Syberia (computer game)
| Syberia | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
| Studio | Microids | ||
| Publisher |
Atari The Adventure Company
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| Senior Developer | Benoît Sokal | ||
| composer |
Nicholas Varley Dimitri Bodiansky |
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| Erstveröffent- lichung |
May 30, 2002 | ||
| platform | Android , iOS , MacOS , Microsoft Windows , Microsoft Windows Mobile , Nintendo DS , Nintendo Switch , PlayStation 2 , PlayStation 3 , Xbox , Xbox 360 | ||
| Game engine | Virtools | ||
| genre | Adventure | ||
| medium | CD-ROM , download | ||
| language | German, English, French, Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish | ||
| Age rating |
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Syberia is a computer game by the French game developer Microïds . The adventure was designed by the Belgian comic artist Benoît Sokal and is the beginning of a multi-part series of games .
action
Thursday, April 18, 2002: American lawyer Kate Walker travels to Valadilène, France, on behalf of her employer, the law firm Marson & Lormont. An important major customer of the law firm, the Universal Toy's Company, would like to buy up the family-owned machine factory "Manufaktur Voralberg", which is based in Valadilène and whose owner Anna Voralberg has agreed to the sale. Walker found on site that Voralberg had died the day before. Since she had no children and there is no other family either, Walker expects to be able to conduct the business quickly on the basis of the written sale request. At the local notary, she is confronted with Voralberg's written confession that her younger brother Hans, who was believed to be dead, is probably alive and would have to agree to the sale.
Anna, born in 1916, and Hans Voralberg, born in 1920, always had a particularly close relationship, which made them endure the whims of their strict father Rodolphe, who owned the machine manufacturer in the 1930s. On May 13, 1930, the two children explored a cave that Hans had discovered near Valadilènes, where they found rock carvings of mammoths and a mammoth figure. When trying to get the latter off a rock, Hans slipped and hit his head on the rock floor. He then lay in a coma for a week and suffered permanent injuries from the fall: mentally, he was left on the same level as at the time of the accident. His father Rodolphe, who had hoped for an heir, sank into despair. The situation improved when it turned out that Hans, despite his handicap, had an intuitive talent for the construction of the most complex automata and could thus significantly contribute to the success of the company. A side effect of his accident was manic preoccupation with mammoths, and on March 6, 1938, against his father's wishes, he secretly left his parents' home to make his way to Siberia, where he suspected surviving mammoths. The father couldn't cope with the loss of his son and played his death to the village community; a pastor friend of mine issued a death certificate for Hans without having seen a body, and with great sympathy from the village, Rodolphe Voralberg had an empty coffin buried. On his way to the northeast, Hans maintained loose contact with his beloved sister Anna through the occasional mail, which often contained technical sketches for technically superior machines that boosted the reputation of the manufactory headed by Anna after the death of his father in February 1942. Due to the strong competition from electronic products, the manufactory went downhill economically. Shortly before the events of the game, Hans had sent Anna plans for a purely mechanical train and asked her to use his plans to construct the train and a semi-intelligent train driver's machine, to find the mammoth doll that had caused his accident and take it to him in the newly constructed train to travel.
The train is inextricably linked to its driver, an intelligent machine called Oscar. After Walker has completed its manufacturing process, she starts her trip to Hans in Anna Voralberg's place - initially only to obtain the necessary signature for the factory transaction. The train stops independently at some places where it has to be rewound, for example in the university town of Barrockstadt. Walker discovers that Hans Voralberg attended palaeontology lectures at the university 50 years ago before continuing on to Siberia, and that the doll found in Valadilène was probably made by the Youkol people, who lived in the Alps in the distant past and migrated to the far north of Siberia as a result of climate change. Mammoths formed the livelihood of the Youkol, who used them as mounts and processed their flesh, tusks and fur. The Youkol were integrated into the Russian Empire in the 20th century, but Walker comes across a legend in Barrockstadt, which says that there is still a group of original Youkol on an island called Syberia in the far north of Siberia who coexist with the last surviving mammoths exist. Hans Voralberg was looking for this island.
On the way towards Syberia, Walker finally reaches the formerly sophisticated seaside resort of Aralbad. There she meets Hans Voralberg, who without hesitation signs the purchase contract for the toy factory and boards "his" train to Syberia. A plane is ready for Walker that would take her back to New York, where a successful career as a lawyer awaits her - at the last second, however, she decides to board Voralberg's train into the unknown. That ends the game.
A parallel subplot is revealed to the player through phone calls that Walker makes with people around her in New York during her trip. Her fiancé Dan has little understanding for Walker's long unplanned stay in Europe and is slowly becoming estranged from her. Walker's best friend Olivia first comforts Dan, but gradually the two get closer and finally spend a night together.
Locations
Syberia is set in Europe and refers to actual geographic relations. However, all of the game's locations are fictional.
- Valadilène
Valadilène is a small town in a valley in the French Alps . The first documentary mention comes from the year 1242, when members of the Voralberg family from "Valadilenus" presented puppets from their own production to the emperor. Since the end of the 19th century, the city's economic importance was closely linked to the success of the machine factory that had existed since the 17th century. The residents are proud of the technically advanced machine production in the city and like to use machine services in everyday life. With the decline of the machine factory, many younger people left the city for lack of economic prospects. The only public facility visible to the player is the city's train station. Other facilities include an inn, a church and a law firm. Besides the machine factory, a bakery is the only company in the private sector. There is a daily newspaper, the Valadilèner Tageblatt.
- Baroque city
Barrockstadt is a university town that may be in Austria. It lies on a navigable, nameless canal. The university is known for its biological faculty. The city's fully glazed train station is a large aviary for exotic birds kept by the ornithology department of the university's biological faculty. The populations are threatened by introduced cuckoo birds from Amerzone , a reference to an older Sokal game. Only the train station and the university are accessible to the player; from a distance, decaying houses on the outskirts of the city are visible. According to Benoît Sokal, the design of Barrockstadt reflects echoes of his grandfather's experiences in the run-up to the Second World War.
- Komkolzgrad
The Komkolzgrad industrial complex essentially consists of an old factory somewhere in Russia, which was once of great economic importance, but has since been closed for lack of profitability, as well as an equally closed and partly cleared former cosmodrome . In the 1970s, Hans Voralberg stopped in Komkolzgrad and worked on a spring-operated launching mechanism for rockets, which was never completed because the government discontinued the program in 1979 due to a lack of prospect of success. Numerous machines such as a mechanical eagle for chasing birds away from the spaceport still bear witness to Voralberg's work. The former director of the factory and a former cosmonaut and test pilot who makeshift maintenance for the spaceport are now the only remaining residents of Komkolzgrad.
- Aralbad
Even further east than Komkolzgrad is the formerly glamorous seaside resort of Aralbad, which was valued by politicians and other celebrities. The city's surroundings are desert or steppe-like. The lake on which the city is located has withdrawn somewhat for unknown reasons, which has led to the decline of the place. Only the luxurious Hotel Kronsky is accessible to the player, which has its own long pier (the end of which just touches the new lakeshore) and its own small train station. Although the hotel is no longer directly on the lake and salt storms cover the outdoor areas, the hotel is still in operation and has visitors who appreciate the hotel's thermal baths and the dry air of the surrounding area.
people
Acting persons
- Kate Walker
United States attorney working for the New York- based law firm Marson & Lormont. At the beginning of the game she is very focused on her professional activity, but as the game progresses her work becomes less and less important for her, while the search for Hans Voralberg becomes the focus of her life. Like the character of Oscar, the character of Kate Walker occasionally serves as a model for costumes in the cosplay scene.
- Oscar
Model name: XZ2000. Oscar is a human-shaped machine that is so advanced that it can be used universally and appears almost human. He is old-fashioned in a tweed suit and uses a flat cap . He has approaches of a personality and can express emotions to a limited extent. The train with which Walker begins her journey can only be operated by him.
- Momo
Mentally retarded child in Valadilène, around 10–15 years old. Formerly familiar with Anna Voralberg, who saw in him similarities to her brother Hans. Like Hans, Momo also has an increased interest in mammoths. He helps Kate Walker get the mammoth doll in the cave of misfortune.
- Cornelius Pons
Paleontology professor at the University of Barrockstadt. Once studied together with Hans Voralberg. Can use the mammoth doll found by Kate Walker to complete his theory about the Youkol. Gives a lecture at the university about the culture of the Youkol and the earlier meaning of the mammoth for their everyday life and their beliefs.
- Captain Malatesta
Commander of the gate guard in Barrockstadt for 34 years, who issues visas for permission to leave the city. Took over the office from his father. Sufferers from severe myopia.
- Serguei Borodine
Former director of a factory in Komkolzgrad, Russia. After the closure of the no longer profitable factory, Borodine slowly fell mad and lives fully for his obsession with the former opera singer Helena Romanski in "his" now vacant factory.
- Boris Kharov
Former cosmonaut and test pilot in the former Komkolzgrad cosmodrome. Combats loneliness and depression with alcohol. Kate Walker helps him to fly the mechanical rocket developed by Hans Voralberg; In return, he helps her to a passage in a zeppelin to Aralbad. Charov's fate after his missile was launched is unknown.
- Helena Romanski
Former opera singer who lost her voice 15 years ago and has since been hoping for a cure in the seaside resort of Aralbad. With a cocktail and good persuasion, Walker can help the singer regain her voice and self-confidence and thus bring about an appearance in Komkolzgrad.
- Hans Voralberg
Hans Voralberg only appears immediately before the end of the game. He had apparently been in Aralbad before, but did not show up until Kate arrived in town on the train. As a result of the childhood accident, he remained physically small. Apart from an unusual style of speech, there is no evidence of the mental retardation attested to him in Valadilène during his appearance in Syberia .
People in the background
- Edouard Marson
Associate with Marson & Lormont law firm in New York, manager of Kate Walker. Marson's interest is in the speedy processing of the purchase of the Voralberg manufactory; he has little understanding for delays caused by the events of the game.
- Dan
Kate Walker's life partner. Put his own professional advancement above the well-being of his partner. Cheats on Walker with her best friend Olivia while she is away.
- Olivia
Kate Walker's best friend, who shares Walker's experiences. During Walker's absence, gets closer to her fiancé Dan and finally admits to Walker that he has had sex with him.
- Anna Voralberg
The owner of the heavily indebted Voralberg manufactory wanted to sell her traditional company to a US investor, but died at the age of 86 one day before the contract was signed. Before that, she informed the local notary who was supposed to arrange the deal for her about the existence of her brother Hans, who was believed to be dead.
speaker
| role |
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|---|---|---|---|
| Kate Walker | Andréa Schieffer | Sharon Mann | Françoise Cadol |
| Oscar | Richard Collect | James Shuman | Hubert Drac |
| Hans Voralberg | Allan Wenger | ||
| Helena Romanski | Caroline Daparo | Caroline Daparo | Caroline Daparo |
| Kate's mother | Jodi Forrest | Marie Vincent | |
| Olivia | Celine Monsarrat | ||
| Edouard Marson | David Gasman | ||
| Mr. Afolter | Christian Erickson | ||
| Station master | Christian Erickson | ||
| Malatesta | David Gasman |
Game principle and technology
Syberia is a so-called 2.5D adventure. For polygons composite, three-dimensional figures act against pre-rendered , sometimes partially animated , but otherwise static scenes. In terms of controls, Syberia is a point-and-click adventure : the player controls the character through the game world with the mouse. With the mouse buttons he can initiate actions that allow the game character to interact with his environment. He can examine and pick up objects, apply them to the environment or other objects and communicate with NPCs . Dialogues are controlled by a single choice selection of topics given by the game. Syberia deviates from the usual specifications. Usually, adventures offer dialog options related to the situation. Kate Walker, on the other hand, has a notebook with her in which she enters possible topics of conversation. These topics are given as options in each dialogue and interpreted by the game in terms of the current state of the plot. In addition to the inventory used in adventure games, in which items found by Walker are managed, there is a similarly functioning secondary inventory for documents that Walker comes across in the course of the game. As the story progresses, more locations will be unlocked. This results in four separate play worlds that can only be linear: Valadilène, Barrockstadt, Komkolzgrad and Aralbad. A new game world is only accessible when all the tasks in the previous world have been completed. A journey back is then no longer possible, so the game is strictly linear. The playing time is about 15-20 hours. Cutscenes are shown in game graphics, but often from different perspectives.
Production notes
At the time the game was released, the adventure genre was no longer economically successful. In particular, two-dimensional point-and-click adventures, which topped the sales charts in the 1990s, hardly sold any more. In this respect, the production of a classic adventure game in 2002 represented an economic risk. The game was created in Microïds' studio in Montreal, Canada . The development time was 20 months, the development team was over 30 people. The production budget was two million US dollars, the highest amount that Microïds had ever invested in a project. Originally, Sokal intended to tell the entire Syberia story in one game, but for economic reasons it was split into two parts, Syberia and Syberia II , which together took almost four years to develop.
Sokal's grandfather was Commander in Chief of the Austrian cavalry, but had to flee from the Nazis as a Jew and traveled through Eastern Europe for a long time in search of security. His grandfather's fate was incorporated into the game's writing process, according to Sokal.
Premiere had Syberia on 18 July 2002 on Windows PCs. The versions for PlayStation 2 and Xbox followed in March 2003. In 2009, a version for the handheld console Nintendo DS appeared , for which some compromises had to be made. For technical reasons, the resolution had to be reduced and game elements such as the document inventory and the telephone dialogs removed, which significantly changed the character of the game. The versions for mobile devices were again close to the original, but were only released in June 2013 ( iOS ) and November 2014 ( Android ). Another version for the Nintendo Switch followed in October 2017 .
reception
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Syberia received mostly positive reviews. The Metacritic review database aggregates 26 reviews to a mean of 82.
The trade magazine Adventure-Treff pointed out that Syberia is pursuing an unusual narrative strategy: Instead of the usual surprises and plot twists, Syberia lets the player gradually immerse himself in the game universe and gradually learn more about Hans Voralberg and his world. It is a "grown-up" game with profound characters that only develops some humor in a few dialogues and grotesque situations. Editor Jan Schneider defined an “always blurring, but always present line between fiction and reality” as a defining characteristic of Sokal's style, which weaves a “constantly perceptible touch of surrealism” into the reality of the 20th century. From a technical point of view it is remarkable that the interplay of two-dimensional backgrounds and three-dimensional characters works well; Due to the coloring, illumination and anti-aliasing , it is hardly noticeable "that (the polygon models) technically do not belong".
4Players saw “sterile locations” that had to be traversed linearly in “monotonous marches”. The magazine praised the cutscenes and the localization of the game, but criticized the linear gameplay “like on rails”, a jittery control system and the lack of interaction with the environment. In sum, Syberia appears “simply lifeless and loveless in every respect”. The US magazine GameSpot wrote that Syberia offers “a captivating story, a truly imaginative game world and impressive graphics”. Editor Scott Osborne pointed out that the game had a number of very unusual characters, the more important ones having a lot of depth, while the supporting characters were sometimes quite clichéd. The game principle of the point-and-click adventure is "a remnant of a bygone era", but because of the visual beauty of the game it offers a welcome change from the hustle and bustle of modern games. Syberia offers a unique and memorable graphic style that blurs the line between entertainment and art. Despite some design flaws such as repetitive walking paths, Syberia provesthat the adventure genre is still “full of life”. The US magazine IGN admitted the game “breathtaking graphics and a good soundtrack”, but criticized the gameplay: “The game is extremely boring, and the puzzles are never challenging or interesting.” Editor Staci Krause criticized the subplot roughly Walker's fiancé Dan and her friend Olivia as superfluous and the NPCs as annoying, with the exception of Oscar, who brings "a breath of fresh air" into the ranks of characters and is the most amusing and interesting aspect of the game.
In 2011, the computer game journalist Kurt Kalata interpreted in a retrospective that encounters with NPCs like Boris Charow and Helena Romanski, who mourn their missed opportunities in various stages of depression , triggered a process in Kate Walker that made them question their own place in life leaves. The fact that their character development during the game is shown exclusively through phone calls with their New York environment is a one-time process for Adventures, since internal monologues are usually used for this . The fact that this technique of character development in Syberia is not particularly effective is due to the fact that Kate Walker is “just a boring character” from her system. He attributes the “annoyance” of the NPCs to negligently translated dialogues, and the performance of their English speakers, with the exception of James Shuman's (Oscar) , sounds “despondent to cruel”. Kalata praised the unique architecture of the game world, but pointed out that it conveyed an excessive amount of melancholy, if not depression, and displayed a lifelessness that could sometimes turn the gaming experience into boring. The game is ambitious with its basic theme of researching the human condition, but lacks a good plot and a consistently fascinating game world.
In a university context, the cultural scientist Randi Gunzenhäuser dealt with the game in an essay published in 2006. Michele Dickey, a professor of psychology at the University of Miami , uses Syberia as an example of storytelling in an essay on designing interactive learning environments.
Awards
At the time of publication in 2002, Syberia has received several awards. The US print magazine Computer Gaming World named Syberia “Adventure Game of the Year” at its “Games of the Year” awards ceremony. At the “Game of the Year” awards ceremony by GameSpot magazine , the game was voted “Best Adventure Game on PC”. At the IGN Awards, Syberia received the audience award in the “Best Adventure” category.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c JustAdventure.com: An Interview with Benoit Sokal ( Memento from January 2, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Cosplay.com: Syberia: Kate Walker. Retrieved October 20, 2019 .
- ↑ Cosplay.com: Oscar (Syberia). Retrieved October 20, 2019 .
- ↑ BehindtheVoiceActors.com: Syberia Series. Retrieved October 20, 2019 .
- ↑ Handbook of the original edition, Big Box Edition, p. 11
- ↑ a b c Adventure-Treff.de: Syberia: Test. Retrieved October 20, 2019 .
- ↑ Gamespot.com: Syberia Preview. Retrieved October 20, 2019 .
- ↑ Gamezone.com: An ambitious project entirely developed in Canada. Retrieved October 20, 2019 .
- ↑ Gameboomers.com: An Interview with Benoit Sokal. Retrieved October 20, 2019 .
- ^ A b Kurt Kalata: The Guide to Classic Graphic Adventures . Hardcoregaming101, 2011, ISBN 978-1-4609-5579-6 , pp. 553 .
- ↑ a b 4Players.de: Test: Syberia. Retrieved October 19, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Gamespot.com: Syberia Review. Retrieved October 20, 2019 .
- ↑ a b IGN.com: Syberia Review. Retrieved October 20, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Metacritic.com: Syberia. Retrieved October 20, 2019 .
- ↑ Walburga Hülk, Gregor Schschuhe, Tanja Schwan: (Post-) Gender: Choreographies / cuts . Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2006, ISBN 978-3-89942-277-1 , p. 187 .
- ↑ Michelle Dickey: Game Design Narrative for Learning: Appropriating Adventure Game Design Narrative Devices and Techniques for the Design of Interactive Learning Environments . In: Educational Technology Research and Development . No. 54, 2006, p. 245.
- ↑ 2002 Games of the Year . In: Computer Gaming World . No. 225, April 2003, p. 94. (PDF, 35 MB)
- ↑ Gamespot.com: Best Adventure Game on PC ( Memento from December 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ IGN.com: Best of 2002: Adventure ( Memento from September 13, 2009 in the Internet Archive )