SYBERIA II

GAME DETAILS :-

Developer : MC2-Microids

Publisher : XS Games, LLC

Engine : Virtools Engine 3.0

Genre : Adventure

Release Date : March 30 , 2004

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS :-

Operating System : Windows 2000 / Windows XP

CPU : AMD Athlon Classic K75 / Intel Pentium III Processor

Memory (RAM) : 128 MB

Graphics Hardware : DirectX 8.1 Compatible Video Card with Memory 16 MB

[NVIDIA : GeForce 3 Ti Series
ATI : Radeon 8500 Series]

Hard Disk Space : 400 MB

GAME FEATURES :-

Syberia II continues the adventures of American lawyer Kate Walker from the first game as she abandons her increasingly stressful life in New York in order to accompany an eccentric inventor to a remote land in Russia known as Syberia where surviving remnants of prehistoric mammoths still live. Romansburg- Kate begins at a small frontier town called Romansburg. With helpful instructions from Hans' automaton train engineer Oscar, Kate is able to wind and load the train with coal. However, Hans falls ill and must be treated before they continue. From a little girl named Malka, Kate learns that the monks at the monastery on top of the nearby cliff can heal Hans. However, the old patriarch and his strict adherence to his personal rules forces Kate to jump through hoop after hoop just to get him to look at Hans. Worse still, the patriarch deems him a lost cause and figures that skipping straight to spiritual salvation is the best course of action. Kate learns from Hans about a friend of his at the monastery that knows Youkol medicine. Things go from bad to worse when Kate is asked to fix some mechanical automaton horses on Hans' behalf. Two thieves, Ivan and Igor, hijack the train while she works, intending to reach Syberia and make a profit from the mammoth ivory. Kate is able to follow them using a gangcar powered by a friendly animal called a youki, a cross between a seal and a bear. Wilderness- Kate finally catches up with the train, but it collapses a bridge when it grinds to a halt, stranding Kate on the wrong side. Followed by the youki, which Kate names Youki, Kate works her way across a river, manages to avoid being eaten by a bear, and is reunited with her old friend Boris, whose flying wing crashes nearby. Kate manages to make it to the train, but Ivan and Igor have given up on operating it and have left on a snowmobile with Hans as their prisoner. Kate and Oscar are forced to unhinge the passenger car to pursue the kidnappers. By the time they catch up, Ivan is off collecting ivory and the simple-minded Igor is having second-thoughts about the plan, as he is easily intimidated by the noise being made from wind blowing through a nearby statue. Kate stops the noise and convinces Igor to abandon Ivan. Kate confronts Ivan at a large mammoth statue surround by ivory. Ivan holds her at bay until she manages to convince Oscar to offer some assistance to create a momentary diversion. However, it doesn't completely succeed and Ivan is just about to do Kate in when the ice on which they are standing cracks, dropping Kate into darkness.

Youkol Village- Kate awakes in the icy, underground village of the Youkol people. Hans is there, too, but he is on his deathbed. After convincing the Youkol people to help her drag the train inside, Kate makes her way to the shaman's hut. With the help of the shaman, Kate decides to reach Hans in his dreams and convince him to live. She convinces Hans, who alternates between his child self and his present self, not to give up. In response, he asks her to help Oscar "open up his heart." He disappears, and Kate touches an object on the table which ends the dream. When Kate delivers the cryptic message to Oscar, the automaton engineer knows what he must do: he will give his "life" for his creator, unlocking his hollow body to form a primitive exo-skeleton/life-support system for Hans. The key to the train and its final task are entrusted to Kate. There are no more tracks to drive on, but a frozen ship that will take them the rest of the way. Once Kate figures out how to get the train to thaw it, Kate, Hans, and Youki board the boat and set sail for the island of Syberia. Ice Floe- The journey is delayed by Ivan, who has stowed away on the boat. He attempts to leave Kate on an ice flow, but his inability to operate the vessel allows Kate to sneak back on board and raise the sails, simultaneously getting the boat moving and stranding Ivan on the ice flow. He unwisely decides to make one last show of defiance by tossing a penguin egg: the penguins do not take kindly to their nests being disturbed and peck him to death. Syberia- The ship reaches Syberia at last, but their journey is not quite over yet. The mammoths must be summoned for Hans to ride. Guided by an ancient medallion and some crude drawings on the ship, Kate manages to work out how to activate the Youkol horns and play the mammoth-riding tune. The mammoths are summoned and Hans goes to meet them. Still domesticated after all this time, they gladly let him up on their backs. The game ends with Hans riding one of the mammoths off into the distance, leaving Kate to wave tearfully, knowing she helped Hans fulfill his dream.

Syberia II is about more than its story: You'll solve plenty of puzzles during your adventures. Like in the original Syberia, they usually tie in to the gameworld well, without the sort of arbitrariness that mars lesser adventures. Overall, they're fairly easy--just challenging enough to be interesting and offer a little sense of accomplishment. They run the gamut from a prosaic bit of salmon fishing to finally letting you operate the wondrous train that's played so big a role in the games. While most of the puzzles should seem pretty easy to adventure game veterans, there are a few harder ones this time around, too. Some are hard in the welcome way of really forcing you to think. Some are hard, though, because they force you to engage in too much monotonous trial and error, random button pushing, or traipsing back and forth. Some puzzles are hard simply because it's easy to overlook certain small items that blend too readily into the backgrounds. The in-game graphics boast equally meticulous and imaginative details, interesting camera angles, and dramatic lighting. It's enjoyable to simply let the eye dwell on the plush, old-world luxury of the train interior or the massive Youkol machinery built of mammoth bone, petrified wood, and leather. You'll also see more background animations this time around, whether people going about their business, birds flitting past, or snow sliding off a roof. The audio suffers from its problems, too, mainly with the voice-overs. Most of the main characters are voiced well enough to make them seem plausible and likeable, if a bit wooden at times. Fans of the first game will likely be happy to hear familiar actors reprising their roles. Some voice-overs just don't cut it, though. The isolated, mysterious Youkols seem to speak a language of just four or five native words mixed with giggles and, quite improbably, broken English and no consistent accent. Worse still is the villain Ivan, with his British accent and hokey "diabolical villain's laugh" that sounds badly forced. Syberia II is filled with attractive, memorable touches like that. At the same time, it's a bit of a letdown compared to the superlative first game: The story is solid but not as engaging, some puzzles could have used reworking, the locales suffer from a certain monotony or even blandness at times, and the game as a whole feels a bit shorter, too. While Syberia II only sometimes captures the elusive magic of the original game, it's still one of the finer adventure games to come out in the last couple of years.

GAME REVIEW :-

7.5/10

Syberia II Trailer :-