Syberia: The World Before hands-on preview
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It’s been a little over a year since Koalabs Games and Microids released the free playable prologue for Syberia: The World Before. That seems fitting, as the new preview demo begins with that selfsame prologue before jumping forward about a year in Kate Walker’s story. While the earlier sampler looked good, there were several issues that put a damper on proceedings. I’m glad to say these all seem to be resolved now, which makes me even more excited for this latest release in the Syberia series.
The rather lackluster character animations and inconsistent lip-syncing noticeable previously have both been smoothed over now. Characters walk like real people instead of jerky automatons, and their mouth movements when talking are quite spot-on in with their vocals. The developers seem to have done a bit more debugging this time as well. My greatest disappointment before was running into multiple game freezes, requiring replaying the entirety of whatever scene in which it occurred. This go-round, there were no glitches to be found. I prefer to think that’s due to some extra tender loving care being given to the game, though I can’t rule out the possibility that it might be partly due to an upgrade in my computer hardware in the interim.
Beyond the technical improvements, the additional hour or so of gameplay in the extended preview helped to illustrate the trajectory of the story itself, something that wasn’t completely clear the first time around. After the stunning events at the end of the prologue, Kate sets out on a whole new adventure. Having found a painting with a girl who looks remarkably like Kate, but from around the time of the Second World War, she is now travelling through Europe looking for clues as to who the young woman from another time was.
A year on from her escape as a slave labourer in a Russian salt mine, Kate is looking much healthier. Her buzzed hair has grown out to her more traditional style and she’s put a bit of weight on, so her features no longer appear so gaunt nor her eyes so sunken. It definitely helps, as she looks much more like Dana Roze, the girl from the painting – not a spoiler as she happens to be the game’s other playable character. In my initial playthrough of just the prologue, I didn’t see the resemblance between the two women myself, but now it’s much more pronounced.
Short on funds, Kate has nonetheless been able to make her way to the (fictional) city of Vaghen. Staying at a boarding house with a grandmotherly caretaker, she’s following the only lead she has: the imprint of a store that sells art supplies on the inside of the canister holding the painting. That store is somewhere in the city, and Kate’s determined to find it.
With the benefit of additional playtime, it’s clear that this latest chapter in Kate’s life has a different tone from her previous adventures. Gone are the more whimsical notions of repairing automatons and searching for mammoths. Instead The World Before seems to be aimed at exploring themes of loss, something that touches Kate quite personally. This Kate is one who appears destined by circumstance to forfeit at least some of her naiveté and idealism. It’s entirely appropriate then that the game is dedicated to series creator Benoît Sokal, who passed away in May of last year.
Another loss, though one of a design nature instead of a topical one, is the array of eccentric characters that have populated previous Syberia games. So far there are no officious magistrates like the ones at Barrockstadt University in the 2002 original, no drunken aeronauts like Kate’s Russian friend from its sequel. Ancillary characters here are rendered in a less exaggerated and much more realistic way, their quirky natures seemingly downplayed. However, I only met a series of extras rather than anyone who felt like a supporting player in my brief time with the game, so perhaps the full version will bring some of those charmingly excessive behaviours back.
Gameplay-wise, the early going also moves on from the classic inventory combination puzzles of the earlier titles. Kate can still collect a few items, but The World Before only allows them to be used in certain specific instances, such as when she needs to produce a key for a lock. In these cases, clicking on the appropriate hotspot brings up a small circular display with arrows on either side, which allows for scrolling between the items she’s accumulated to choose from.
Instead, the demo’s gameplay is bolstered by more direct manipulation challenges. After arriving at Vaghen, Kate has to go through a local business directory to identify her top three choices of which might be the store she’s looking for. She then has to cross-reference this with a map of the area to settle on the place she intends to visit first. Later on, having found the store in question, she discovers an odd sphere that was created by Hans Voralberg, which she must figure out how to open by moving various dials and panels on its surface. These types of puzzles are presented in close-up view for pointing and clicking to interact with them. Even in this short preview of the full game, there’s a nice variety to the tasks to be accomplished and I look forward to seeing what else is in store.
Of course, no journey in Kate’s life would be complete without her longtime companion and sometimes-hindrance Oscar. In the prologue, Oscar didn’t make an appearance and was only mentioned in reference to his small mechanical heart, which Kate incredibly managed to retain even after her imprisonment at the salt mine. This heart is more than merely a powering mechanism for Voralberg automatons; it contains the memories and personality of Oscar himself. And so in addition to tracking down the girl in the painting, Kate’s secondary objective is to find a new body for Oscar’s heart. This seems likely to be an ongoing quest, as the first experiment with transplanting it does not end quite as Kate expects. The amusing new mechanical body Kate tries doesn’t look or sound like Oscar from the earlier games, so it will be interesting to see if or when Oscar proper returns when the full game releases.
Though the first replacement Oscar’s voice may be different, Kate’s vocals are still provided by Sharon Mann, which provides welcome continuity with the previous games in the series. Ms. Mann’s performance immediately recalls the Kate Walker of old, even when her voice is weary and gruff in the salt mines. Later, given the losses Kate has suffered by that point, there’s an added emotional depth to the performance as well, which was one of my favourite parts of the preview. As the story progresses and her prospects begin to brighten, her tone becomes much healthier – warmer and not as throaty – sounding even more like Kate as we remember her.
One thing missing from this extended demo was a return to Dana Roze, Kate’s doppelgänger from the past. Her section remains the same as in the prologue, as she gives an epic piano recital then plans to go off for a summer internship. My sense from before was that the game would switch back and forth between the two women, so I wholly expected the new content to pick back up with Dana as well, but alas, such was not the case. It remains a mystery what her role will be going forward, though the prejudices of the Nazi-analogous Brown Shadow towards her and her people doubtless bode ill for whatever path she takes.
With clear improvements to the production values, a stronger sense of where Kate’s journey is going, and several new mysteries set up, I’m now even more excited for the arrival of the full Syberia: The World Before. The jury is out on whether the more serious tone and mature themes of this installment will prove to be a good choice, but it’s definitely shaping up to be better than dealing with the useless Youkols in the last game. How is Kate connected to Dana? What will happen when Dana runs afoul of the Brown Shadow? And what fate is in store for Oscar? I look forward to seeing the answers to all these questions when the full game releases on March 18th.
