Syberia — Remastered. The gears are turning again
In 2002, a wonderful adventure began for lawyer Kate Walker and players alike: first, in search of the brilliant inventor Hans Voralberg, and then continuing the journey to the mysterious country of real mammoths together with him.
Years have passed, generations of operating systems and computer hardware have changed, and with this, the original version of the game Syberia, released in 2002, has not only technically aged but has also become more difficult to run on modern computers.
Of course, many popular games have an active community of players who keep them alive in various ways, creating methods to improve graphics or functionality. But when the companies themselves recall this gaming heritage and prepare official re-releases, it is received positively. This means that intellectual property rights are not in vain, the game can be updated more significantly, and perhaps something new will be created in this franchise.
The announcement that a remaster of the first Syberia was in the works was made back in May this year. The publisher Microids engaged the studio Virtuallyz for the project. At that time, they stated the goals they wanted to achieve with the release of the remaster: to rethink the puzzles, make the interface and controls more convenient, and update the visual component of the game. Most importantly, to optimize the project for modern computers and gaming consoles so that new people can get acquainted with this classic of the adventure genre, while others can reminisce.
And now November has arrived, Syberia — Remastered has been released without deviating from the planned schedule. It is nice that there are no issues with support for the Russian language: it includes both voice acting and translated text.
Briefly remind the plot's setup: lawyer Kate Walker arrives from America in Valadilene (a fictional town in Europe) to finalize the deal for acquiring the local factory owned by the Voralberg family.
This factory is famous for making complex mechanisms, especially humanoid automata that perform various tasks. Even the production itself made use of these automata. But the factory's owner, Anna Voralberg, has just died, and when Kate reaches the notary with whom she can sign the papers prepared by Anna, she is faced with another surprise — it turns out there is a living heir to this factory, a certain Hans Voralberg. This means she must find him, and only then can she finalize the deal.
Thus, Kate Walker immerses herself in her own investigation of the Voralberg family's life and the search for Hans. For this, she will have to solve both simple everyday tasks and master the unusual mechanisms invented by the brilliant Hans Voralberg.
After many years, it is pleasant to return to the cozy and beautiful locations once imagined by Benoît Sokal. Although this is a new version of the game, at first, you don't even notice any differences from the 2002 game. It seems that Syberia looked exactly like this.
This indicates that the developers managed to keep the style of the original adventure and properly redrew all locations, characters, and objects.
In reality, Syberia — Remastered has indeed received an improved visual shell. This is expressed in the fact that the game has more graphical depth. Previously, we traveled against the backdrop of rendered backgrounds of locations, but now all locations are fully modeled and have their volume and perspective. Although transitions between them are still divided by boundaries that must be crossed with a load screen for the next location or room. It seems that the territory sizes have become somewhat larger, meaning that running around now takes more time and effort. However, the fact that old rendered videos remain in key locations didn't strike me too much. Although at least the resolution of these videos has been increased (possibly using neural networks), otherwise their old view smeared across the modern screen wouldn't look as good.
Some locations are extended, so while Kate walks from end to end, the camera follows and moves with the character. But there are no more degrees of freedom for the camera; in this sense, the game is not significantly different from the original 2002 version.
The gameplay, at its core, has not undergone significant changes: Syberia — Remastered plays like a typical point-and-click adventure. We move through locations, communicate with characters on various topics (the necessary dialogue for progressing the story is always highlighted in gold), gather items, and read documents and notes. All these items can later be found in Kate Walker's personal inventory.
To progress the story, the player will encounter almost all the puzzles from the 2002 game: as the developers promised, they tried to change the solutions to some puzzles. Some puzzles have even been simplified: whereas before, a long chain of actions was needed to solve a task, now fewer operations are required.
A simple example from the beginning of the game: to enter a cave, you need to stop the flow of water. For this, there is a turning mechanism with a lever that closes the sluice gates of the dam; Kate lacks the strength to turn it, so she asks a boy named Momo for help. Momo breaks the lever, and then we pick up the broken stick, go down to the boat downstream, and using a piece of the stick, we reach the paddle floating on the water's surface. This paddle is then used to turn the mechanism.
In Syberia: Remastered, the paddle is already in the boat and can be taken immediately. Kate will be able to turn the lever herself, and after it breaks, we will replace it with the paddle and finally stop the water flow to enter the cave.
In a similar manner, some other puzzles have also been modified. Sometimes the developers changed elements of the puzzle, and instead of doing some previous actions, you now need to do something else. Overall, it sometimes seems that the game has become easier.
Nevertheless, let's not forget about the choice of difficulty. For more discerning adventure lovers, there is the "Adventure" mode where fewer hints seem to be given.
You no longer need to open the inventory separately to retrieve an item and then apply it to an object in the location. Now, interaction with all interactive objects is accompanied by a hint: a small round window in which you can select an item to use.
Regarding the technical aspects of the re-release, I would like to complain about the lack of a manual save function. Before starting the game, we select one of three profiles, and then our progress will be automatically saved at checkpoints. This also allows someone else in the family to play, and that player can carry on their passage in a different profile simultaneously.
I did not encounter problems and bugs, although there were claims from some players that they experienced system freezes or game crashes, which then caused their save data to disappear, forcing them to restart the game from the beginning.
It would be great if they expanded the storyline and created some new episodes for the game. But then they would also have to do new voice acting... It’s clear that they wouldn’t want to spend more money on new voice actors, so the re-release offers a minimum of new content. The main thing is that for some, this re-release will become a convenient way to launch a game that is already over 20 years old on modern computers without the hassle of technical setup.
Syberia — Remastered can be considered a careful update of the classic adventure. The developers have tried not to ruin what people love about the original: the lyrical story of the search for the dreamer Hans Voralberg, who is enchanted by mammoths. And Kate Walker herself undergoes a transformation during her journey through Europe. Additionally, the beautiful visuals are preserved here: they are beautiful not due to technological gimmicks, but because of artistic work and the authors' imagination.
Is there any point in waiting for a remaster of the second part?.. So far, there have been no such news, but it would be nice. The old game needs a little graphical update, support for modern software, and optimization for wide-format screens.
I would like to thank the company "BUKA" for providing the activation key for this game review.