Product Description

In Syberia II players pick up directly where the classic first game left off, for a more amazing, immersive adventure. Join Kate Walker and expert automaton designer Hans Voralberg as they search for a place that every scientist says does not exist. Travel on trains into realistic arctic landscapes, solving mysteries as you pursue a legend to the ends of the world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3713 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Global Star Software
• Model: 2133757
• Released on: 2004-03-29
• ESRB Rating: Teen
• Platforms: Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows XP, Windows 95
• Format: CD-ROM

Features

• Third-person fantasy adventure game trails Kate Walker on her voyage to Syberia
• Lush graphics and settings designed by comics pioneer Benoît Sokal
• Optimized graphics engine with dynamic lighting effects and more fluid animation
• 4 new locations and new and continuing characters from Syberia I
• For 1 player

From the Manufacturer
Embarking on a desperate search for Hans Voralberg, Kate Walker crosses Europe from West to East. She has left behind all her worldly possessions with the express purpose of joining the heir of the Voralberg family on his journey. Together, through mystical and enchanting lands, they will find their way to the mythical Syberia, land of the forgotten mammoths.

The train leaves Aralbad under a quiet snowfall. Kate, Hans, and Oscar , the loyal, humorous automaton, are heading to Romansbourg, the first of the four worlds to be explored in Syberia II.

The motley crew will clear the last bastions of Russian civilization followed by the Frozen North before arriving at Youkol Village, from where they will try to reach their final destination: Syberia. Along the way, they will have to overcome many obstacles and deal with shady characters to uncover clues vital to the continuation of their quest. Kate's timeless journey through Valadilene, Barrockstadt, Komkolzgrad and Aralbad has sparked an evolution in her character, from an ambitious lawyer to a curious and tenacious adventuress.

Kate's role has undergone a remarkable change. From being the pursuant, she becomes Han's main acolyte, his support in attaining the forgotten realm of the mammoths.

How will she react to this new situation? Can she live up to the choices she made?

Customer Reviews

A well done adventure game!
This game was just as much fun as the original - beautiful graphics and challenging-but-not-too-hard gameplay.

I wish they had kept going with this game (a third installment) - I found the story to be well thought out and intricate.

Technically, the game never stuttered on my XP machine - very smooth and a lot of fun!

A Satisfying Wrap-Up to Game One
Anyone who played and enjoyed Syberia One will definetly enjoy this one. Here, I'm going to do my best to summarize the pros and cons of Syberia 2 without making a novel out of it.
PLOT:
The plot, as in the first game, played an essential role in the game. Although it didn't tend to hold my interest as well as the first game did, you did learn a lot about Hans and the rest of the Voralbergs, as well as why Hans is so devoted to finding Syberia. If you liked the "Oh, it's yet ANOTHER train station." thing that was going on in the first game, you won't be disapointed here, although I only recall winding the train once or twice in this game. (!!!)

CHARACTERS:
I always concider characters to be of the utmost importance when it comes to almost any work of fiction, including adventure games. Kate Walker is still as strong-willed as ever, although we don't see the wonderful character change that we did in the original game. At least, not in HER... I must say, however, Hans Voralberg disapointed me. Whenever he wasn't delirious, dying, kidnapped, or simply vanished, he provided little new information, and everything about him seemed rather deadpanned. Oscar's character, in contrast, totally exploded. He went through game one and the beginning of game two with the 'I-am-only-an-automaton. I-am-not-allowed-to-have-an-opinion-in-anything-that-goes-on-around-here.' attitude. However, as the game progressed, Oscar seemed to learn more and more about what it mean to be human, and there were times when he seemed inches away from having his own soul. He used a bigger variety of words and phrases toward the end. And, I hope someone else noticed this too, but his voice became less flat and mechanical as time went on, and, by the end, his voice had character and expression. The character evolution seemed to have gone from Kate to Oscar in this game, and I really enjoyed watching Oscar 'grow up'.
And, of course, lots of new characters are introduced too. A cute little orphaned girl, a peg-legged soldier (the world of Syberia has too many soldiers), and two cookie-cutter villians who actually had motives (unlike Kate), and also a returning character from the first game (totally unexpected!).
For those who have played the first game, we all remember the diolouge notebook. 'Kate', 'Mission', 'Help', 'Hans', etc. You will be quite happy to know, that in this game, once a topic is discussed it will vanish from the list. Probably to save you from hearing a certain conversation sixty million times just because you clicked on 'Help' wondering if there was anything new to say...
The character animations were good, as always. Once, I left Kate standing where she was for almost 5 whole minutes, because, every 10 seconds or so, she'd do something like cough or rub her hands together. Quite an improvement off of other adventure games I've played, in which they'll stand there for 10 whole minutes just breathing. The characters' body language matched what they were saying (most of the time) although I still say that Kate used her hands too much while she was talking. The only criticism I have to make about character animations is one paticular scene. In the 'dream sequence' (those who have played this game will know what I mean), Kate and Hans are having a conversation and, whoever is talking at the moment, the 'camera' will zoom in on their face. If the game creators wanted to do this, they should've focused more on the character animations in this shot: the talking character, although their lips moved, their teeth stayed clenched. That bothered me terribly...


PUZZLES:
The puzzles in this game were less of a 'find the right object to go in the right spot' and more of a variety of stuff. Some puzzles were still 'find the right object'. Some could be solved very easily by some lucky guesswork. Yet others you could fiddle with for hours and still be slamming the keyboard with frustration. There were a few that I had to get Internet help on, and I don't see any way whatsoever that I could've solved the puzzle without it. I personally think that Syberia should've stuck with really easy puzzles, or the really hard ones, instead of flip-flopping back and forth between the two. At the very least, it would've been easier to nail an age recommendation onto it.

SCENERY/PLACES:
As always, the graphics were astounding. Everything from running water to fire looked absoloutly fantastic. And all the little details, too... Kate leaving footprints in the snow, seeing her shadows in the light, seeing her reflection when she walks over a puddle... honestly, walking through screen after screen of the arctic tundra has never been so beautiful.
Note the 'screen after screen' phrase.
I recall one particular puzzle in which I needed to use a canteen of water to do something specific. There were lots of things I could do with the canteen of water, but only one would work. Normally, trial and error would work very well, but, the only problem was, once you tried and failed, you use up all the water in the canteen. So you had to go walking across (I counted) 8 screens of snow and ice in order to refill the canteen, and then go walking the 8 screens back. For those of us without much patience for seeing Kate run around in the snow, it was incredibly frustrating.

OVERALL:
Overall, this game will not disapoint those who are buying it because they fell in love with the first game. Although some of the kinks have been worked out in this one, there are still some that remain. However, I really loved this game: the graphics were astounding; the plot, although it had some weak points, was still very good; the characters were mind-blowing, and everyone's (ok, more like MY) favorite tin man had a bigger role! Anyway, all in all, this game is definitely worth the money. So... what're you waiting for? Go ahead and buy it!

Syberia 2
This game is so beautiful. I played Syberia and Syberia 2 is a great sequel I just wish we found out what happened to Kate and Hans. The only thing is most of it was in winter, I wish it took place in spring or something.