Some little thoughts after playing the demo

[Barny600]

1. Graphically speaking, the game is a huge improvement over Syberia 3, but the lower hardware optimization is really bad and FPS drops like flies. On the gameplay part, there's an annoying lack of responsiveness with M&K when interacting with objects, which can be really frustrating. Hopefully they fix it in the final relase.
   
2. Didn't like the use of the "quick time event mouse click" moments whe you have to open a door, rotate an handle or wash your hands, I think they really are outdated gameplay mechanics that don't really contribute to the overall experience and I'll rather have little cutscenes I can skip over.
   
3. Story wise, this prologue is really confusing and I'm not really won by the idea of Syberia 4 being a prequel and a sequel to Syberia 3 at the same time. It's like Sokal didn't really think it throught what the story's going to be, going back and fourth between two different locations and story settings could really break the immersion and lose interest in the story if done bad.
   
4. At Dana's house, there's a Voralberg depliant showing that Hans Voralberg is responsable for rebuilding the city of Vaghen and he's listed as a chief engineer. This doesn't make any sense, since in Syberia 1 Hans faked his death at 13 and only his family and few others knew about the truth, and he was already traveling to find the way to Syberia and building the railway thorught places like Barrockstadt, Kolkozgrad, Aralbad... It's obviously a huge retcon.
   
5. Vagerians = Jews and Brown Shadow = Nazis. Syberia, with all the fictional stuff like living mammoths and automatons is still set in the our 2003/2004 world, I don't see the reason (yet) to make those specific groups with unique names but replace the roles of their real life counterparts. It feels a little bit detached and it looks like an alternative universe.
   
6. There's some inspiration from the Life is Strange franchise, when it comes to characters interaction, inventory and choice layout.
   
7. Kate Walker feels like a different character from the previous games, not only phisically. One of the key point of the firsts two games was her letting go of her past life and going on her adventure without regrets. Personally, I think Syberia 3 did a poor job to make Kate's regretful of her choice.

Syberia 3 was just awful, and after trying this demo I start feeling that Sokal may be pulling things out of the hat to just end the series, and I'm convinced that Syberia's story should have ended at 2 with a longer ending, and let The World Before being a full standalone prequel, rather than two different stories fused toghever.

[Razz]

First syberia games made us dream, now we have to suffer once again with low tricks such as jew/nazi to make us feel bad but those strings are way too much used everywhere

[zyklodol]

Same feelings. Great review, thank you.

[Barny600]

Originally posted by Razz:

First syberia games made us dream, now we have to suffer once again with low tricks such as jew/nazi to make us feel bad but those strings are way too much used everywhere

I have no problem with using references to real world happenings life or setting the story in a pre-WW2 setting, I'm all for a prequel of Syberia showing the Voralberg industry at his peak, I just think if they have to be so explicit with the references to the Nazi regime occupation and persecution of Jewish people, I'll rather prefer the game to be honest and set them with their real life roles.