Syberia 3 (PC) Review

The first two entries in the Syberia series do a good job at proving Benoît Sokal's abilities as a writer and Microïds' talent for developing an enjoyable point and click adventure. With a strong precedent set, it's natural that there would be certain expectations in place for Syberia 3.

A well-crafted story, engaging puzzles, and a world worth exploring are what distinguish the good point and clicks from the bad, and, after making fans wait 13 years for a follow-up, whatever succeeded Syberia 2 would need to do everything in its power to live up to over a decade of hype. Unfortunately, Kate Walker's return fails to capture that Syberia magic.

While the experience isn't nearly as buggy as it was at launch, Syberia 3 still feels far from complete. Kate controls awkwardly, characters come off painfully stiff during dialogue, and the script is in desperate need of a revision.

The plot itself has enough promise to generate initial interest, but the slow pacing and lacklustre storytelling kill the narrative before it can even begin. Slow pacing is far from a bad thing when used well. A slower style of storytelling can be used to create tension, paint an intimate portrait of a character, or pave the way for a worthy climax. Syberia 3's slow pacing feels more like padding than anything; filler between actual story beats and puzzles.

Aside from Sharon Mann, who returns to voice Kate, the voice acting is shockingly poor. Minor characters tend to fare far worse, with voices that barely match their character, but the supporting cast suffers just as bad. Accompanied by an incredibly rough script, the subpar voice acting only emphasises just how weak the writing is.

It makes sense for a point and click adventure to try to give as much information as possible during dialogue, as said information could very well come in handy during a later puzzle, but Syberia 3 clearly does not respect its audience enough to remember important details. Characters regurgitate the same information repeatedly to hammer it in, leaving little room for nuanced, natural dialogue.

The lacklustre script is a shame, especially since the setting has so much potential. Valsembor is an interesting town, clearly full of history, and the Youkol tribe's culture is fleshed out just enough where they feel like a real group of people. Had Sokal redrafted and Microïds found more competent voice actors, Syberia 3 could have easily been the fantastic point and click adventure fans were expecting through presentation.

On paper, Syberia 3 has a lot working in its favour, especially now that the technical issues have been mostly fixed; the world is interesting, Sokal has had years to work on the script, and Microïds has a good track record for good puzzles. Unfortunately, whether it's because too much time had passed in between releases or the team felt they needed to rush out a product that still wasn't ready after so many delays, Kate Walker's newest adventure is a huge disappointment that, funnily enough, clearly needed more time.