| 31 OCT 2002 at 5:01pm |
Agustín CordesGuild Master
Posts : 5696
Joined: 23 OCT 2002
Location: AR, Buenos Aires
Status : Offline | After the D-Thread, which I started in a somewhat rude way but I think it finished with some very creative comments, I decided to settle and write a "cooled down" review covering both positive and negative sides of this controversial game.
Critics are more than welcome.
Note: since English isn't my foreign language, I hope you'll forgive any possible grammatical errors.
Syberia review
Page 1 of 2
Developer: Microïds
Publisher: Microïds
Adventure games are the oldest genre around. Throughout the years, this genre has suffered many changes of ideas and perspectives and the designers learned how to improve their creations. During a glorious moment, almost every single new adventure was excellent or, at least, had a nice story with interesting challenges to offer. All of this suddenly came to an end but that is another tale.
Lets see what Syberia has to offer.
The story is everything?
The situation of the game and its storyline are quite original. At least, there hasn't been a similar game ever.
We start with our main character, Kate Walker, arriving at the town of Valadiléne, a place lost in Europe, representing a company that wants to buy an automaton factory and she comes to finish the negociations with the owner. These automatons are something very common in the town thanks to this factory. Note that I say "automaton" and not "robot". This is because, acording to them, an automaton has more independency than a robot.
Anyway, the things start to complicate when Kate finds out that Anne Voralberg, the owner, has died and the negociations are endangered. Without giving any further details, I can tell you that Kate finishes in the lookout for Hans, the brother of Anne, in a faraway land. The story is truly good.
Sadly, as good as the story may be, its marred with uninspired characters. None of them has a special defining feature and they look as alive as the automatons are. Maybe this was intentional because of the sad nature of the story but it really hurts the game. Also, they never are fully developed except maybe Kate. The truth is, as the ending begins to fade, none of them remains in your memories.
A piece of art
Technically, the game is outstanding. The graphics are truly a beauty and we're going to see a lot of them (I'll discuss this later). They were done by a prestigious french comic writer: Benoît Sokal, so there's a lot to expect here.
All the animations are also well achieved and are very smooth. For example, there's a scene with an elevator. When it moves, you don't see that bothering pixelating that a superimposed video has - the elevator moves with the same detail it had when it was standing still. Also, the cutscenes are fascinating and had a lot of detail (something that doesn't happen often).
By the way, I forgot to mention the introductory scene which shows some sort of requiem carried out by automatons and it sets up the atmosphere of the game. In this sequence you can feel the sadness that will prevail for the rest of the game.
Some people may complain about the lack of "color" (both in a graphic and climatic way) but there's no way we can criticize that. The story requires it and, personally, I wasn't that bothered.
But the technical aspect has its cons. In many ocasions, we will find ourselves in inmense scenes (in a sense that the location is very open) with only a small sector to exit. For example, in the entrance to the factory, if we want to go to the next scene, we must make Kate go to a little corner of the screen. I don't understand how the designers missed this detail but, anyway, it doesn't happens that often.
[Edited for spelling]
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| 31 OCT 2002 at 5:03pm |
Agustín CordesGuild Master
Posts : 5696
Joined: 23 OCT 2002
Location: AR, Buenos Aires
Status : Offline | Syberia review
Page 2 of 2
So the graphics are nice, and how does it play?
Here's where the problems begin.
The game has big design flaws in the exploration aspect. Not only is terribly linear - not necessarily a design flaw - but we must go across several scenes in order to get to a particular point were there's almost nothing to do. Maybe the graphics are great but, as great as they may be, they don't justify walking twice through six or more scenes. This was one of the first things that bothered me: in this aspect, Syberia is nothing else than a vehicle to show us Sokal's art. Even worst, Kate moves very slowly - and that's when she is running.
Another detail that one realizes soon is the few interaction with the scenes: you can only interact with the necessary stuff. To the people that likes to examine every single object, Syberia will be a somewhat dry experience. Why do we want beautiful graphics if we can't do that much with them? The game almost comes down to a nice background scene with two o three hotspots. This really has an artificial look - it lacks that integration of your character with the gameworld.
Another point of discussion are the phonecalls: Kate carries around a celular phone and regularly gets a call from her familiars and work partners that, except for one in particular at the beginning, don't add anything to the storyline. This strategy maybe was used by the designers to show us more of the personality of Kate but it doesn't worked. They interrupt the flow of the game and, after a while, they become tedious. This is only a personal appreciation but its a point to keep in mind.
The heart of any adventure game: its puzzles
Because if story were everything we might as well watch a movie or read a book. And here is the greatest failure of Syberia: terribly uninspired puzzles. Not only they're too easy but they don't fit with the storyline. They give the sense of just being "on the way" to bother us and it doesn't has to be that way. The puzzles must be an integral part of the storyline, they must help it to evolve but the philosophy of Syberia is totally the opposite.
How do we know if a puzzle is good? Because it keeps lingering in our minds when we're not playing. Because we wake up at 3 a.m. saying "but of course, how I didn't realize that?!". Nothing of this happens in Syberia because it's very difficult to get stucked with a puzzle for more than two or three hours and, in the worst of cases, every single puzzle can be solved by "brute force", that is randomly trying objects from your inventory with hotspots.
A beginner player can easily finish the game in one week with no help. An advanced can finish it in half a day. In a production of these proportions, with so many aspects well crafted, this is unforgivable.
So what?
Clearly, Syberia is targeted to a public not familiar with adventure games. An experimented player will not find anything of interest unless the only thing that matters to him is the story. If Microïds strategy was to design Syberia easy and accessible so more people can play it then there's no way I can agree with that. Why attract new people if it cannot offer the best of the genre?
Which takes me to the beginning commentary of this review: if adventure games have progressed so much through the years and there have been great examples of the genre, how is it possible that such a production has so many poor features?
The bottom line is that Syberia is artistically perfect but has serious design flaws.
[s] [/s]
Final grade: C
[Edited for spelling]
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| 31 OCT 2002 at 5:38pm |
bleepnikPrivate Detective
Posts : 544
Joined: 13 OCT 2002
Location: US
Status : Offline | Nicely done; thanks for the review Rael
.gita
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| 31 OCT 2002 at 6:32pm |
MichalNGrand Inquisitor
Posts : 7058
Joined: 14 SEP 2003
Status : Online | Originally Posted By Rael (31 OCT 2002 5:01pm)
Note: since english isn't my foreign language, I hope you'll forgive any possible grammatic errors.
I loooved that comment. Except the fact that English is spelled with capital E and "grammatical errors" seems to be the correct form, it was pretty good
I find it odd how some native speakers have so much trouble with English spelling and grammar. I don't know if it reflects more on the weirdness of English in general or just quality (or lack thereof) of education in some countries.
I see that your conclusion on Syberia is remarkably similar to mine (what a surprise), although I deliberately didn't give it any grade. I'd be considering something between B and C.
I forgot my sig.
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| 31 OCT 2002 at 6:47pm |
Agustín CordesGuild Master
Posts : 5696
Joined: 23 OCT 2002
Location: AR, Buenos Aires
Status : Offline | I loooved that comment. Except the fact that English is spelled with capital E and "grammatical errors" seems to be the correct form, it was pretty good
DOH!!
I was supposed to be particulary careful in that comment. Thanks for the advice; I'm checking it right away (darn!).
I see that your conclusion on Syberia is remarkably similar to mine (what a surprise), although I deliberately didn't give it any grade. I'd be considering something between B and C.
Yes, we had similar thoughts on Syberia. I liked your review. Very good job!
By the way, thanks G!!!
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| 31 OCT 2002 at 7:07pm |
mszvPrivate Detective
Posts : 751
Joined: 12 OCT 2002
Status : Online | Hi Rael,
What a lovely review, Rael, thanks. Though I don't share your ranking of Syberia (I would give it an A+) I thought your observations were excellent.
One small comment - I think that the linearity of a game is a design choice, not a game flaw. One may prefer games that are more non-linear than linear, but a mostly linear adventure game can work.
All for now.
Regards, mszv
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| 1 NOV 2002 at 2:19pm |
MrLipidPrivate Detective
Posts : 666
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By mszv (31 OCT 2002 7:07pm)
One small comment - I think that the linearity of a game is a design choice, not a game flaw. One may prefer games that are more non-linear than linear, but a mostly linear adventure game can work.
Hi mszv,
I would stake out a third position in the design choice/game flaw linearity discussion. I think it was a design necessity.
If one starts from the premise that the core of an adventure is its story and one wants to tell that story in a traditional "first this happens and then this happens and then this happens" fashion, linearity is obligatory. There is no getting around it.
Put another way, I don't think linearity was ever a topic of conversation for the Syberia design team. Everyone knew going in that this was to be the story of Kate Walker and that the story was to be told from the beginning.
While I agree that linearity can work for an adventure game -- Gadget derives its emotional impact from its linearity -- it is equally likely that linearity can distort the relationship between the player and the story. Once it becomes clear that there is really only one path, the game experience becomes one of finding that path. That is, finding the next working hotspot.
If the player is engrossed in the story, that may not be an issue. There have certainly been a lot of folks for whom this was a plus. If, however, the player does not find the story particularly compelling, all that remains is the game's machinery and the experience collapses into a hunt for hotspots.
Imagine that Syberia had been told in a non-linear fashion. Imagine Kate Walker as an older woman, preparing to place a series of photos in a scrapbook. Each picture takes her to a different part of her adventure as a younger woman. Her task is to place the photos in the proper order in the scrapbook. What she learns in each segment provides clues to what must come before and after. And once the scrapbook is complete...one final extraordinary moment.
Just a thought....
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| 1 NOV 2002 at 4:33pm |
Agustín CordesGuild Master
Posts : 5696
Joined: 23 OCT 2002
Location: AR, Buenos Aires
Status : Offline | Theory No. 1: "Every single story can be told in a non-linear fashion"
Mr. Lipid gave an example that can demonstrate this.
History has showed us that a linear adventure game is a double-edged sword. Linearity doesn't gives the gamer freedom, that is, a single task followed by another single task puts the player in a somewhat passive position. Thus, thats what I mean when I say linearity its a design flaw.
I don't think that much adventures succeded with a linear storytelling. Certainly, Syberia didn't.
Anyway, thats my opinion.
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| 1 NOV 2002 at 4:58pm |
MrLipidPrivate Detective
Posts : 666
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By Rael (1 NOV 2002 4:33pm)
Linearity doesn't gives the gamer freedom, that is, a single task followed by another single task puts the player in a somewhat passive position. Thus, thats what I mean when I say linearity its a design flaw.
Unless, of course, one wants the player in a passive position. Linearity can be a choice. I just don't happen to think it was a choice that anyone consciously made when Syberia was being designed. I happen to prefer free exploration to linearity and understand that that is my preference and not a universal ideal.
As for linearity being a flaw, I'm probably reacting too strongly to the word flaw. To me, a design flaw is an outright game ender. "You mean you didn't pick up the screwdriver in the first scene? Well, sorry, you'll have to start over." THAT is a design flaw.
Law & Order Dead on the Money has a variation of that. Once something is discarded from the case file, it is just plain gone. Too bad if you need it later. There is no evidence room where all evidence is stored. Just a limited storage space brief case and a trash can. That was clearly a design decision and it was a poor one.
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| 1 NOV 2002 at 6:23pm |
Agustín CordesGuild Master
Posts : 5696
Joined: 23 OCT 2002
Location: AR, Buenos Aires
Status : Offline | Hmmm yes, you're probably right. Sometimes the designers decide to make a linear game and they're pretty aware of it. But there are somes cases where they just can't seem to do a good planning of the puzzles resulting in a linear game. Thats when I think its a design flaw.
Of course, some people like linearity and some doesn't. But I think that the most succeful adventures were non-linear.
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| 1 NOV 2002 at 6:40pm |
MrLipidPrivate Detective
Posts : 666
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By Rael (1 NOV 2002 6:22pm)
But there are somes cases where they just can't seem to do a good planning of the puzzles resulting in a linear game. Thats when I think its a design flaw.
Of course, some people like linearity and some doesn't.
So what you're saying is that in some cases designers do a poor job of planning and create a game some folks like?
I'm still uncomfortable with the word flaw because if a design decision doesn't actively stop the player from continuing, it becomes a matter of taste as to whether being linear is a good thing or not.
And linear, with very rare exceptions, is not to my taste. Then again, coffee with sugar is not to my taste, either, and I would not call coffee with sugar flawed. Too sweet, perhaps, but not flawed.
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| 1 NOV 2002 at 7:55pm |
Agustín CordesGuild Master
Posts : 5696
Joined: 23 OCT 2002
Location: AR, Buenos Aires
Status : Offline | So what you're saying is that in some cases designers do a poor job of planning and create a game some folks like?
I didn't say a particular title!
I'm still uncomfortable with the word flaw because if a design decision doesn't actively stop the player from continuing, it becomes a matter of taste as to whether being linear is a good thing or not.
Design quirk fits you better?
Whatever, you're right. It all comes down to a matter of taste.
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| 1 NOV 2002 at 9:23pm |
MrLipidPrivate Detective
Posts : 666
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | Since we appear to be in agreement, I think I would end this with one of my favorite quotes. It comes from screenwriter Ernie Lehman. While he's talking about writing movies, I think it is also appropriate to games: "The decisions that kill you are the decisions that are made before anyone realizes a decision has been made."
In the case of games that wind up being linear, the decision that was made before anyone realized it was the decision to tell a traditional story. That leaves the designers with no choice other than to break up the story with puzzles. And the player no choice but to play the game in A-B-C order.
For some players, nothing could be better. And to them I say, "Enjoy!"
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| 1 NOV 2002 at 10:34pm |
Agustín CordesGuild Master
Posts : 5696
Joined: 23 OCT 2002
Location: AR, Buenos Aires
Status : Offline | Excellent conclusion, Lipid!! Perfectly said.
I'm really grateful for your comments
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