Syberia: The World Before

Review

Syberia: The World Before is a graphic adventure game that doesn’t innovate the formula, but replicates it almost perfectly and adds an engaging story split between two different timelines. On one side, we have Kate Walker’s story continuation from the previous titles, with her being now prisoner of a nazi group known as the Brown Shadow. After managing to escape, she will reach the beautiful city of Vaghen to follow the traces of a mysterious drawing she found in the salt mine where she was working. On the other side, we have a new protagonist, Dana Roze, a 17 year-old pianist living in Vaghen during 1937 (just before World War II) who is somehow connected to Kate through some unexpected events that will be unveiled throughout the game. The premise sounds a bit flimsy, but the quality of the story is undisputed thanks to a solid narration alternating between two timelines that makes good use of cinematic cutscenes and touching moments. Writing and voice acting are particularly convicing and really define our protagonists, while the soundtrack composed by Inon Zur further enhances the atmosphere.

In terms of gameplay, Syberia: The World Before is a classic graphic adventure where we move the protagonist through different locations, talking to secondary characters, investigating objects, reading documents and, most importantly, solving logical puzzles. The game is perfectly playable with a controller like a standard adventure game, or through mouse and keyboard with a more classic point-and-click experience. While the early puzzles are short and very easy, the difficulty increases once we start switching between characters. Kate will often get in trouble and we will have to move back in time playing as Dana to understand how can we gain the necessary knowledge to help our girl in the present. Puzzles are generally very easy and guided but, if for any reason we are unable to solve one, there is an optional “hint” button that is always available and doesn’t penalize us if used. The game also features secondary objectives that are perfectly integrated within the main adventure and can only be completed before progressing further with the story. They don’t offer any extra reward, but they are often used to incentivize exploration and know more about characters and environments.

Artistically, the game is rather impressive, with Vaghen being a city full of life that wonderfully mixes art noveau with the steampunk automatons from the Voralberg industries. Many locations are beautifully detailed and simply a pleasure to explore. Graphically the game sees remarkable improvements on lighting and textures quality, with the environments being greatly detailed, while the character models appear to be more polished, despite still showing rough animations on secondary characters. Performace-wise, there are some moments where the framerate greatly suffers, which is a bit annoying considering we mostly play in closed environments and small sandbox areas with pre-defined interaction points.

Syberia: The World Before marks the epic conclusion of Kate Walker’s journey and perhaps the end of the iconic saga as we used to know it for two decades, with its visionary creator, Benoît Sokal, passing away last year. Fans of the series will treasure this sequel, while new players, as well those who skipped Syberia 3, will probably find themselves a bit confused about Kate Walker’s past and should probably start with the previous titles or at least watch a recap.

Review written by Sonic Punk for Zeepond.com

Syberia: The World Before Steam Store Page