In the grand scheme of adventure there is nothing better than a saga. While many games out there have concurrent sequels none quite fits the aforementioned line quite like the Syberia franchise. Syberia 2 originally released 2 years after its predecessor and like the newly released Nintendo Switch port continues the story as Kate Walker as she starts a new chapter in her life. Even after 13 years, Syberia 2 is still the classic adventure that I remember playing growing up. So join me as I give my thoughts as Syberia 2 takes a journey on the system designed for going places.
Syberia 2 kicks off with American lawyer Kate Walker, the aging yet brilliant inventor Hans Voralberg and the by-the-rules automaton Oscar as they arrive in the frontier town of Romansburg. Nearly right from the start you are faced with once again getting the train ready for departure. Of course, it isn’t as straight forward a task as one who has played the first game can attest to. What first starts out as a quest for Kate to get coal into the train for the long trek ahead becomes one of a more demanding one as Hans takes a turn for the worst.
What follows next…well I won’t spoil all the fun. Safe to say Syberia follows the tradition of its predecessor with puzzles making up the main method of story progression. Much like the work done on the original titles’ Switch port some of the puzzles have received some streamlining to make the overall experience a bit more enjoyable to newcomers. For returning fans like me, some of us might miss the complexity of the original versions on console and PC. While I find Syberia best suited on PC its console versions have actually fared well with their translation to controller-based setups.
Syberia 2 does have some noticeable enhancements over the original game largely in the area of character animations. The more realistic animations still are an improvement even to the Switch version. This makes interacting with people and objects to be much more satisfying. Despite those improvements the Switch version still utilized some design changes that still kind of bug me. The biggest one is the selection method of objects when interacting with locations up close during many of the puzzle moments. The node-based selection process is still a bit sensitive compared to say the original Xbox version’s freeform analog stick pointer method.
Despite that bit of annoyance, the Switch version of Syberia 2 does contain interaction changes that were for the better. I actually really like that they removed the interaction prompts from the small icebox that also serves as your current equipped item box. Instead, these prompts show up in the world next to people, objects and area transition points. Depending on how you have the game setup with the screen format these prompts may be obscured at times. Much like its predecessor on the Switch, Syberia 2 also contains a notebook that not only acts as the game’s conversational topic selector but as a log of what your current goals are without actually telling you how to do them. The ability to use the touch screen to interact with the inventory screen also makes a return to the Syberia 2 for fast selections.
In fact many of the features found in the Switch version of Syberia make a return here including the ability to choose if you want to have the game displayed in its original 4:3 format. I still actually prefer this mode especially when docked to the TV once again due to stretching of the game visuals. When portable however the stretching isn’t as bad on the Switch’s smaller screen. The overall visuals are also quite a bit improved especially in the area of character models over the original.
Fans and newcomers will once again get to enjoy the banter between Oscar, the rule following automaton, and Kate Walker as it isn’t long before he’s spouting reasons that they once again cannot proceed to their destination. It’s one of the things that’s most endearing about the Syberia series as Sharon Mann, Kate’s voice actor, plays so well off Oscar protocoled dialogue with her human responses for things that we take for common practices. I’ve also always loved the old-world themes that the series is known for. This is largely thanks in part to the fantastic work of award-winning composer Inon Zur who first became involved with the series with Syberia 2’s original release. The musical score sound just as stellar as it did the first time I heard it over a decade ago.
I have to say that even for a series that is over a decade old the Syberia franchise has always been one of my favorites. While Syberia 2 for the Switch still has issues like its predecessor there is no doubt that the improved features, memorable characters and puzzle solving driven storytelling still outweighs most of those faults. Syberia 2 is a welcome addition to the Switch’s already growing library so far and I can’t wait for the next chapter to make its way as well. Until then both returning fans and maybe even some new ones should continue their adventure by picking up Syberia 2 physically or digitally via the Nintendo Switch eShop today.
