15-Sep-2002 James Lyon is numbed by another static-screened adventure game
People just don't appreciate the hard work put into creating the lush backgrounds found in games like this. They never take the time to sit back and admire the toil that goes into the dull landscapes and skewed buildings the artists took so long to draw. So why not force them to take notice by making them move their on-screen character from one end of the screen to the other in every location, so they can really take time to savour them? Well that's exactly what Microids has gone and done with Syberia. What's more, it's made sure that for every location with an interactive object, there's another four with nothing in them at all. It has also taken care to omit any hint of a red herring when it comes to the object orientated puzzles, which on many occasions are stupidly simple to solve. And the plot doesn't help much either. A lawyer sets off on a clockwork train to find a retarded engineer who's searching for woolly mammoths in the frozen wastes of Syberia, (it's near Siberia, wouldn't you know). To make matters worse, it feels as though the story is only half told when the game abruptly stops. However, it's slightly superior to many of the other static-screened adventure games currently available, as some of the puzzles do occasionally tax the brain and the quirky story does keep you guessing even if it is short lived. It's still pretty dull, though, so I wouldn't get too excited.
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