Syberia and retarded adventure game stories

[Lumpy]

Is it just me, or did Syberia's story suck? I only played the first, but read some plot details about the second, and I have no idea how it makes any sense.
Why does Kate even take the train journey in the first place? The chances to find Hans were rather slim, and considering she had a rich employer, there must have been better methods.
Second, what the fuck was the deal with the train in the first place? Considering a train has to go on tracks, chances are there are better ways of reaching your destination than using a train. Can you even drive your own train wherever you want? What are the chances that you won't just crash into another?
Furthermore, since it was a clockwork train, Hans had to travel along the way beforehand to build those mechanical wind-up thingies. Which makes the idea of needing the train even dumber.
And finally, how did he know where Syberia was? And why didn't he just buy a boat to go there rather than trying to unfreeze an ancient, and likely not seaworthy one?

 

[xedoc gpr]

I liked Syberia a lot, actually. Maybe you have to suspend disbelief in order to enjoy it, it's more of a fairy tale than a realistic story. But there are some pretty big plotholes.

 

[Elwro]

Yup, it did suck. Somehow me and my gf found it strangely enjoyable, though - enough to play the second part, too, right to the SPOILAHS "let's all ride the mammoths" /SPOILAHS happy end. "Paradise" was a bit better, apart from the gut-twisting boredom at the beginning. Sokal's games suck as adventure games, but (for me) are pretty (and immersive! Yay!) enough to warrant bargain bin purchase. Nothing more.

 

[spacemoose]

KATE WALKER WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO ASK ME KATE WALKER

KATE WALKER I DO NOT UNDERSTAND KATE WALKER

KATE WALKER KATE WALKER KATE WALKER KATE WALKER KATE WALKER KATE WALKER KATE WALKER KATE WALKER KATE WALKER KATE WALKER KATE WALKER KATE WALKER KATE WALKER KATE WALKER KATE WALKER KATE WALKER KATE WALKER

and the puzzles were shit

 

[sqeecoo]

The game sucked for me, but maybe I was spoiled by TLJ. I hated the fake french accents and the repetitive exclamations ("I don't need to go down there" or whatever), and I quit the game when the PC said "darn" instead of "fucking bastard" after an irritating call from her boss.

 

[Hory]

It must have sucked since I had no motivation to finish the game or ever play any of its sequels again.

 

[pug987]

I think Syberia was a mediocre game. Not bad but certainly not something special. The fact, however, that some reviews compaired it to TLJ and Kate to April is just blasphemy.

 

[MountainWest]

I enjoyed the first act in the mountain village. Automatons are cool shit. The rest however, I agree, was less amusing.

 

[DraQ]

I liked Syberia for it's surreal, oneiric atmosphere, which seemed to be the whole point of the game and at the same time the reason why it's story was so illogical. Normally I want as much logic and consistency in my games as possible, but sometimes these elements just don't fit, for example if the whole game is supposed to feel like a somewhat dream-like experience.

It could use somewhat less mind numbingly easy puzzles, though. The ones in game looked as if they were designed with current next-gen gamers in mind.

 

[Elwro]

I also didn't like when a woman sung Ochi Chyornye in Syberia. I have always heard it sung by men - the text is more fitting. I suspect it was the only song with Russian text the developers knew.

 

[Jasede]

Kalinka, kalinka, kalinka moya! V sadu jagoda malinka, malinka moya!

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

Kalinka, kalinka, kalinka moya! V sadu jagoda kalinka, malinka moya!

Fixed.

 

[Western]

I didn't enjoy TLJ very much at all, never bothered finishing it, managed to finish Syberia though, probably just an acquired issue though, Syberia felt more like a fairy tale, while TLJ had a mix of fantasy and sci-fi I found irritating, the setting/plot just annoyed me. Suppose that's a plus for Syberia (haven't palyed 2), nice to have something slightly more character driven, than epic/fantasy plot driven. I don't think TLJ is much compared to say, Grim Fandango or Gabriel Knight.

 

[A user named cat]

Syberia created a very immersive world, I really dug it and was drawn in right from the start. The imperfections found in the story or characters were no big deal, to me at least. To each their own though, not for everyone.

The sequel on the other hand completely lost my interest when traveling around that huge cave. That area was so uninteresting and long, basically ruined the entire experience.

 

[Gambler]

Is it just me, or did Syberia's story suck?

It's not just you, and it's not just the story. The characters in the game are not explored at all, the design is a bunch of adventure-style cliches and there are 1.5 soundtracks in the entire game.

 

[MetalCraze]

but if you're happy with classic adventure puzzles like applying crap to shit even if it doesn't fit there in order to make that piece of vomit to work even if it's not related to crap and shit in any way - Syberia is just for you.

 

[DraQ]

but if you're happy with classic adventure puzzles like applying crap to shit even if it doesn't fit there in order to make that piece of vomit to work even if it's not related to crap and shit in any way - Syberia is just for you.

I'm afraid the point you were trying to make drowned in feces.

 

[MetalCraze]

but if you're happy with classic adventure puzzles like applying crap to shit even if it doesn't fit there in order to make that piece of vomit to work even if it's not related to crap and shit in any way - Syberia is just for you.

I'm afraid the point you were trying to make drowned in feces.

it's just a precise reflection of Syberia's quests...

 

[ghostdog]

Yeah I hate Cyberia too. It's a myst game trying to look like a classic adventure game, and it fails horribly. The storyline is ridiculous and the characters completely unconvincing.

 

[aweigh]

TLJ is teh torment of adv. gamez

 

[Müg]

speaking of TLJ, Dreamfall is my personal FO3 equivalent. Sure it's a great game on it's own, but everything TLJ was horribly horribly raped in my opinion.

Though it was fucking cool to see what happened to Charlie.

 

[Longshanks]

TLJ is teh torment of adv. gamez

No, that's Sanitarium. TLJ is more like FF quality.

 

[Müg]

I couldn't stand sanitarium. The action sequences ruined it for me.

 

[gromit]

Sanitarium is Lionheart, but for the fact that even when it goes actiony it retains its setting, rather than revealing that -gasp- you only THOUGHT it was the renaissance, as part of an elaborate ruse by Doctor Doom!

 

[Longshanks]

The action elements in Sanitarium were not an issue for me, they were easy and you lost nothing for failure. I'm not against action elements in an Adventure game, much more against those games that have dialogue, puzzles and nothing else, especially when the puzzles are few and easy like so many modern adventures. So many Adventures have too little gameplay for me to complain about the small amount of action in Sanitarium.

TLJ was somewhat better than games like Culpa Innata in this regard, but its puzzles were weak, its story decent (loses the plot about half way through), main character annoying, dialogue often chringe worthy.

Sanitarium's story was not on par with Planescape's, more that it's one of the best I've seen in an Adventure game, and has a somewhat similar theme (inner journey). It did have great atmosphere in common with PST, did not force the player through reams of crappy dialogue like most modern adventures (including TLJ, though it's better than most) and had decent puzzles.


I don't quite get the Lionheart comparison for Sanitarium, unless it's just based on quality. Or because it has a few action elements? If so, the comparison could be made with many RPGs, or even adventures with a much larger action component.