Grim Fandango
Hugo House of Horrors
Indiana Jones
King Quest
Leisure Suit Larry
Maniac Mansion
Monkey Island
Obsidian
Police Quest
Quest for Glory
Sanitarium
Shadowgate
Simon the Sorcerer
Space Quest
Syberia
Syberia II
Tex Murphy
The Dark Eye
The Dig
The Journeyman Project
The Legend of Kyrandia
The Longest Journey
The Neverhood
Zork
Arcade
Board, Card Game
Family
Fighting
Other
Racing
Role Playing
Shooter
Simulation
Sports
Strategy
Internet Games
Others
Platform
Systems
Vintage Games
Wholesale Lots

It is a third-person, mouse-driven, semi-realistic/semi-surrealistic adventure game in which the player must solve various puzzles and follow certain procedures in order for the linear storyline to proceed. As a pure graphical adventure game, Syberia follows the guidelines first introduced by LucasArts : It is impossible to die or to get stuck at any moment in the game, which allows the user to fully immerse him/herself in Syberia's universe without the fear of making a mistake or the constant need of saving the game.

The game contains a dramatic subplot, conducted via calls received on Kate's cell phone, involving Kate's deteriorating relationship with her fiancé.

The game uses elements of steampunk fiction in its story. Most devices and tools, and even a train, are powered by springs and wind-up gears. Syberia was acclaimed by critics for its graphic design and intelligent script, and a sequel, Syberia II, was released in 2004, picking up where the first game leaves off.

Sokal's earlier game Amerzone is located in the same fictional universe, and Syberia contains some references to it. Sokal's latest adventure game Paradise has no connections to Syberia but does use the same high quality artwork and a similar interface.

Plot summary

In the game, the player controls the actions of American lawyer Kate Walker, who is sent to a remote European village in order to finalize the take-over of a toy factory there. Once at the village, Kate learns that the woman who owned the factory has just died, and that she has a brother who must be contacted in order for the takeover to proceed. Her mission takes her across thousands of miles, and leads her to question her own lifestyle.

The title, Syberia refers to a mythical island, which is referenced in the game and will be Kate's ultimate destination.

Valadilène

The game starts with Kate arriving in the fictional French village of Valadilène and witnessing the funeral of Anna Voralberg, the owner of a small family-owned spring-automaton toy factory whose takeover by a big American business Kate was supposed to finalize. When visiting the village notary to hopefully finalize the deal, the notary tells Kate that just before her death, the old lady revealed that her brother, officially declared dead and buried in the town cemetery, is in fact alive somewhere in the North-East. Naturally, now that his sister is dead, Hans Voralberg becomes the new owner of the factory, which cannot be sold without his approbation. Kate has no choice: if she wants the takeover to succeed, she will have to find Hans. The notary gives her the key to the Voralberg’s domain and Kate, while exploring the mansion and the factory, slowly immerses herself in the life of the family by reading journals and documents, as if she was diving in the past. She discovers that when they were kids, Hans led his sister Anna to a cave he found in the mountains. There, atop a small rock, they saw an object that Hans decided to fetch, but he fell while climbing the rock and he suffered brain damage from the resulting injuries. Though he never totally recovered, Hans developed two passions. One of them was due to the object he found the day of his accident: a prehistoric doll of a mammoth ridden by a man. Since his discovery of this doll, Hans became passionate by them and his dream was to see real mammoths. His second passion was his father’s factory. Although mentally challenged, Hans was a genius for the creation of automata. His father was very proud of him and saw in his son his successor as director of the family’s factory. When one day Hans said he was leaving Valadilène to go looking for the mythical island of Syberia and its mammoths, his father was devastated and preferred to say that his son was dead rather than accepting his departure. Now that Kate knows what happened to Hans, she searches for help to find him, and help comes in the form of two of Hans’s creations: Oscar, a man-like automaton fond of protocol, and a spring-loaded luxury train whose plans Hans transmitted to his sister. Together, they leave Valadilène. As Oscar seems to know where he is going with his train, Kate sits and enjoys the ride.

Read more at Wikipedia.org