Snow, more snow and some ice, a review of Syberia II
Introduction
After you had finished playing the first part of the Syberia saga, you was left with a distinct feeling of being left in the middle of the story. This is of course somewhat due to the fact that it originally was meant to be a single game, not two. But the game grew and it was decided to split it in two games instead. The first part ended after Kate Walker made the decision, which might be seen as a rather hasty one, to continue the journey to try to help make the dream of the automaton maker Hans Voralberg to find Syberia, far to the North into the lands of legends. Since then, everyone who liked the game has eagerly awaited the sequel as to find out more about the legend, Hans and Oscar, the automaton train engineer. In the beginning of Syberia II we find ourselves to have stopped at the village, Romansburg, at the end of civilization where if you continue you will not find much but snow and ice. You have to figure out a way to make sure that you can continue your journey in a comfortable way, but you might find out that not everyone in the village is friendly towards you.
Game Play
The interface is the same as in the first installment of the game, a pretty standard point and click variant. You will find some small enhancements though, such as small arrows to indicate in what direction you will travel in. The two-panel inventory, divided on documents and other items, serves it's purpose well and you always have a good view of all the items you possess, even if it would be nice if it would be easier to switch between examine and take in the document panel (you can't examine items for some reason).
One of the more critisized things about Syberia was that she had a tendency to say "No need to go down there" an awful lot. This has more or less been rectified in the second game. While Kate still hasn't very much to say about the things around her, she at least doesn't repeat herself to such an extent.
Perhaps the most prominent part of Syberia is it's lush graphics and it is so also with the second part of the series. The backgrounds are marvellous with grand architecture and attention to detail. With Syberia II there are also added falling snow, reflections in the water and footsteps in the snow. There are also a number of animals and other background animation that make the world come alive more and not seem so stale and does rather much for the atmosphere of the game. All in all, what was really good in the first game has become even better in the sequel.
The music in Syberia was on a grand scale with the high peak of Helena Romanski singing Ochi Chernye. In Syberia II, this has been toned down quite a bit and the music is, while when heard very good, more often than not noticeable, even if there are examples of the opposite, especially during the cutscenes, which have more music. All in all, the music was better in the first game, even if it were on the repetitive side sometimes, than in the sequel.
My thoughts
Making a sequel this tight storywise, with it's predecessor can be difficult, trying to get new players, who didn't play the first game, to become involved in the sequel. On the other hand you get all those who liked the first one to almost automatically want to go out and buy the next game. The story continues right off where the first one ended and goes off until the end and no, there will most probably not be a sequel this time. The ending, while very well made and interesting also lacks in some aspects since you feel left out with a number of quite important questions unanswered. This, perhaps, is a continuation of that you too many times are left out of Kate's mind. You want to know much more about what she is thinking and feeling about the objects and environments around her, not just factually noting the properties of the objects in question.
To summarise, I would say that Syberia and it's sequel are well crafted games that ranks very high in my opinion. I highly recommend Syberia II to all those who played and like the first game and to those adventure game lovers that have not played either game, I would recommend them to do so. It is well worth the purchase.