Syberia

Syberia is definitely a very interesting point-and-click adventure game though it still doesn't quite meet up to some of the others I've played in the past (especially The Longest Journey).

I managed to finish it in about 17 hours over two days (including breaks, food, game crashes and redoing parts, and getting stuck on silly bits for half an hour...). Not a bad duration for a game of the genre, and since it obviously ends with a prelude to a sequel, that adds more to it. I'm looking forward to getting the sequel, but I said that with the other Broken Sword games so who knows when that will be..

Overall the game has wonderful graphics and a highly engaging storyline, with a predictable home subplot (Kate-Dan-Olivia) that at least provides a little entertainment at times. As with many point-and-click adventures you can tell a lot of effort and skill went into the designing of the scenery, but I think the designers tried to cram in too many scenes and angles that just serve the purpose of taking up time clicking through rather than getting anything done.

As for gameplay, the only things I would mention being a bit annoying were the access to the menu not being direct enough and the at-times finicky objects that slowed me down because they needed to be dealt with just-so, but there were only one or two of these so they didn't interfere greatly.

Its a good game, but I think those who don't like having to sit through the odd bout of long narrative might find this at times boring. This shouldn't put you off though as it is worth it.

8/10