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

[Jermu]

Syberia creator Benoît Sokal died last year so there is a good chance that this will be last Syberia game.

 

[WallaceChambers]

TWB4's settings are great because you get the fantastical caricature of Europe from S1 and the moody wilderness settings of S2 via the expedition subplot/a few other locales. In the first game all those insane placed you visited -- and weird contraptions you operated -- had significance to the mystery of who Hans was and what he was trying to do. Syberia's clockwork machines will always be more of a reflection of Hans than anyone else. But focusing the narrative around a mysterious person's past and visiting the places they left their mark, with added relevance to who Kate Walker is as a person and why she adventures, gives the franchise a reason to exist outside of one old autistic man's quest to see some Mammoths.

It's good to see that Microids, and Sokal himself before his passing, actually understood what made Syberia worth playing to begin with. I saw someone post on Steam that in the art book for TWB4 Microids hints at continuing the series. Can't confirm that but in this pre-release interview, the subject is brought up. Specifically pointed at Lucas Lagravette, who wrote the game with Sokal and worked with him around 10 years.

Except I can't really understand the answer because it's in French and the subtitles are shit lol.

 

[Antigoon]

3 hours in, and I am really not impressed.

First, its a walking sim and as much of a classic adventure than any Telltale game.

That includes:
- 80% of the game are actually cutscenes
- In between cutscenes, gameplay consists of smashing A to turn that item, hold left stick up for 30 seconds to climb a ladder, push A 4 times to wash your face
- Pointless dialogue options, like A: [Thanks] or B: [Say Nothing]
- Generally very slow pace (except the surprisingly fast running speed). Investigating a simple objects can take up way too much time, showing it from X different angles, all of course non-skippable.
- Lots of the story/background is being told by letters, newspaper articles etc.
- Instead of [He will remember that] or QTA, this walking sims thing are mechanical puzzles like in The Room, but in Storymode difficulty. Sure its somewhat consistent with the previous games/setting, just they aren't interesting and only serve as a timewaster

I suppose if you would want to turn one "classic" adventure game into a walking sim, that one would be a good choice. Only the story/setting so far isn't really interesting. That whole silly not-Nazi but Brown Shadow thing besides, I just don't care about Kates goal in this story.

Spoiler

Kate is in a Russian Gulag/Mine 2004 digging for ivory. She and her cellmate/friend come across a Nazi (Brown Shadow :D) Gold Train. In it several 100 million worth of spoil and a pencil drawing of a girl in front of some mountain dated 1937. That girl apparently looks just like Kate. Cellmate gets shot and Kate promised her to find that girl from 1937 now 70 years later, leaving only with the drawing. I really don't care about the fate of a Jewish girl that looked like Kate in 1937 now in 2004, why would Kate though? Why would anyone?

The writing is also pretty inconsistent.

Spoiler

You get a rock solid lead as to where the drawing was made. You go to that place and in a long ass cutscene Kate is pondering about what brought her there, why is she so sure she finds something here. Maybe because that idiot down in the village told you the drawing pictures the exact same refuge you are heading to?

I am sure they are trying to pull some twist later on, but so far it is mediocre at best.

 

[Keshik]

Finished it finally, took me 13 hours by ingame clock which seems longer than I thought. Was briefly stuck on a puzzle near the end as I didn't notice the hotspot at the top of the generator, but other than that didn't get held up on most puzzles and they are fairly easy. Funny how backtracking is dead in modern adventure games - everything you need to solve a puzzle will be in the zone you're in.

I enjoyed the game, the story was engaging enough that finishing it off didn't feel like a chore like 3 did for me. The camera is a bit annoying, sometimes I'd miss things unless I forced the angle to change and the RMB look only has a couple degrees of give. Surprised I didn't get any crashes or technical issues, really.

Spoiler

Ludwig the Gorun was a bit ridiculous, guy learned English in a year or so. Didn't really add too much things - I am guessing any Syberia 5 will have them as Kate's version of Hans' mammoths.

Spoiler

You get a rock solid lead as to where the drawing was made. You go to that place and in a long ass cutscene Kate is pondering about what brought her there, why is she so sure she finds something here. Maybe because that idiot down in the village told you the drawing pictures the exact same refuge you are heading to?

I had thought Kate meant that in a more macro sense as in what is she doing chasing the woman, etc.

Agree on it being very cutscene heavy, even for little things - did I really need to see the old lady full disembark from the tram ?

 

[Antigoon]

Huh? I thought it was closer to 6 hours.

And yes, I agree on the camera bit, I even had to restart twice because the camera got stucked at the opposite site of the map.

I even liked the 3rd more than most, sure it was worse than the first two, but I didn't think it was that bad like many made it out to be. I just can't see how this is supposed to be a return to the roots as some claim it to be. Maybe a good reboot, but still a very modern take and certainly not closer to the originals than the 3rd.

 

[Keshik]

Yeah, I did spend a lot of time wandering around to complete the secondary objectives, but maybe left it running or something when I got called away by family.. Or maybe I am just slow

 

[WallaceChambers]

the game is for sure not 6 hours lol, that's like half way through the game. it's 12~15 hrs from most ppl I've seen.

 

[turbo elephant]

https://af.gog.com/game/syberia_the_world_before?as=1649904300

This is now on sale for Steamfags @ € 20 until 31-10

 

[Pound Meat]

Had no idea Sokal was dead.

 

[turbo elephant]

3 hours in, and I am really not impressed.

First, its a walking sim and as much of a classic adventure than any Telltale game.

That includes:
- 80% of the game are actually cutscenes
- In between cutscenes, gameplay consists of smashing A to turn that item, hold left stick up for 30 seconds to climb a ladder, push A 4 times to wash your face
- Pointless dialogue options, like A: [Thanks] or B: [Say Nothing]
- Generally very slow pace (except the surprisingly fast running speed). Investigating a simple objects can take up way too much time, showing it from X different angles, all of course non-skippable.
- Lots of the story/background is being told by letters, newspaper articles etc.
- Instead of [He will remember that] or QTA, this walking sims thing are mechanical puzzles like in The Room, but in Storymode difficulty. Sure its somewhat consistent with the previous games/setting, just they aren't interesting and only serve as a timewaster

I suppose if you would want to turn one "classic" adventure game into a walking sim, that one would be a good choice. Only the story/setting so far isn't really interesting. That whole silly not-Nazi but Brown Shadow thing besides, I just don't care about Kates goal in this story.

Spoiler

Kate is in a Russian Gulag/Mine 2004 digging for ivory. She and her cellmate/friend come across a Nazi (Brown Shadow :D) Gold Train. In it several 100 million worth of spoil and a pencil drawing of a girl in front of some mountain dated 1937. That girl apparently looks just like Kate. Cellmate gets shot and Kate promised her to find that girl from 1937 now 70 years later, leaving only with the drawing. I really don't care about the fate of a Jewish girl that looked like Kate in 1937 now in 2004, why would Kate though? Why would anyone?

The writing is also pretty inconsistent.

Spoiler

You get a rock solid lead as to where the drawing was made. You go to that place and in a long ass cutscene Kate is pondering about what brought her there, why is she so sure she finds something here. Maybe because that idiot down in the village told you the drawing pictures the exact same refuge you are heading to?

I am sure they are trying to pull some twist later on, but so far it is mediocre at best.

Good review. Wasn't impressed. Finishing this was a chore. The whole Brown Shadow thing was just debilitating (are the authors scared of the wrath of old Nazi's like this woman, a huge threat no doubt: https://www.reuters.com/world/europ...r-old-woman-nazi-war-crimes-media-2022-12-20/ )