Syberia: The World Before – prologue (2020, official release 2021), created by Benoit Sokal, developed by Koalabs, published by Microids
After the disappointing Syberia 3, which I have never bothered to finish, Microids and Benoit Sokal have released a free prologue or demo of the new entry for the upcoming 4th Syberia game.
The prologue begins in 1937 from a picturesque town of Vaghen. Instead of Kate Walker, you are replacing Dana Roze, a young and talented musician sitting on a tram run by Voralberg Automaton. He goes to a meeting for the music academy where he will play a piano piece. Her performance is a hit.
In 2004, we’re jumping forward at the right time to the salt mines in the Demir Taiga area. From there, we finally found Kate Walker, who was forced to work. In these mines he will cut the salt away in hopes of finding ivory to repay whatever the crime he committed. Still, she is not alone as she befriends Katyusha, a prisoner. They are about to start the morning shift when Kate receives a pack with devastating news.
In 1937, Dana returned home. She’s happy to be accepted, but her mom tells her to write a thank you note for the summer job. Just as he is about to write the letter, a brick is thrown from the window of his parents’ shop. It comes with a threatening note signed by the famous fascist organization Brown Shadows.
In 2004, Kate and Katyusha accidentally break through the mine walls and find a cave with an old WWII-era train inside. They also find their escape route. The end of the prologue is never that simple because it ends in a cliff.
One thing is clear: lessons learned from Syberia 3. Most visibly, the game controls are much better, working well with a mouse or a joypad. The game sounds smoother. On the same note, the preface appears to be more story-heavy than any previous game.
Visually Syberia 4 looks solid. Lip syncing is a bit cumbersome, but the characters and locations look nice. The voice acting is as good as the music, so if everything goes well, Microids can have a winner in their hands.
There are some minor problems here and there. The first problem for me was that the game didn’t start at first, but allowing access through the firewall seems to have fixed that. The game runs smoothly most of the time, but there were some minor stumbles every now and then, but nothing major in this stance.
Perhaps the biggest problem are hot spots that at times seem a bit awkwardly placed and can make them hard to spot. None of these issues are a game breaker and should be fixable.
So yes, it is a pleasant surprise from Microids after all. Mostly because of how disappointing Game 3 was, I didn’t even remember the game was in the works. This looks more interesting though, and I enjoyed the short preface to game 3 more every moment I endure.
