Syberia: Collectors Edition I & II

The Good
Syberia immediately captures the essence of an adventure genre that has been rather forgotten, and it starts with a tempting story that turns into a real mystery later on. It's been a while since I last played a good adventure (or some new adventure at all, for that matter), and seeing an opportunity to get this twin pack for a good price has awaken in me the adventurous spirit, and once again I yielded beneath the temptations of ever frustrating yet still my favorite genre ever -- 3rd person point-and-click adventure.

The mix started to appeal to me right from the start, being shipped on a DVD rather than bundle of CDs, and offering full scale installation with no need to disc spinning any more than initial checkout while booting the game. The game sets the 800x600 resolution form the very start, and although I've tried, I couldn't find any proof that it's changeable...which is sort of a logical thing for an adventure game, inspite of the fact I saw some 640x480 shots (hey, maybe first version back in 2002 really did use that resolution, beats my assumption, anyway). So, right from the start you can see that you won't be missing the ever gracious artwork because it's simply wonderful. From towns to the forces of nature, and some real graphical amazement really appears only in Syberia II.

Yes, this game is quite well meant to be played together, one after another, I cannot even imagine what would I feel if I had to wait a couple more years to continue with the sequel. On the other side, if this were to be one game, I'd probably complain that it was too big and should've been split in parts, so the way I figure it, it's as good as it gets. Music is... well, from what I could feel it, there were couple of shorter themes that played and repeated every now and then (some were really breathtaking and fitted the screenplay like a ring), but I don't see why all the soundtracks that include machines in a non-computer kind of a way should sound similar, using same instruments and all, yes the music is nice, but that doesn't mean it cannot vary, if only for certain important dialogues or events.

Kate Walker is a terrific woman, if I do say so myself, and although I barely liked her at the beginning, she never ceased to amaze me. The way she dealt with certain situations, the way she behaved, the decisions she made, she was pretty fascinating lass, and with a cool and wanting attitude. And she'll give you a tour of a journey you'll remember for some time. And they weren't trying to be cheap on dozens of cinematics to add up on the story. The phone-soap was a remarkable touch, a bit predictable, but nicely dealt with, pretty neat touch indeed.

The Bad
I dunno about Kate, but she seemed overly under-dressed for the climate she was facing. I mean, I'm not nowhere near Siberia, yet winters are cold enough not to go out in a simple shirt with long sleeves. Unless she was wearing some futuristic suit that doesn't let the heat out, she would've frozen stiff. The game started promising, but in the sequel it turned a bit on the lame side, with all that badguys stuff and overdoing the things that should've been left out. Furthermore, the ending is way incomplete, I mean, we don't know what she's about to do... will she die there or be able to return home by herself, what? What will she do next. I wanted to see her get back home... and with that little girl she promised to take her with ;)

The Bottom Line
You get to meet interesting characters and places (yeah, these are really great, made me wonder if some of them are for real) and embark on a great journey with a great woman. What more could you ask for? Well, maybe for a better ending, but, can't have 'em all.