The World Before on PC by igamesnews.com

Two rooms, two atmospheres

Things aren’t going too well for Kate Winter at the start of Syberia: The World Before. Luckily, locked in prisons in the heart of a salt mine where she works to the point of exhaustion, the adventuress quickly finds an opportunity to escape. Through some coincidental events, Kate discovers a decades-forgotten painting of a portrait of a woman everyone tells her looks horribly like her. Although rather desperate and beset by personal and family anguish, Kate sets out in search of this young girl whom she initially knows nothing about. That person is Dana Roze. Living with her parents in the fictional European town of Vaghen in the late 1930s, she mainly aspired to become a professional pianist. More of a dreamy type, Dana is not indifferent to the rise of a fascist group called L’Ombre Brune, who no longer hesitate to flaunt their extremism not far from the outbreak of World War II.

These two different time slots allow you to embody Kate as she attempts to unravel the mystery of the young girl’s identity, and Dana as she must confront the menace of the Dark Shadow while consolidating her musical ambitions. This adds a certain appeal to a fairly well-crafted scenario, although it leads to a somewhat rushed finale that allows you to travel and evolve in environments that are often very pretty and varied. If the tone is undoubtedly darker than we’ve been accustomed to seeing the series so far, some lighter moments arrive to soften the atmosphere a bit, thanks in particular to the crisp Kate/Oscar tandem)

(whose return and appearance we especially appreciate). If the various dialogues and situations ring true overall, and the story is followed with as much pleasure as interest, this episode of Syberia doesn’t avoid some slightly Manichaean clichés in which the good guys are very nice and the bad guys are very evil. While this may offend newcomers to the world of Syberia, others will know that benevolence often reigns supreme in the saga, so you won’t be surprised to find yourself surrounded by characters who are as lovable as they are compassionate most of the time.

However, without giving you too much away, we’re going to make a small caveat regarding the presence of a secondary storyline, but linked to the more exotic main storyline, which ultimately serves the story quite little and which we feel could have been exploited more. Finally, know that if it is recommended to know the previous episodes to better understand the missions of this new Syberia, Kate and certain documents proposed in the game are sufficiently talkative so that you do not have too many problems hanging the wagons , what this would do does not prevent you from enjoying this episode’s story as it is.

Accessible and coherent puzzles

Your adventure will therefore take place on several timelines, we won’t tell you exactly how many to save the surprise, but you know that You sometimes have the option to manually switch between controlling Dana and Kate and more, as observing locations in one allows you to progress in the other. This poses quite nice puzzles and can be felt quite well from a narrative point of view, because for the most part it is very coherent. And puzzles, while we’re talking about them, are an integral part of Syberia and The World Before is no exception to the rule.

The game is divided into several fairly linear areas that give you the opportunity to interact with objects, take a closer look at certain decoration elements or talk to some PnJs. Most collectibles will require manipulation and observation to be sure of their function, and you can of course combine them with other items if the puzzle allows. If you don’t need to seek a challenge in this installment, count on the game to provide you with pleasant, original, and coherent puzzles

. There is no “capillo traction” here, each puzzle that helps progress is perfectly integrated into the story. And if you happen to get stuck on a puzzle, the title offers a compartmentalized help system, materialized in the form of multiple gauges that require a short wait to activate. When one of the gauges is filled, a fairly general first clue is revealed to you. At this point, the meter of another more specific clue will fill up and you can dispose of it after a few seconds. This will “force” you to try to figure out the mechanics of a puzzle yourself, thanks to a first clue, and if you still get stuck, with a little patience you can take advantage of new elements aimed at illuminating your lanterns .

Technically finally on point?

In terms of handling, we expected Syberia The World Before to be more flexible and fluid than its predecessor, and it is. On the mouse keyboard, you can single-click to move Kate or Dana and double-click to activate jog. Certainly not everything is perfect: clicking on an interactive element sometimes triggers movements rather than interactions and some camera dropouts make navigation tedious, especially when it comes to rushing down a corridor or an alleyway. Additionally, the fact that you constantly have to click the back button to, say, return to the game from your inventory is fairly counterintuitive where a simple right-click would have made things smoother. But on the whole, The World Before comes out a lot better than its predecessor, picking up on the feel of yesteryear’s point ‘n click.

Finally, on the technical side, we feel that teams have learned from past mistakes, and no doubt the game’s big shift has been beneficial to The World Before. Apart from the fact that the game is frankly pretty, thanks in particular to an ingenious use of lighting that sublimates the universe so characteristic of Sokal, the whole thing is less buggy than before, even if we always regret body or facial animations a little rigid in comparison to certain current standards. Also note that the game on PC has real optimization issues when all sliders are pushed to the max, even on computers outfitted with hardware higher than the (greedy) recommended configuration. Not enough to pout his pleasure so much, because Syberia The World Before revives the standards of the saga and takes you on an adventure of its own for more than 10 hours, in the heart of a universe that is no less.

Conclusion

Points cont

• A universe always so poetic and separate
• Dana, touching character and Kate always so charismatic
• A pleasant scenario to follow on multiple timelines
• Accessible and always coherent puzzles
• Often pretty
• Flawless Inon Zur soundtrack
• The Kate/Oscar duo
• Rather successful VF

weak points

• A slight lack of challenge
• Body and facial animations still rigid
• Some camera dropouts
• Inaccuracies between interactions and movements
• Optimization issues in Ultra 4k
• A coherent plot that does little to serve the narrative

After a third episode that made us fear the worst for Syberia’s future, The World Before manages to prove that the license still has a lot to tell, exploiting an unchronic and dreamlike universe. For more than 10 hours, you will enjoy taking the fate of Dana and Kate in your hands, solving accessible and coherent mysteries and getting lost in the poetry that emerges from the world created by Benoît Sokal. If we can rant about certain inaccuracies between interactions and movements, a few camera dropouts, or a not-so-mature PC tweak, fans and newcomers alike will appreciate this adventure, which is of course slightly dated but is finally packing its bags into the modern age and the, when the stars align, could face a new future and thus perpetuate the memory and universe of its chief architect.

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