Syberia: The World Before was released for PC on March 18, 2022.
Conclusion: Syberia: The World Before
Judging adventures is always tricky – especially when it comes to the quality of the puzzles: While genre fans are always thirsty for new challenges, everyone else prefers light fare and really just wants to experience a good story. “Syberia: The World Before” succeeds in walking the tightrope between “not too easy” and “not too difficult”, although it could have been a little more demanding. The story is largely successful and a clear improvement over the failed predecessor. This is mainly due to the character Dana Roze, whose fate is written much more exciting and plausible than that of the unsteady Kate Walker. Otherwise, it’s rather the little things that bother – including the clever but buggy hotspot control or the finale stretched with unnecessary puzzles. “Syberia: The World Before” isn’t a milestone, but all in all a good adventure. Above all, it lives from the beautiful scenery, which exudes a lot of flair and charm. Therefore, another part would be welcome – if this is even possible without the late Benoît Sokal.
Per
- Beautiful backdrop
- Intelligent hotspot control
- Good puzzle design
- Coherent plot about Dana Roze …
against
- … while the stories about Kate Walker sound exaggerated and at times even unbelievable
- The hotspot icons are very difficult to see on white surfaces
- Towards the end, the puzzles unnecessarily stretch the story
“Syberia: The World Before” is the fourth part of an adventure series that started 20 years ago. They once again accompany the adventurous Kate Walker, this time investigating a woman named Dana Roze. Although the story sometimes offers heavy fare, because it deals with the horrors of World War II, for example, the new “Syberia” is a rather tranquil adventure. Sadly, Benoît Sokal, the creator of the series, passed away in 2021. Thankfully, the rest of the development team has continued to work on his latest work and are now releasing Syberia: The World Before in his honor.
» To the offer: Syberia: The World Before at AMAZON
In search
At the beginning of the story, Kate Walker is stuck in a labor camp and forges an escape plan with her friend Katyuscha.
Syberia: The World Before is a classic point-and-click adventure where you leisurely travel from place to place, talking to people and manipulating objects to solve puzzles. In contrast to the predecessors, this time you take on the role of several characters, primarily Kate and Dana. The game then alternates regularly between the past (which mainly takes place in 1937) and the present (the year 2005).
The world of “Syberia” combines real historical events with fictional people and places. So at the time of the Second World War there are no Nazis, but the so-called brown shadows. And instead of the Jews, the Vagerans are persecuted, who in turn populate the also fictitious city of Vaghen in the middle of Osterthal.
The world of “Syberia” is full of mechanical automatons, some of which are modeled after organic life such as a human heart.
The quality of the story fluctuates between exciting and exhausting. Most of the time you discuss the mystery of Dana Roze, whose career and fate is told credibly for long stretches. This includes a few twists and turns, which, however, one guesses far too early. So it’s not uncommon for Kate Walker to stumble upon an insight that you pieced together hours ago.
In general, the plot around Kate, who is wanted by the police due to past events, is disappointing – which, however, is not really understandable without knowledge of the predecessor. Although a video compilation of the series can be viewed in the options menu, it is far too short and, above all, far too meaningless.
Clever: The closer the mouse cursor comes to an interesting object, the clearer the white hotspot icon can be seen.
Picturesque Osterthal
The scenery lives mainly from beautiful mountain landscapes and of course the playful machines by Hans Voralberg, one of the central characters of the first two “Syberia” games. They look rustic due to their dark brown color and at the same time lively thanks to their anthropomorphic shape and play an important role in the puzzles. Some of the mechanics seem very complicated, for example if you have to use several levers to operate a ticket machine. However, this also has its own charm, which makes the world of “Syberia” something special.
All in all, “Syberia: The World Before” impresses with great graphics that are bursting with playful details and therefore even know how to conceal a few technical shortcomings. If you take a closer look, you will notice one or the other unclean texture wallpaper. But in the end the overall picture is right, which is why the adventure is already one of the most beautiful games of the year.
The linchpin of the story is the life of Dana Roze and her relationship with her boyfriend Leon Kobatis.
Innovative controls with teething problems
Usually it is not necessary to write about the controls of a point-and-click adventure. But in the case of “Syberia: The World Before” there are several points that stand out – both positive and negative. The focus is on the surprisingly original hotspot option, which, like many other adventure games, displays all interesting objects in the form of a small icon. The simple mechanism established itself as the genre standard years ago because it avoids annoying search orgies. But while in other games you can simply press a button to display everything relevant, in “Syberia: The World Before” you have to move the mouse over the screen like in the good old days. The hotspots only appear when the cursor is nearby.
The idea turns out to be surprisingly clever because it supports the player without taking them by the hand too much. After all, it’s quite appealing to search a new place and be thirsty about it when you’ve found something important. However, the developers of Microids also made a few mistakes that could have been avoided with a little fine-tuning. Above all, there are problems when clicking on hotspots as soon as the camera moves. The adventure often registers the player’s click too late and sends Kate or Dana to a completely wrong position.
Even if the individual textures do not look particularly detailed, the graphics create an excellent overall picture.
Also annoying: The hotspot icons are snow-white, which is why you can hardly see them on light backgrounds. It would have been helpful here if the icon came in different colors and the game chose the one that provides the best overview depending on the situation. Finally, a few words of praise about the puzzle design: The player has to operate or even repair various machines from time to time, sometimes with the help of a small guide and sometimes through stupid “trial & error”.
At selected points he can even switch between the characters at the push of a button and, for example, has to find a clue with Dana in the past, which Kate in turn needs in the present. Unfortunately, towards the end the game overdoes it a bit with the problems that the player is supposed to solve. They always feel artificial and staged, as if the creators were deliberately trying to lengthen the gameplay.
Release: “Syberia: The World Before” was released on March 18, 2022 for PC. The game has an age rating from 12 years and costs 40 euros.