No, Syberia is a mythical island said to lie behind a protective ring of icebergs, shrouded in fog, where mammoths are rumoured to survive. It gives its name to this lovely old point and click adventure game, which tells a wondrous story of ingenious mechanisms, ancient myths, exotic faraway lands and family secrets. Our protagonist, young American lawyer Kate Walker, is well characterized by the voice acting and narrative, with a strong spirit and a personality that gradually becomes more endearing as she matures during the tale. She is tasked with securing authorization for the management buyout of a family business but the owner’s death and rumours of a mysterious heir complicate matters. Her investigation takes her on a fantastic adventure but she is regularly grounded by mundane obligations to work and home. So it is that while uncovering the truth about the mysterious Voralberg family, Kate also develops an understanding of herself and what she appreciates in life.

The mechanics of the game are classic point and click adventure – move between locations, find objects, interact with devices. The puzzles are of reasonable difficulty, well thought out and logical. Furthermore, they are well integrated into the narrative and don’t feel tacked on. Some of the navigation points are not obvious, so if you become stuck to the point of consulting a guide/walkthrough, you may well find that there was a location that you did not discover.

This game was released in 2002, so don’t expect cutting edge graphics: the art was drawn at a resolution of 800x600 but it is beautiful. The sound design is nice, with well done ambient noise, appropriate action sounds, and lovely music. The dialogue vocals are a bit hit or miss, with a couple of odd accents from the supporting cast and the stilted delivery that often accompanies conversations driven by menu selection.

The main complaint levelled at the game is a result of the classic point and click interface and being designed in an age before iPhones, when people weren’t accustomed to constant stimulation: patience is required to wait for Kate to walk across each scene during the inevitable back tracking. She’ll ease your pain by running if you double click, but never on stairs – for such an adventurous woman, Ms Walker takes stairway safety extremely seriously. I didn’t find this intolerably frustrating: the scenes are attractive and I have played adventure games for long enough to have grown accustomed to waiting.

Syberia feels like a classic adventure game with its strengths being the art design and the way that the narrative unfolds with exploration. It captured the mechanical magic of automatons like Scorcese’s 2011 film Hugo, and it kept me fascinated by blending these marvellous mechanisms with mythical tales, family secrets and corporate intrigue. The story is expansive and captivating, and I was also impressed with how well Kate’s personal development and self-discovery was conveyed – it was quite beautiful.

I found the game engrossing and I look forward to continuing the adventure in the sequel. I strongly recommend it for fans of story driven classic point and click adventure games that don’t mind waiting for the action on screen to unfold, and would be happy for the protagonist to serve as an inspirational example for any young girl gamers.

This review was submitted for Elite Giveaways, check us out for more reviews ranging from Indie games to AAA games to F2P games.