At a Glance Game Reviews: Syberia
So I'm FINALLY reviewing a game! Syberia is for the Nintendo DS, and I'll be honest. I've played it for less than thirty minutes. (Hence the "at a glance" title.)
Geekyness level: Negative actually.
Rating: two out of five
The premise of the game is promising. You're a lawyer who is sent to try and buy this old toy factory. The thing is, the woman who owned it died while you were jetting your way over. The game description reads: "Due to an unexpected twist, [your] business trip quickly becomes a journey across land and time, throwing all [you] values into question, while the deal she [you] out to sign becomes a pact with destiny..."
This game might actually become decent if you're willing to play it long enough, but I played it for like 20 minutes and I was stuck in this stupid inn the WHOLE TIME.
The graphics are sub par, which I am generally okay with if the story line holds up. The thing is the story line is reaaalllyyy sketchy. The opening video (which doesn't include a title or anything) is just you, the female attorney, watching this funeral procession. (The video graphics are actually very good. It's the gameplay that can make your character look pixilated.)
What is cool is that you're a girl! Woohoo ladies! I don't think half of the games out there star females. (Well, unless you include the whole Barbie video game line, which I don't.)
See this actually isn't too pixilated compared to when your character is just... standing.
Although to be fair the background images are always good.
There are absolutely no directions for gameplay, so you're going to spend like 5 minutes trying to figure out what the heck the game wants you to do next. Also you can't control the character by the... pad thing, only by touching the screen, which is REALLY annoying because poking/prodding things allows you to move on to the next step, so your character (who walks as slow as a slug) will plod around the room while you try to experiment and poke random things. Plus they never explain your storage system to you. Or how to make faxes, phone calls, and read notes. Really they don't tell you how to do ANYTHING, and since I generally don't read manuals that made me mildly frusterated.
What really was the turn off for me was the way the game pretty much expects you to know what to do. My example is the opening level. You're supposed to ring a bell to make the innkeeper show up. But of course they don't tell you that. They just say something along the lines of "Go to your room." but you can't do that until the innkeeper comes! Plus when you figure out you need the innkeeper and when you randomly stumble on the bell you have to ring to make him pop in, they don't TELL you the bell is broken and you need to put it together. They just show the bell.
So my main complaint in this game is its lack of useability. Who knows, it might end up being a totally awesome game if you have the patience to figure out how to use the #&%* fax machine so you can leave the @#(*$ inn. (Again, please remember this is based off a REALLY short playing period.)