This has been quite a year for Microids. Earlier this year they released a remake of Amerzone – The Explorer’s Legacy, which was the first game from famed developer Benoît Sokal (who sadly passed away in 2021 aged 66). Now they’ve tackled Sokal’s much more famous and well known follow-up, the graphical adventure Syberia, first released in 2002. Unlike Amerzone, which was more of a remake of the game and replaced pretty much everything, Syberia – Remastered keeps the same plot, same voice acting, and the same cutscenes (although upscaled) as the original. What has changed though is the graphics, and in a major way.
Syberia – Remastered has had all environments lovingly updated and fully rendered in 3D for the first time. In the original game, you navigated around pre-rendered static backgrounds onto which your 3D player character was placed, the same method used by Grim Fandango. In 2025, these environments are now completely explorable in 3D and from dynamic rather than fixed camera perspectives. It uses the same engine as Amerzone – The Explorer’s Legacy from earlier in the year, and makes the two games feel more connected as a result, especially considering as both are set in the same universe. The cutscenes have all been remastered too, run through what appears to be an upscaler to remove the noise and compression artifacts, similar to the treatment the cutscenes in Command & Conquer Remastered Collection received.
The other major updates have come primarily to UI, streamlining the interface to make it more intuitive to modern audiences, while including a useful quest log to keep track of what you should be doing. This is very useful as you previously had to rely on your memory or pen and paper for tracking objectives. Likewise, some of the puzzles have been amended to make them a bit less esoteric, as well as improving the movement around the world, letting you hold down the mouse to run indefinitely rather than always having to double-click to run (which you can still do, if desired). Many of the old locked camera positions are now more dynamic, tracking the player as you move around environments.
The game itself is still a timeless classic, and a true gem of the adventure game genre. It’s to my shame but I never played the original back in the day, despite always being an adventure game fan, the series somehow passed me by. The story focuses on Kate Walker, a lawyer who has come to the French village of Valadilène in order to complete the takeover of the local automaton factory. However, things are complicated when the factory owner suddenly dies and Kate must track down the lost heir, Hans Voralberg, who was last residing in the snowy wastes of Russia. From then on, Kate must venture forth with her mechanical sidekick Oscar to find Hans. It’s set in a fantastical Art Nouveau world with complicated automatons (don’t call them robots), but still recognizably the world of 2002 (Kate has a mobile phone for example).
Comparing the remaster directly against the original, I must say the original game absolutely holds up. It’s still a beautiful adventure game in its own right with some wonderful environments, which while static still evoke an excellent atmosphere. The voice acting is likewise still very enjoyable, with Sharon Mann in particular putting in a great performance in the lead role. Indeed it does render the remaster as somewhat superfluous when the original game is still as playable and as beautiful as it is, and people shouldn’t baulk at giving it a go simply based on its age.
Unfortunately the menu design from the original (mimicking the automatons of the Voralberg factory with a little top-hatted gentleman on a unicycle) haven’t been replicated and feel a bit more generic as a result, but that’s a minor nitpick. Some of the custom animations from the original likewise haven’t been retained (in the original there was a dedication to always show Kate walking up and down stairs, whereas here, you’ll often just teleport to the top of the stairs to save time). Other than that though, this is a faithful and beautiful modernization effort, with all of the levels accurately recreated in-engine with all of their detail and artistry, and the same great voice acting and music.
If, like me, you missed Syberia years ago, or are a new adventure game fan checking out the classics, there has never been a better opportunity to dive into the fascinating steampunk Art Nouveau universe Benoît Sokal created 26 years ago. Along with the excellently faithful remake of Amerzone released earlier this year, it seems likely that if Syberia – Remastered is a success, we may soon see Syberia II (the 2004 sequel) get a similar treatment at some point in the near future.
