So, for the next 25 days, we will be unleashing a new list: the top 25 video games (with a heavy emphasis on story). I hope you come to approach this list as I do, with a great sense of nostalgia for a simpler time, when homework wasn’t very important and the biggest thing I had to worry about was whether I should wear sunscreen or not.
25. Syberia I & II (2002, 2004) - PC
I know it looks like I am cheating by combing the two games like this, but I swear they are really just one game. Syberia I ends with a cliffhanger and the sequel, Syberia II, picks up where the first one left off and concludes the story arc. It is, therefore, fair to judge them as a single game, and a gorgeous one at that.
Syberia is the creation of visionary artistic director Benoit Sokal, who began his career as a Belgian comic artist, and eventually founded his own video game company where he produces adventure games based on his own books and stories. In Syberia, Kate Walker is sent to a remote French village on behalf of a law firm, to oversee the requisition of a bankrupt toy factory. There is something odd about this town, and all the oddness seems to emanate from the toy factory. When we first enter town, a robot or automaton, the likes of which I have never seen, rolls over the crest of a hill. It is followed by a funeral procession composed entirely of these soulless mourners. It’s a strange and beautiful opening image, and it makes a powerful statement that becomes a recurring theme in Kate’s journey.
Kate travels through Eastern and Central Europe, as she continues to desert all the elements of her stressful, meaningless, big-city life-style, including a needy fiancé and an impatient employer. She eventually meets an eccentric inventor who takes her further and further into Russia, mostly via locomotive, and she does find the mythical land of Syberia, as the game’s title would suggest.
The story here is what makes this game really excellent. It is also the gorgeous art design and animation. The automatons really come to life and they provide the story with much comic relief. The environments are all breathtakingly rendered, from the quaint European villages, to the trans-Syberian railway, to the icy wildernesses that Kate must brave to find her elusive destination.
This is an adventure game, so there are puzzles. Most are easy: find the right combination of items to unlock this or that. But I don’t play these games for the puzzles. The story and the visuals will enchant you, and the journey itself is thematically rewarding in every way.
25. Syberia I & II (2002, 2004) - PC
I know it looks like I am cheating by combing the two games like this, but I swear they are really just one game. Syberia I ends with a cliffhanger and the sequel, Syberia II, picks up where the first one left off and concludes the story arc. It is, therefore, fair to judge them as a single game, and a gorgeous one at that.
Syberia is the creation of visionary artistic director Benoit Sokal, who began his career as a Belgian comic artist, and eventually founded his own video game company where he produces adventure games based on his own books and stories. In Syberia, Kate Walker is sent to a remote French village on behalf of a law firm, to oversee the requisition of a bankrupt toy factory. There is something odd about this town, and all the oddness seems to emanate from the toy factory. When we first enter town, a robot or automaton, the likes of which I have never seen, rolls over the crest of a hill. It is followed by a funeral procession composed entirely of these soulless mourners. It’s a strange and beautiful opening image, and it makes a powerful statement that becomes a recurring theme in Kate’s journey.
Kate travels through Eastern and Central Europe, as she continues to desert all the elements of her stressful, meaningless, big-city life-style, including a needy fiancé and an impatient employer. She eventually meets an eccentric inventor who takes her further and further into Russia, mostly via locomotive, and she does find the mythical land of Syberia, as the game’s title would suggest.
The story here is what makes this game really excellent. It is also the gorgeous art design and animation. The automatons really come to life and they provide the story with much comic relief. The environments are all breathtakingly rendered, from the quaint European villages, to the trans-Syberian railway, to the icy wildernesses that Kate must brave to find her elusive destination.
This is an adventure game, so there are puzzles. Most are easy: find the right combination of items to unlock this or that. But I don’t play these games for the puzzles. The story and the visuals will enchant you, and the journey itself is thematically rewarding in every way.
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