Cyberia

aka: Cyberia: -experience the future-
Moby ID: 810
DOS Specs
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Description official descriptions

In the year 2027, the world is controlled by two rival superpowers, the western-bloc Free World Alliance and the east-bloc Cartel. Transmissions from an FWA spy reveal the location of a secret multi-national laboratory deep within Siberia, the Cyberia Complex, where a mysterious weapon is being developed. FWA leader Devlin frees a cyber-hacker named Zak from prison and sends him to infiltrate the complex and discover the true nature of the Cyberia weapon.

Unfortunately, the Cartel is also interested in the weapon and will stop at nothing to get it. Not only must Zak make his way past the Cartel forces sent to stop him, but he must also overcome the Cartel agents which have already seized control of the complex. To make matters worse the Cyberian scientist's genetically engineered creations are running rampant in the same area as the weapon and Devlin also appears to have something up his sleeve.

Cyberia is an action game with puzzle sequences and a heavy reliance on scripted events and cutscenes. The game allows limited navigation between locations, which usually lead to a puzzle or (more often) action scenes that involve either shooting down planes with a gun turret or navigating various flying vehicles, destroying enemies in a Star Wars: Rebel Assault-style confrontations.

Spellings

  • サイベリア - Japanese spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (DOS version)

45 People · View all

Director
Project Manager
Producer
Art Director
Computer Animation
Technical Director
Director of Digital Photography
Real Time Integration
Lead Programmer
3D Modelling
Lighting
Animation
Character Animation
Map Painting
2D Animation
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 67% (based on 32 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 56 ratings with 5 reviews)

A cool breeze of air.

The Good
Golden rule is not to make many cinematics iin between missions of some shooter game, golden rule is to make a cinematic out of a shooter game. And thus, Cyberia was born. Using extremely beautiful graphic and pre-rendered animations all throughout the game I can undoubtedly say this game got me hooked like no other. It's not that I'm a sucker for beautiful graphic, but I am for good cinematics.

You are cast in a role of Zak, a computer hacker of some kind who was waiting to be executed, but got a tempting offer which he chose instead of his execution. At first it is har to tell what are you doing and why, and are hoping that more of the plot will be revealed to you as you move along. The game is generally comprised of three parts, the adventurous one when you're doing the regular exploring from a third person perspective, the mindboggling one where you use your special glasses that are more than meets the eye to hack into whatever opportunity brings. And the last and most amusing and amazing one is the sheer shoting which is done from first-person perspective.

For when I said the entire game is like one big cinematic, what I meant is there's everything prerendered, including your own moves (you just tell Zak where to go, but you don't go there, he does), but some other cinematics there sure are present. Tops ones to be while you're reaching Siberia in a prototype craft with autopilot and your only worry targeting cursor. Music in those 6 or 7 flying missions is so perfect for action scenes and short cinematics in between shooting I haven't encountered better assemble of music and cinematic ever since.

Sure, people may not like games with little influence to the course by the player, where everything is majorly done by the computer AI, but that's why it is called a cinematic, and no matter graphic on some nowadays games may exceed the look of these cinematics, I find this game to be one in a lifetime. I still am bedazzled why it didn't pass as well enough to conclude the trilogy but only to get a sequel.

The Bad
Solving certain puzzles may be a bit frustrating, especially since you can get killed pretty easily whenever failing to deactivate or bypass something. But these puzzles are what keep this game under balance and just to prolongue the inevitable.

The Bottom Line
This is one of a definite classics if you ask me. A game that brought something fully pre-rendered to our computers, and the developers that knew how to make the recipe for the right mixture of all the elements that make this game so good. Depending how much you like self-driving games like this, where you enjoy cinematics to the top, you may also try Cyberia 2 and Rebel Assault II.

DOS · by MAT (240759) · 2012

Junk, Purely Worthless, Its sad that they made a 2nd Cyberia

The Good
The music is ok.

The Bad
Lets face it people, this game is terrible. It was bad on the playstation, and its worse on the computer because the controls suck that much more. Hey nice consept, a over glorified shooter, that features pure linear play, WOW doesnt that sound fun.

The Bottom Line
Dont waste your time, this is pure crap.

DOS · by NotTwoQuick (18) · 2000

Look how shining those cd thingies are!! Ooooh! Aaaaaah!! Shiny..!

The Good
Drop-dead gorgeus graphics! Big explosions! Sound up the wazoo! Those are clearly the best characteristics of Cyberia. Playing as an undercover agent/hacker you infiltrate some sort of para-military organization to foil some sort of world threathening plot involving a secret superweapon codenamed Cyberia and off you go! Welcome to gloss-o-rama!

As mentioned, the graphics and animations in the game are extremely well done, combining digitized images with pre-rendered stuff to achieve a stellar presentation. The story, for as cliche as it is, is functional and the different twists you can take in the interactive-movie "decision time" moments are actually good, providing some expanded lifetime for the game.

The interface is simple and streamlined, with clever touches such as having a "scene selection" menu from which you continue your adventure and replay whatever you particularly liked instead of having to bother with a savegame feature....

The graphics are very good.... uh.....kickass explosions too!

The Bad
The only bad thing you can say about Cyberia is the same thing you can say of other multimedia experiences that appeared with cd-roms and which games like this spawned (The Hive, Rebel Assault, etc.) and that's the fact that it really isn't much of a game!

The game progresses as an interactive movie of sorts, where you move Zack (your character) around pre-rendered slides and jump from action sequences to puzzle sequences, to adventure sequences, etc... The word of the day for all these types of titles is "sequence" as they give you a taste of each form of interactivity but specialize in none (puzzles are easy exercises or stupid riddles, action sequences are twitch reflex rail-shooters, etc.) since there is no clear gameplay concept behind it and it's all just essentially an excuse to tell a storyline. And speaking of which, we could partially forgive Cyberia if it offered some sort of mind-shattering storyline, or at least a super cool one with lots of sex, violence, and explosions, but while Cyberia provides explosions and a halfway passable storyline with some clever creative ideas, it's nothing to write home about....

The Bottom Line
Cyberia is the kind of game that would come bundled with cd drives or sound cards in it's time, or that people that knew jackshit about computers would buy to impress their friends and showcase their "multimedia" PCs (much like Myst). It is pretty to look at and all, but when you stop "looking" and start "playing" you'll see that gameplay wasn't a major concern in the design of the game, and while many still enjoy interactive movies despite their lack of gameplay simply because they tell an unique story or stuff like that, Cyberia is nothing but another "hot-off-the-assembly-line" sci-fi adventure epic with little to no interesting features to it save for some interesting conceptual designs.

You don't need to run away from it, but it's hardly "can't miss" material.... I guess it's a good investment for 2-5 U$S if only to expand your game collection, but be aware you won't be fooling anyone with it. Cyberia is the hardcore gamer's equivalent of having a chia pet.... it's not bothering anyone, but it's hardly something to be proud of.

DOS · by Zovni (10504) · 2003

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
No Sound Rafael Fonseca Mendes Leal Jun 25, 2007

Trivia

OEM version

An abridged version entitled Cyberia: Mission Norway was released to be bundled with soundcards and the like. This version takes you nearly halfway through the game.

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Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 810
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Alan Chan.

PC-98 added by Infernos. Windows, Macintosh, Linux, FM Towns added by Sciere. PlayStation added by Adam Baratz. SEGA Saturn added by Terok Nor. 3DO added by Jeanne.

Additional contributors: Zovni, formercontrib, ケヴィン, Patrick Bregger.

Game added January 31, 2000. Last modified January 21, 2024.