Syberia – Tribute Benot Sokal [2/4] – Yaeck

It is sometimes very sad circumstances that lead us to launch games that have been in our game library for years. Syberia, I’ve wanted to play it for a long time and have constantly shifted my part to devote myself to other titles. And then one day, Boom, the Camarde does its job reminding me that I am not forever and that a certain age ‘pushing back’ means ‘never’. So I start the game without really knowing what to expect besides this famous brunette who adorns the jacket in a mysterious and ‘Sibric’ atmosphere …

KEY

Little did she know when Kate Walker left Valadilne, a small community in the French Alps, that she was embarking on a journey that would take her to the other end of the world. Because for now, the New York lawyer already has the feeling of being there, at the end of the world! Working for the law firm Marson & Lormont in Big Applewhat a change of scenery for them that this lost village. And all the more so when we discover vending machines with a wide variety of functions almost everywhere. Because yes, Valadilne happens to be the slot machine capital of the world and the reason Miss Walker is coming. Universal toy, a customer company of its bosses, who would like to complete the takeover of the creative industry of the “spring robots” with the signing of the purchase contract by the company boss, mission entrusts our protagonist. Except for one small problem, Anna Voralberg, the director who was supposed to sign the precious document, has just died. And another surprise, the notary learns that, contrary to known information, there is an heir! A little stunned and overwhelmed by the events, Kate has no choice but to find Hans Voralberg, the brother who was pronounced dead more than 50 years ago …
But it could very well be that the man, a genius in mechanics, has a trail of small white pebbles behind him …

Kate Walker arrives in front of a strange procession. Funny opening sequence …

We start our journey in the picturesque place of origin Voralberg, where we trace the history of this family fan of mechanics. The young lady we are controlling will violate her right to enter the home here, the factory there, to piece together the puzzle of Hans’ disappearance. Little child, we’re bringing the past back to better pursue it.
This notion of the past that we rediscover often returns during the adventure, memories that we bring to the surface in order to better move forward in the present. A past, out of date and abandoned. We find this feeling in the attitudes themselves, all more or less left idle. This adds that general twilight atmosphere where mechanical life seems to have taken up more space than biological life.

Small peaceful village with its atmosphere posing

We’re going to meet people anyway, enough to have long, very long dialogues. Interacting with non-playable people remains at the heart of the game, and solving their problems will help you on your own quest, even if some of the detours seem endless. We meet everything from the wacky university dean to the military on the tightrope, the nostalgic cosmonaut who still dreams of stars, to the retired singer who is always ready for one last round. And in the middle of it all, Kate Walker, who is desperately looking for Hans Voralberg. She feels the path of the deceased very easily, you have to say that the man is not the type who goes unnoticed. But mostly thanks to this famous mechanical train format to get to the different places where he stayed in his life. Practically.

Overall, the machines create a very special aura.

the image of Amerzone, (which is also quoted several times and thus unites the two titles) Benot Sokal is looking for his equal when it comes to creating a phantasmagoric atmosphere between reality and fantasy. It is clearly the automata that create the connection between the real world and another in Syberia, more thr and let’s say magical. Kate Walker herself is fascinated by this atmosphere, which she discovers and which she removes further and further from her everyday life, to which she maintains a contaminated connection via her telephone. From her first phone calls with her boss, her friend, her mother or her fiancé to the last, this world, which is logically hers, appears to her more and more superfluous and anecdotal, bathed in the fact that she is now in the wonderful and dreamlike. . Like a transformation that takes place before our eyes, the real Kate seems to appear during her journey to culminate in this (re) birth in the final film sequences. Speaking of which, the sequel was planned from the start, the title will certainly end with a certain ending, but absolutely not the one hoped for in Siberia. the image of a comic strip, so Syberia was planned in several volumes, my discovery of the sequels will tell me whether this story has come to its end.

The decorations are quite varied – here the university library

EQUIPMENT

As is so often the case with games of the genre, we will be able to explore several locations that we will mainly, but not only, reach by train. So we start in the small village of Valadilne, then meet the almost deserted University Barrockstadt, before we end up in the strange factory of Komkolzgrad. From there we pass the destroyed space base before we set off for the health resort of Aralbad, which had glorious times before it became a place of calm almost forgotten by everyone. We will meet there scattered, the different places do not crumble among the population. However, we will have a conversation with every character available for verbal changes. Of course we will chat more with some who will give us important information or give us access to the rest of the trip. We still have to propose Oscar, the machine that will support Kate the whole time and that is a bit picky about administrative railway details.

A “wall” that protects the “civilized world” from the barbarians of the East. The metaphor of another wall from a bygone era …

The settings are pretty great overall, although the atmosphere borders on somber at times. Certain notches offer us panoramas that amaze the mind, and always with that light fog that enhances the feeling of walking in the middle of a dream. Above all, they are very different, each environment has its own atmosphere, its unique energy. Nevertheless, we are far from the lush nature of the Amerzone, but no longer in a very distinct atmosphere after the USSR. That is, old scrap metals and buildings that have been left behind …

Impressive applications for a school specializing in natural history

Much of the puzzles will revolve around these famous automatons and other wonders of the metal assemblies of the same run. Here, too, we stick to the “concrete” and logical, nothing absurd, even if the effects of our actions will sometimes be surprising and with far greater effects than expected. But we will not avoid the endless phases of total ruin when we have absolutely no knowledge of what to do. What gave me problems on my part was the sudden call to my mother at the factory – I would never have thought of that afterwards. 1000 years! And above all the preparation of the cocktail for the diva, even with a no-no complete solution I understood absolutely nothing … This “piano bar” is an unfathomable mystery for me.

We reach my intellectual limits very little sharpened at the base. Between the incomprehensible score that is supposed to guide us, the mini piano, of which I did not even understand the usefulness, and the labyrinthine whistling, I was completely abandoned …

I’ll add for clarification that there is a constant at each step of knowing how to wind the spring of the train (which I remind you that it is mechanical), a little bit in the same way as with the floppy disks and options of Alexandre Hydraflot Valembois (much easier). And you have to get a ticket for the trip every time; but now I let you discover the joke behind this redundant search …

The train, which will be the Hrone’s main means of transport

MCANISMS

However, with this precision mechanism, not everything is very well oiled … especially at the precision level. Because if it is A What is wrong with this game is the way the heron movement is handled. So, if I followed correctly, Syberia originally came out on a PC and has therefore been adapted – and it is logical – for ‘mouse’ control. Obviously we clicked the screen and the error came up instead of the click. When they published the title on the console, they then optimized a gameplay on the controller to be able to move the lawyer himself. Aside from the fact that the “corridors” of PC gameplay have remained, which means the woman you play is bumping into herself absolutely everywhere and all the time. I don’t just mean “in the decor”, but very often also “in the void”, in invisible walls that she has never seen with classic point & click operation. I assure you, this is by far the most annoying. has come THE WHOLE TIME!!

This is the kind of atmosphere we will encounter all the time …

Other than that, there is no fatal error. So yes, graphically it’s sometimes out of date, see even rat (the notary who looks like a muppet) and the animations took a heavy blow in the wing (the stairs that carry the characters), but there are seals of approval, will we say …
On the other hand, the synchronization is a real success from A to Z. We recognize our national Franoise Cadol in the lead role (The voice of Lara Croft) accompanied by some famous voices not unknown to our ears.

The notary from the Voralberg family, who will tell you about Hans’ existence and send you on a very long search … Right below, in a medallion: hello from Amerzone.

Fauna and flora again occupy an important place in history, less than in Amerzone, but nonetheless. Mr. Sokal always shares his love for nature and especially for the mammoths here, which will be the engine of this trip, as amazing as it may seem. A genius who creates artificial life is fascinated by a miracle of biological life that has dedicated his entire life to these long-extinct animals and their legend. A nice paradox (or not).

The cemetery and the church of Valadilne also reflect the special character of the village

~ ¤ ~

Amerzone’s spiritual sequel, which swaps his first-person perspective for fixed cameras, we find the same atmosphere between reality and the comic book author’s usual dreaminess. This time the journey takes us to the East and its nebulous controls of the post-Soviet era to meet those nostalgic for the great Mother-Fatherland. Kate Walker when she searches for a complete stranger’s past and finds herself at the end of the street. She will then continue the adventure in Syberia 2 that I will soon discover for myself …