Syberia: The World Before seems to be a solid entry to the franchise and from what I experienced in the preview, will make up for the disappointment of Syberia 3. This is an important addition as point-and-click games can become quite monotonous if there isn’t any vocal interaction by the characters. The acting is done well, and I was sucked into the emotional state of each character, experiencing their stress and joy alongside them. This helped me form an emotional connection with these characters that I was meeting for the first time. The game is fully voiced, adding to the immersion. “Syberia: The World Before seems to be a solid entry to the franchise” Her portion of the story is coloured with a slight sepia tone, giving a historical feeling to her world. The world has a steampunk feel, with things like brass robot conductors driving the trams and Dana’s piano having large brass fittings on the outside. The small cafes and antique stores were lively and perfectly captured what I imagine European streets were like in that part of the century. Vaghen is beautiful and as Dana wandered the streets of the city, I felt like I was right there with her. Fortunately, the narrative did enough for me to look past this, and the graphics are absolutely phenomenal. It’s a quality of life feature that makes the experience more seamless and brings players back to replay through the game. Having to manually close a drawer or cupboard every single time I finished investigating was irritating, particularly when I have played point and click games in the past that auto-completed these small tasks. While mostly a smooth experience, the gameplay is sometimes slowed down by unnecessary clicks. It doesn’t do anything particularly innovative within the genre but it plays solidly and is easy enough to get a hang of. If playing on PC, the player uses their mouse to guide Kate and Dana around the world and clicks on highlighted objects to interact with them and solve puzzles. Syberia: The World Before is a point and click 3D puzzle game and plays just as you’d expect. “The graphics are absolutely phenomenal.” It’s not newbie-friendly in the slightest and while I’m happy to do some research, it may turn off more casual players. It doesn’t feel as if her imprisonment is something we’ll find out about as we progress, but rather just the next part of an already existing story. The game is an immediate sequel to Syberia 3 and provides little information as to who Kate is and why the player should care about her and the plight she’s found herself in. That being said, I had to jump on google at several points throughout my preview playthrough to get some context to who Kate was and why she was imprisoned in an underground mine. The beginning of the story is compelling, and I must say that I was interested in figuring out what Kate’s connection to Dana was. After tragedy strikes, Kate escapes and sets out to unravel the mystery of Dana and why she apparently looks just like her. The second World War is just beginning and Dana and her family are facing threat by the extremist political group, the Brown Shadow.Īlongside Dana’s journey, the player jumps forward to 2004, and also plays as the long-time protagonist of the series, Kate Walker, who is imprisoned in a Salt Mine with presumably – although this isn’t explicitly stated – her girlfriend Katyusha. The player jumps between time periods, starting in 1937 and following music student, Dana Roze, who lives in the fictional location of German-speaking, Vaghen. Syberia: The World before is both a sequel and a prequel to Syberia 3. “The beginning of the story is compelling.” Therefore, I went into the preview of the fourth instalment of the late Benoît Sokal’s adventure series, Syberia: the World Before, with little to no context, and I can say with definite certainty that I should have read up on the franchise before starting a new save file. In fact, until now, the most experience I have had with one is seeing the ill-received Syberia 3 in the coming soon section at my local Games store. I have to admit, I’m not the most familiar with the Syberia game series.
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