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Syberia: The World Before - new entry in the series from Benoit Sokal

Neuromancer

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I am pretty sure she had a boyfriend at some point.
She had an asshole boyfriend in the first game whom she left without second thoughts. "Becoming a lesbian" after such experience is a pretty typical trajectory for closeted bisexual women.
I am not sure, if you are serious with this comment or just joking around - these times it is difficult to tell.


In the first part, it is shown via the phone calls between Kate, her boyfriend, her best (female) friend and her mother, that the couple is gradually drifting apart during the course of the game.
The final straw is, when her boyfriend cheats on her with her best friend. And Kate seems to be quite let down when she receives these news.

So, it is not, that Kate just parts "without second thoughts".

And she is also clearly a straight girl in the first games.


They just invented this lesbian angle for the newest game - like it happens in all other games (e.g. "The Last of Us") or movies nowadays.
It is not known (and perhaps questionable) how much Benoit Sokal had any input on this, since he was already very old and sick the last yeas - and unfortunately has died some short time ago.
:negative:
 

V_K

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I'm saying that I know plenty queer women who thought they were straight and had long-term relationships with men (some even got married and/or had kids) until well into their 30s if not 40s - and then said "Fuck these jerks, I'm gonna date women". It's a very common story - less common with queer men these days, but also happens. So that development in Kate's character doesn't strike me as unrealistic or even surprising in itself. Depends on how her coming out is presented.
And that Kate's boyfriend is a total asshole is clear as day from his very first call.
 
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The final straw is, when her boyfriend cheats on her with her best friend. And Kate seems to be quite let down when she receives these news.

So, it is not, that Kate just parts "without second thoughts".

And she is also clearly a straight girl in the first games.
I rather agree with V_K . The most surprising thing about Kate's reaction to her boyfriend's cheating is that it evoked very little emotion from her. In their phone conversation, he was the one who was full of emotion, and she treated the whole conversation as more of a distraction.

On the one hand, it was probably just a case of a bad voice acting, plus, perhaps, Sokal's attempt to emphasize that Kate has just realized how empty and meaningless her old life was. But on the other hand, it is also quite compatible with her gradual recognition of her own homosexuality.
 

WallaceChambers

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The fact that something can happen doesn't make it satisfying story telling. Yes people are complicated and sometimes unpredictable, even in regards to their sexual orientation. Most people's lives don't make a satisfying narrative arc, a story that I'm paying for with characters I'm meant to be invested in should.

If Kate's "coming out" were truly represented the way people suppose it was in the prologue it would be truly shit. Luckily this was just probably overblown anti-woke backlash because there's really not much in the prologue to suggest Kate went gay. All of her interactions with Katusya could be easily explained as close friends in bad circumstances.
 

Neuromancer

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The most surprising thing about Kate's reaction to her boyfriend's cheating is that it evoked very little emotion from her. In their phone conversation, he was the one who was full of emotion, and she treated the whole conversation as more of a distraction.
In emotional situations like this, there are several ways to react: to start crying, shouting etc. is one way.
Another possibility is that Kate was so shocked by the revelation of her boyfriend's cheating, that she just reacted in a catatonic and emotionless way.
Then later she realizes that her relationship was over anyway. She even says so to her best friend (or to her mother - don't exactly remember) in a later phone call.

On the one hand, it was probably just a case of a bad voice acting, plus, perhaps, Sokal's attempt to emphasize that Kate has just realized how empty and meaningless her old life was.
I can't say anything about the voice acting you refer to since I didn't play the game in English.

But I agree with you that this was exactly, what Sokal wanted to express.


Kate comes from this upper class, rich society in New York with their yuppie lifestyle and "important" people. She is a successful lawyer and in the beginning only had the intention to make a short visit to Valadienne for the signing of the contract.

During the course of the first part, she experience the wonders of this totally foreign world and bit by bit gets pulled into it. At the same time she gets estranged to her former lifestyle and realizes, how senseless and hollow everything was.

Her transformation continues in the second game even long after the breakup.

But on the other hand, it is also quite compatible with her gradual recognition of her own homosexuality.
And here I disagree.

If Sokal wanted to insinuate that Kate might be homosexual inclined, he certainly would have made some allusions to this in the first games.
Instead, the games don't say much about Kate's sexuality at all beside her relationship with her former boyfriend. But this relationship and breakup is used more to show Kate's change of mind (rather a change of her sexuality).

Of course, this lack of information makes it easier for the current developers of Syberia 4 to inject a lesbian angle to Kate - even if this wasn't the original intention.

But in my opinion this is still post-factum BS.
 

V_K

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Ok, to clarify: I wasn't saying Kate was written as queer from the very beginning. Only that there's nothing in her (back)story that would make such a development unrealistic or even surprising. Fictional characters aren't set in stone (and neither are real people for that matter); there's nothing wrong with reimagining them in later works - as long as it is done oranically and doesn't actively contradict earlier material. In this case, it does not - on the contrary, Kate's relationship history maps very neatly onto a narrative of a late sexual awakening. Not to mention the whole prison angle.
As to how organically it's done, remains to be seen.
 

Boleskine

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Sep 12, 2013
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https://www.ign.com/articles/syberia-the-world-before-the-final-preview-pc

Syberia: The World Before - The Final Preview
Adventure is out there!

Syberia: The World Before is the fourth entry in the two-decade-old Syberia adventure game series. It spawned from the mind of the late Benoit Sokal, and in Syberia: The World Before, Microids studio is keeping the flame of the narrative adventure game burning bright. With an intriguing world, engaging puzzles, and a fascinating narrative, I am genuinely curious to see how the rest of the story plays out and see how these characters' relationships intertwine after playing the opening three chapters.

The beginning of Syberia puts you in the shoes of Dana Roze, a young woman who is trying to build a career as a pianist returning to her home of Vaghen – a town facing tensions leading up to the Second World War. Unfortunately, out of the two hours I got to experience so far, I only played as Dana for a short period of time, and while I didn’t get too much out of her story, it did help establish some world building especially for someone like me who is new to the series.

I found the puzzles to be pretty straightforward early on, with tasks consisting of looking for a simple object to progress through the story like a pen or a key. But later on there were others that turned out a little bit more complex than I expected, which was a pleasant surprise. However, at other times I found myself stuck due to a lack of knowing there was another piece of the puzzle that was available to me, or that it was easier to solve with a mouse and keyboard than a controller, the way I played most.

Benoit Sokal created a setting that is similar to what we know of the real world, but the industrial industry is more advanced where you will see automatons doing human actions such as driving vehicles and playing music. An ongoing organization brought up in this world is known as the Brown Shadow, which from what I learned is comparable to Germany’s Nazi party from World War II. I wouldn’t say they are a threat to the characters at large so far, but they are definitely antagonistic and seem to be a focal point in Syberia’s narrative.

Throughout the first three chapters I didn’t play only as Dana Rose, but also as Kate Walker, the main protagonist of the rest of the Syberia series. Her story began as a prisoner in a salt mine, where she quickly learned about the death of her mother. Thanks to her friend Katyusha, they come across an abandoned train finding a painting of our other playable character Dana and coincidentally enough, they look the same. This puts Kate on a mission to find the origin of this painting, who painted it, and who the mysterious girl actually is. That is the big part of Syberia’s story that has me so interested. We already know it is Dana and we play as her, so seeing how these two plot lines collide truly has me anxious to see where the story goes.

As you explore the world you will interact with a myriad of different objects and locations including a train cart filled to the brim with expensive antiques, shop stalls, gadgets, gizmos, and even an industrial piano.

Syberia: The World Before doesn’t seem to be attempting anything groundbreaking for the interactive storytelling genre, but if you are a returning fan to the series or someone who is looking for something to fill that classic adventure-game-sized hole in your heart, then Syberia is something to be excited for. I’m looking forward to seeing how the rest of Dana’s and Kate’s adventure plays out when the game is released on March 18.
 

badger

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So this just came out ...is it worth playing if i don't know the story of the previous entries ?
 

Keshik

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So this just came out ...is it worth playing if i don't know the story of the previous entries ?

I'd say yes, I'm not sure it depends too much on 3, and that game doesn't need playing 1 or 2. I played 3 after forgetting almost everything about 1+2 - which should be played together - and was no worse for wear for enjoying the game as it was (was unhappy with a lot of it).

Might be worth waiting for a patch or two, seeing reviews talking about performance issues. Can't wait to see RPS' take on this :P
 

Jermu

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Downloading now, I liked Syberia 1-2 when I was younger. Also played Syberia 3 but dont remember too much about that game think it was kinda bad

edit:

Played 3 hours, some thoughts:

good:
can disable tutorial/hints
music
graphs
setting seems interesting and story is fine at least for now

bad/annoying:
right click or esc does not close anything such as viewing item, need to click right corner
selecting dialogues / using items is troublesome. Feels like this game was designed for consoles
a lot of pointless clicking
10 second unskippable intro every time
cant skip anything such as dialogues
camera is shit
so far only 1 "puzzle" which was braindead easy. feels like an walking simulation so far

other:
"bad guys" (nazis) are called brown shadow :D
also some jewish propaganda
 
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Keshik

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Mar 22, 2012
Messages
2,115
Really hate the mechanic where opening a lock or turning a valve is a minigame, was really awkward for me to do some of them in the early game with my mouse.
 

WallaceChambers

Learned
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Jul 29, 2019
Messages
311
Downloading now, I liked Syberia 1-2 when I was younger. Also played Syberia 3 but dont remember too much about that game think it was kinda bad
bad/annoying:
right click or esc does not close anything such as viewing item, need to click right corner

You can middle mouse click instead of clicking the right corner.

The puzzles get a bit more intricate ~4 or 5 hours in,
when the game introduces a character switching mechanic.
They're still not very tough, but there's more going on with them than the early puzzles.
 

Jermu

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You can middle mouse click instead of clicking the right corner.

Thanks this was helpful. Not a mention about that in the controls.

Finished the game, I would say around 6.5-7/10. Only couple puzzles took more than 10 seconds to solve. Felt like walking dead games mechanically. Had some performance issues at some areas.

Story was mainly fine even when the premise was quite retarded for the adventure. Quite short game less than 10 hours.

About ending:
Don't really like open ended ending would have been better imo to see the granny alive or visit her grave at monkey people village

Not a total time waste don't mind that I played this one.
 

NJClaw

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This is getting incredibly good reviews on Steam, which I really didn't expect. Is the game actually any good or is this just a case of unwarranted hype and people no longer knowing what an adventure game is? Reading some reviews on Steam makes me lean towards the latter:

It's nothing like any game I've ever played before. The game plays as a rich story narrative in which you navigate your way through it collecting information and items. Slow in some places, but challenging enough to keep your attention and interest going as the story unfolds. I played 6 hours before getting hung up on a puzzle, which I'm halfway through. I love the scenery and details that captivate and amaze me as I move from place to place. I try to see as much as I can, but am often pulled along and miss seeing everything. Play it again
On the other hand, there are a lot of positive reviews from fans of the first two games... am I really going to waste 40€ on a CURRENT_YEAR game?
 

Keshik

Arcane
Joined
Mar 22, 2012
Messages
2,115
Yeah, I think that review is a bit too positive, hah. I checked the negative ones but they seem more due to technical issues, well and two guys bitching about no 21:9 support..

But overall I am pleased with my purchase, even if the puzzles are not that difficult - I was stuck on one for a long time but for some reason I didn't notice the dials on the side when fixing one of the piano mechanisms. Story's ok, at least not doing menial tasks for lazy Youkols or anything.

But if you've never played the series, might as well wait for a sale.
 

WallaceChambers

Learned
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Jul 29, 2019
Messages
311
Finished it, it's def a really good entry into the Syberia series. There's some early scenes that didn't work for me, In terms of the initial motivation for Kate embarking on this journey. But as the story goes on a better motivation that's more specific to Kate as a person takes focus. Shifting the focus and making this a journey about who Kate is as a person gives the plot some actual significance again. As opposed to the random and pointless Yukol plot from the third game. Some really fun Kate & Oscar moments too.

So yeah the story is good save for a few missteps, settings are fantastic, the music & cinematography is top notch. I had a great time with it, especially after things got going. The puzzles are too easy for my taste, there's a few of them that are a bit more challenging, but for the most part I found it very easy. With even a little bit more challenge the game could have been even better but I'd still give it like an 8.
 

abnaxus

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The tag team puzzles were a good idea.

This game definitely is a throwback to Syberia 1. It's the combination of whimsical almost magic realism setting, melancholic atmosphere and personal storyline that made that game excel. Syberia 2 lost almost all of that with mostly snowy landscapes and Kate just tagging along and helping Hans. I'm guessing Syberia "5" will be the same.

Syberia 3 just lacks any focus at all, which is ironically fitting considering the rudderless ship Kate is in that game. At least it has the best puzzles in the entire series and introduces some themes used in 4.
 
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