Syberia 3 Review

After more than a decade of waiting, it's finally here: Syberia 3! The long-awaited third part of the amazing story of lawyer Kate Walker and her search for Hans Voralberg. Unfortunately, the game looks as if it's been made over ten years ago.

Syberia 3 Review

INTRODUCTION

Syberia 3 is the 3rd installment in the game series, you've guessed it, Syberia. A cult classic adventure series that have gamers play as Kate Walker. Well, let's call her Kate "not so much" Walker, as you will be bumping into objects left and right.

Kate Walker is a New York City based lawyer, who is sent to the remote fictional French village Valadilène in order to finalize the take-over of a toy factory, owned by the recently deceased Anna Voralberg. Upon arriving at the town notary to finalize the deal, Kate learns that there is another heir to the factory. Hans Voralberg was assumed dead but it turns out he is alive and well, and spend his live looking for mammoths in North-Eastern Europe. As you venture after him, you find his trail of magnificent Automatons made to help the people in the places you visit.

In the latest release of this series, Kate has abandoned the island Syberia. She finds herself adrift on a makeshift boat, rescued by the Youkol people. They find you in a coma, washed on the shores and take you to a hospital. And this is where the game begins. Kate is compelled to help them overcome the roadblocks along their sacred migration across the waters to the breeding lands of their snow ostriches.

I was hoping the developer would make a patch or update for the game, but that never happened. I guess this is their finalized product. I wish they would rethink that.
 
Syberia 3 Review. The Youkol help Kate to safety!
While Syberia 1 and 2 rely on Point and Click mechanics, The 3rd game in the series lets you control Kate in a 3D world using the W, A, S and D keys, or, as the developer recommend each time when you start the game, using a controller. I personally get nervous when the game advises you to use a controller. This is the first sign of a bad console to PC port. And my fears were confirmed. Kate moves around like a wooden board. She bumps into objects and while you assume you head in the right direction, the game decides to move the camera angle, making you run all the way back.

While Syberia 1 looked pretty good back in 2002, the story was amazing and pulled you in the game. Syberia 3 looks and plays like a sequel made in that same period. The graphics are terrible, the controls are awful and the voice acting is just horrible. It sounds like they are having a terrible time and the synchronization is way off!

Syberia 3 Review. There is some great scenery in Syberia!

gameplay

Whenever a game starts up, and the first message you see is that the game is more enjoyable using a controller, I get scared. Those are not words you want to see as a PC gamer. I don't even own a controller for the PC. And unfortunately, my fears came true. Kate is barely handleable when using a mouse and keyboard. Though you get used to the controls pretty easily, I found myself screaming at Kate a numerous time, or found Kate humping all the chairs she could find. While you might be running to the right in one scene, when the camera angle suddenly changes, Kate will start running in the direction the button you are pushing is facing. Often times the place you just came from. At one point I switched between two camera angles multiple times, without even letting go of the one button I was holding.

And when you do manage to move Kate in the general direction you want her to go, she walks around like someone who has a wooden board tied to her back. It's been a while since I've seen such lousy character movements. Not to mention moving up and down steps. When you reach a set of steps, Kate stops and she needs to rearrange herself, though that brought me back to Syberia 1 in an oddly satisfying way.

Almost all puzzles in the game are solved with your mouse, as is the case in many adventure games. But when the mouse cursor is an off white cogwheel, in a snowy area you'll find yourself often losing the darn thing. I don't think that was a smart choice by the game developers. Add up to that, you need to pan the camera angle by moving the mouse to the edges of the screen, this game isn't made for gamers wielding multiple monitors. Because you lose your cursor so easily, don't be surprised to find it on the edge of your second screen while blindly staring at the main one.

I can't help but feel that this game is not designed for PC users. The main focus of this game is console users, which I don't understand. The first two games were PC games. The small portion of the gaming society that has even heard of this series is marginal, and I don't think a lot of them are console players. Please don't give them this badly ported game.

Syberia 3 Review.. Hans had some amazing creations!

presentation

Like I said before, if this game was released 10 years ago, it would look amazing! But now, in 2017, the game looks like crap. Kate walks like she has a broomstick stuck up her pants and the surroundings are very pixellated. That is such a shame. Being someone who played the previous games I had high hopes for this one. I feel kind of cheated out of an experience. They charge over $ 30,- for this game which is pretty high for this piece of crap.

The atmosphere in the scenery where they where going for is amazing, if done properly. Unfortunately they did not. The graphics would have been amazing if they had just taken the time to update it to something of this time.

The soundtrack is amazing though! But a fair warning, if you are a content creator and you want to record gameplay footage, make sure you turn the music off! I had a copyright notice before the video even went live! Such a pitty, the only good thing in this game can't be enjoyed by people watching this on YouTube.

Other soundeffects are boring and repetitive. Kate sounds like a woman in her late 40's but she portrays a woman in her 30's. She has been through a lot though, so we could say she is under a lot of stress which altered her voice. Lines spoken by NPC's sound pretty much the same for every character. It's not the same voice or the same line, but you can tell it has all been written by the same person.

Syberia 3 Review.

conclusion

I have to say that this is a pretty disappointing ending for such an amazing story. I would like to advise the players that grew up with this game not to play it. Live and love the memory you have of Kate, Oscar and Hans and pretend that the story ended there. Playing this final game will brake your memories and will destroy the love you had for the game.

The graphics are, like I said before, pretty bad. If only they released the game a decade earlier. Or if they redid the graphics to today standards this game would be so much better. But unfortunately they didn't and we have to end this amazing story with a piece of crap.

I stand by my point. Do not buy this game. If you find it in a discount bin, just walk along. Don't even look at it. This game destroys the love and memories you have for the franchise. I decided to give this game a score of 5. It would be lower if it wasn't for my love of the franchise.

Pros Cons
 + Great story  – Very bad graphics
 + Good puzzles  – Crappy sound effects
 + Good soundtrack  – 10 years too late
 – Destroyer of memories

5
Average

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