Syberia II

aka: L'avventura di Kate Walker: Syberia Volume 2
Moby ID: 12892
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Description official descriptions

You find Kate Walker continuing her journey exactly where the first game, Syberia, ended. Rather than return to her life as a New York attorney, Kate chooses to journey with Hans Voralberg to the frozen northlands of Syberia aboard his futuristic train.

Kate, Hans and Oscar, the humorous automaton, will travel through four locations on their way to the mythical Syberia, where Hans believes the ancient mammoth race still exists. As the three make their way through the harsh, but beautiful, wintery landscapes, many obstacles will get in their way. The player has to talk to people Kate meets and solve situation-, inventory-based and mechanical puzzles. The single-cursor interface and the visual style (3D character models and pre-rendered backgrounds) are very similar to the original game.

Spellings

  • Сибирь 2 - Russian spelling
  • シベリア 日本語版 2 - Nintendo product page Japanese spelling
  • 赛伯利亚II - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

166 People (153 developers, 13 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 78% (based on 53 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 111 ratings with 6 reviews)

Better than the first one in some ways. Still not good.

The Good

This is the second part of my lengthy rant that started with the first Syberia; as the games belong next to each other back-to-back, and are, in fact, one game split in two, this review probably won't make sense without the first one. Syberia II doesn't, in any case.

The good, then. It's still jaw-droppingly beautiful. Perhaps even more so than the first game. This time, Kate's journey finally takes her to Siberia, and the freezing, snowbound environments are stunning. It's a 5/5 for graphics again.

I was also very pleased to see some of the most obviously broken aspects of Syberia were corrected in the sequel: the number of empty screens was cut to a bare minimum (for most of the game, anyway; sadly, a major location in the final act brings the issue back with a vengeance and considerable amount of pixel hunting ensues) and population was added to the backgrounds, making towns at the outskirts of civilization surprisingly much more alive than all of the European locations of Syberia combined. These people can't be talked to, yet help tremendously in making the setting much more lively. The result is that the game world is much easier and friendlier to navigate. The dialogue system was also reworked, now giving different dialogue options for different characters, as it should be.

Unfortunately, the rest of it is the same as before, if not worse; and the changes themselves are flawed.



The Bad

The story continues directly where Syberia left off and is just as bland as before. This time, a new plot element was added: cuts to the New York office of Kate's employers who are trying to track her down in the frozen wastes. In a perfect illustration of how misguided the storyline is, they have absolutely no reason whatsoever for doing that. It's a replacement for Kate's (also ultimately purposeless, but at least realistic) calls from home in the first game, but it doesn't work at all. Two villains were also added to the storyline, but they are so incongruous with the rest of it the less said about them the better (not to mention the sequence where Kate, usually unwilling to perform any physically demanding task such as jumping, suddenly turns into Spider-Man). At least there is a better ending this time, though not a satisfactory one by a long shot.

And talking about writing - I have said the dialogue system has been reworked, but somehow, it apparently hasn't occurred to anyone that it might be a good idea to keep track of what has already been said or done. Kate is perfectly willing to ask how to perform something she has already done, and people will keep offering exactly the same information in several conversation topics, not remembering anything at all; even more than in Syberia, they all sound like broken robots. Ugly and artificial.

There is, however, one aspect of Syberia II that takes all that was wrong with the first game and just runs with it. I have called the puzzle design of Syberia atrocious; in Syberia II, it's well beyond that. More often than not, the things Kate does in this game are completely arbitrary, and done just because that's what adventurers do, apparently; strangely enough, when combined with the already mentioned removal of empty screens, these arbitrary puzzles are all the more obvious and I often felt like I were playing with a walkthrough at hand - it's perfectly clear what you are supposed to do, it just takes a lot of time. But still, if you put yourselves in Kate's shoes, and think within the game world, it makes no sense whatsoever. There's a puzzle where your heroine defaces a church mural, with absolutely no indication, literally none, that there is something hidden beneath it; in the end, there is, of course - church murals just always seem to work that way, don't they? There's also a bear who will only eat a certain kind of salmon, and a ton of other examples that are actually hilarious, when you think about them. There's also a lot of mechanical, Myst-like puzzles, way more than in Syberia, but a notable percentage of them don't seem to follow any sort of internal logic; just clicking madly usually solves them. However, there is also one devious puzzle, quite different from the rest, which can't be solved unless you happen to remember a certain fact your eccentric old companion had murmured once or twice in his sleep. If you paid little attention to his ramblings, tough luck. Bad, bad design.

To stress my point, let me quote an example of what has to be one of the most horrible "do as the designer says" puzzles ever conceived: there's a pilot hanging by a parachute from a tall tree in the snowbound Siberia, just out of reach, he's asleep and wearing headphones, so he can't hear the shouts trying to wake him up. Kate, being an Adventure Game Heroine, promptly searches the wreckage of his plane and starts randomly flipping switches in the cockpit (and I swear there is absolutely no method to this) to find out the frequency the pilot is tuned to; luckily, there is a radio tower nearby (the chances of that, eh?) she can then use to transmit a wakeup call. And throughout the whole effort, it apparently never occurs to her to throw a bloody snowball at him. Too simple, I suppose. And all this is done to find a faster method of transportation than going on foot to a train that is some 2 kilometres away; the method the awakened pilot suggests has all the advantages of being dramatic, really fast, impractical and seriously life-threatening. Oh well.

And there are penguins at the North Pole. Which is, admittedly, petty criticism for a game where huge herds of mammoths roam, but it's still pretty weird.



The Bottom Line

All in all, Benoît Sokal (by now, his name is the very first thing one sees in the game after the company logo fades away; subtle) should stick to what he does best: drawing. When the tedium of Syberia is removed, as is the case in most of Syberia II, the faults are all the more apparent. As the first one, it's a horribly designed, poorly written game.

But it still is gorgeous.

Windows · by plumifrons (95) · 2010

Lovely to behold, fun to play .. but not exceptional

The Good
This sequel should have been part of the first game .. really! In fact, I had read somewhere that Syberia 1 and 2 were made at the same time and were supposed to be released as one game. But, someone along the way decided to split them ... too long or some such silly reason. Anyway, if you haven't played either game, I would suggest you play them back-to-back.

To reiterate parts of my stellar review of the first game, Syberia II also features ..

  • Gorgeous graphical locales alive with motion and sound
  • Lovely, original orchestrated music
  • Lifelike sound effects
  • Well-integrated, logical puzzles
  • Excellent voice acting The graphics are outstanding. Detailed indoor and outdoor scenes bring everything to life. The trees and ground are laden heavily with icicles and snow - a real winter wonderland with snow falling almost continuously. You can almost feel how cold it is, and Kate even sneezes every so often to bring the point across. Realistic sound effects "immerse" you into the scenery. Listen to the wild animals and birds (the hoot of an owl and the growl of a grizzly bear) .. the briskly flowing brook, and icy wind howling by. The orchestrated music is beautiful, yes, but there seemed to be less of it in this 2nd segment. Since the woods in a winter setting are naturally very quiet, background music would have interfered with that peacefulness .. so I was happy receiving the "accomplishment" music only during the majority of game play. The best music happens during the ending segments. While you were faced with a multitude of mechanical puzzles in the first game, less of them appear in the second. Kate faces more situation and inventory type puzzles in Syberia II. Since the setting is entirely different, that makes good sense. I like the K.I.S.S. method (Keep It Simple Stupid) in game interfaces - structured for easy of use and functionality. I don't care about "frills" and, in fact, consider them as unnecessary "eye candy." Clear cursors, neat menus, uncluttered inventories, save/load one click away, minimal disc swapping etc. - that's what I prefer. In this regard ... There's not enough difference between the interaction cursors, especially those for pick up, use, and talk. So, panning around for that illusive object is the norm - just as it was in Syberia 1. I got used to it and was not overly hindered for the most part. One good thing is that Kate discards unnecessary objects when she advances to a new area. This keeps the inventory neat and tidy. Improvements I experienced may have something to do with my new P4 computer rather than in design or programming. I noticed less problems with cut-scene load time, for instance.

    **The Bad**
    The game's strict linear structure takes you back and forth, sometimes over long distances, just to ask that new question of someone. Of course, unless you know of a problem in real life, you can't ask about it. So, that makes good sense. It's only the traipsing around too far that I object to. Every once in awhile a cut-scene interrupts your wanderings - Kate's New York office is trying to find her. Those scenes didn't advance the story any, in my opinion, and appeared added in. (Kate is really not interested in her old life, after all.) Lip-sync is only fair in the few close-ups you have of the characters. I've seen much better in other games. Dialog paths and continuity needed improvement, but that was true in the first game, too (and I forgot to mention it in that review). It's like Kate's not listening or can't remember a conversation that took place only a moment before. Not a good trait for an attorney from the big Apple (some would say that's typical!).

    **The Bottom Line**
    While I enjoyed Syberia 2, it wasn't as good as the first, in my opinion. But, that said, I think that both are worth playing. Did I feel emotion like I did in the first game? ... almost.
    Was the ending satisfying? Not as good as the first and ... it left me wondering ...
  • Where will Kate go from here?
  • Will she live in Syberia for the rest of her life?
  • Is there going to be a sequel? Only time will tell.
  • Windows · by Jeanne (75956) · 2005

    At last, closure! But... bleh.

    The Good
    The graphics and scenery in this game seemed to be much improved, and for the most part, the puzzles were more intuitive and logical than they were in the first game. The cutscenes seem to be even more detailed and beautiful than in the first game too.

    The Bad
    Sadly, there's a lot I didn't like.

    While the puzzles were more logical this time around, there was an annoying amount of "hunt the pixel". Some of the items you're supposed to pick up blend into the background a little too well, and there are a number of "look-at" hotspots that are simply too small and too difficult to see. I had to consult a walkthrough a couple of times - not because the puzzles were confusing, but because I knew that I forgot to pick up some item somewhere.

    Also, the voice actors for the main stars of the game remained the same, but the actual dialog was pretty horrendous. Much of Kate's dialog feels like it was recorded as individual lines, completely outside of context. A lot of her comments don't quite seem to logically follow one another, and they give the overall impression that Kate has a rather short memory and attention span. An example:

    "I'm Kate Walker! Who are you?" "I'm Anna Voralberg, miss." "Do you know Hans?" "Hans is my brother!" "So you're Anna Voralberg, then?" "That's right!" "Do you have a brother named Hans?"

    And so on. You end up exhausting all dialog choices with every character - not because their dialog is actually interesting, but because you need to hammer certain facts into Kate's head, and she can apparently only remember critical bits of information if they're repeated over and over again in different ways.

    Also, for some reason, Kate is still carrying around her cellphone, though it's only used rarely, and I think it only ever needs to be used once. Kate's mom and her boss call a couple of times, but they might as well not have. It was already made pretty clear in the first game that Kate had put her old life completely behind her. The cellphone allows you to call Oscar this time around, but that's not particularly useful. It's actually more amusing than anything else, especially if you call him from the next room. "You sound so far away! Come back soon!"

    Also, there are certain circumstances in this game where mild language is used, and there's a very brief scene with a half-naked (but strategically covered) Kate. While it doesn't bother me much, I was under the impression that this was essentially a kid's game...

    The Bottom Line
    Well, it's certainly pretty, and it completes the Syberia story. Other than that, as adventure/puzzle games go, it feels awfully half-hearted.

    Windows · by Dave Schenet (134) · 2004

    [ View all 6 player reviews ]

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    Contributors to this Entry

    Game added by Jeanne.

    PlayStation 3 added by Charly2.0. Linux added by Plok. Nintendo Switch added by Kam1Kaz3NL77. Xbox 360 added by Kennyannydenny. Gloud, OnLive added by firefang9212. PlayStation 2, Android, Blacknut added by Sciere. Windows Mobile added by Kabushi. Macintosh, iPhone, iPad added by PolloDiablo.

    Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, Indra was here, Sciere, Stratege, Rik Hideto.

    Game added April 17, 2004. Last modified March 16, 2024.