The original Syberia game debuted back in 2002, during what could only be referred to as the renaissance of adventure gaming. Sierra On-Line, Humongous Entertainment, LucasArts, and many, many others had spent the better part of the 1990s and early 2000s getting us all hooked on adventure games of various flavors, no matter if you were a kid or an adult. Some of them included Putt-Putt, Grim Fandango, Escape from Monkey Island, King’s Quest, and Harvester. There were probably 10 or more adventure games released every year throughout the 90s, during a period of rapid advancement in story, presentation, and visuals in video games.
Amerzone, released in the late 90s, was the first title designed by Benoit Sokal, and it was especially alluring in that its “screens” were actually whole 360-degree panoramas you could inspect, which gave us a glimpse at a gorgeous presentation not many of us were used to. Syberia is Sokal’s second game, taking place in the same world as Amerzone but following a new protagonist, Kate Walker. Kate is an American attorney tasked with overseeing the transfer of a factory in a fictional French village, but you discover quickly that there’s more than meets the eye in Valadilene when she arrives during a funeral procession carried out entirely by automatons.
Plot Ahoy!
Matters of estate are always a messy affair, and in Syberia, that old story still rings true. Kate finds out that the late factory owner still has a living relative who is now the factory’s owner, and in order to facilitate the sale, Kate will have to get approval from the owner’s brother Hans. While searching for the factory’s new owner, it’s up to Kate to solve a variety of puzzles, find important objects, fix an airship, help a singer recover her confidence, and loads more. The premise of a corporate lawyer with a troubled home life being caught unaware by what should have been a simple task that spirals into a wacky adventure is something right out of an early 2000s movie, and it’s still quite fun to this day.
Review Notes
Syberia Remastered, which is available on the Steam platform as well as the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, presents you with a more modern look for effectively the same adventure from 2002. Some puzzles have been updated, and many that were retained in whole will require players operate under early 2000s puzzle game logic where you need to inspect and pick up everything, or else you’ll be forced to backtrack. For example, in order to start the train and travel to another location, players will need to get a ticket stamped, which will require a visit to the notary’s office. The ink to actually apply a stamp, however, is in the attic of a completely different house.
Thankfully, unlike older Sierra games, I don’t explicitly recall a moment where you could get stuck and have to completely restart Syberia Remasted, but you’ll be doing quite a bit of pixel hunting for items necessary to proceed with solving all of the various puzzles in order to make progress in Syberia. There are some very inventive puzzles throughout your journey too, many of which I had forgotten since the last time I had played the original release of Syberia, which was over two decades ago. While you can now move around with a controller in the environment for greater ease of access, the style of gameplay you’d get from a point-and-click style adventure is predominantly unchanged for fans of that classic style.
Syberia Remastered looks really, really good, especially the environments. There is a nice combination of fixed camera angles that still allow the camera to move along with the protagonist, which gives you more of a perception of being able to move through the world as Kate.
The design is mostly faithful to the vision of the original version of Syberia, but it no longer utilizes static, pre-rendered backgrounds so you’re able to travel more naturally through locations that have realistic reflections to sell you on the appearance of the world. During cutscenes, you’ll experience more dramatic camera angles than you would have experienced in the 2002 original, such as the camera sweeping across a desk covered in paperwork while being read a last will and testament by the late factory owner.
The dialogue, which is seemingly untouched from the original 2002 release, is strangely juxtaposed with the slick visuals of this remaster. The early 2000s were right around the time when development studios were figuring out what did, and did not, work for voice acting, and Syberia Remastered did not try to update the voice acting or music at all. If there were lines that came off as stilted or strange in the original, they will be wholly present in this remaster too. That being said, this is a huge positive point for those who didn’t want the original voice work touched at all, as Kate and many other characters are still great throughout.
TLDR
Syberia Remastered is a beautiful looking update to a game that still plays like it’s from 2002. The user interface, environments, and controls have been overhauled to more match the sensibilities of players in 2025, but the core puzzle mechanics are just like what you’d expect from the original Syberia, for better or worse. For those who love and can appreciate older puzzlers, Syberia Remastered will be a great way to spend about eight to 10 hours this holiday season. Just note that for those who can’t get into older style puzzle titles, this may not be your cup of tea.
Developers: Microids Studio Paris, Virtuallyz Gaming
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Steam, Xbox Series X