Syberia — Remastered Review. You'd Better Play the Original

Syberia is one of the most enduring franchises in the point-and-click genre, and 23 years after its legendary first installment, it returns as a full-fledged remaster. Although adventure games are no longer as popular as they were two decades ago, this series still remains well-known and beloved by players. Created by the late comic artist and writer Benoît Sokal, Syberia became the pinnacle of the genre's development after Myst and LucasArts projects, offering outstanding graphics, a deep story, and inventive puzzles. Thanks to all this, the game gained a huge army of fans who, by the way, greeted the updated version rather coolly. What went wrong with the remaster? We’ll tell you in this review.

Although this review is dedicated to the enhanced version, many may not know how Kate Walker’s story began. And it has plenty of interesting aspects that have not lost their relevance over the past 23 years.

First and foremost, Syberia is a story about the eternal search for oneself and one’s purpose. Young lawyer Kate arrives from New York to Europe to close a deal on buying a factory, but unexpected circumstances turn her business trip into a grand adventure that changes the protagonist’s entire worldview.

Traveling through the whimsical corners of Old Europe and the post-Soviet space — a blend of steampunk and real locations — Kate witnesses how a world once built by dreamers is slowly dying. The monumental cosmodrome and the abandoned industrial city of Komkolzgrad, once bustling with life, are now unwanted by anyone. Every character she meets is a fragment of a bygone era, when people cared about discoveries rather than the endless pursuit of financial prosperity.

During her adventure, Kate realizes that routine and a clear life plan, made in her youth, do not bring her happiness. She decides to become another dreamer and sets off with a talented inventor in search of mammoths, giving up a prestigious career in New York.

The plot is the main strength of Syberia — Remastered, inherited from the original unchanged. The atmosphere, characters, and multilayered storytelling have not aged at all and still touch the soul as deeply as they did 23 years ago. This is one of those rare stories that not only entertains but also leaves a deep emotional mark, making you reflect on your own life choices.

In 2002, Syberia was a very beautiful game with a meticulously crafted atmosphere, and at times, the remaster looks quite decent. For example, the botanical greenhouse in Barrockstadt is impressive thanks to its high level of detail and sharp models. Essentially, each location was recreated from scratch, since the project now runs on the modern Unity engine. The artists strictly adhered to Benoît Sokal’s original vision, so you’ll hardly notice any serious deviations from the source material. It’s a pity that the updated locations are almost the only real advantage of this version.

In the original, the levels were divided into small zones that allowed for quick movement while solving puzzles. In the remaster, they have been merged into a single space, forcing you to do a lot more walking. On the one hand, this enhances immersion: you can leisurely explore your surroundings and admire the scenery. On the other hand, the long walks quickly become tiresome. If you remember the original like the back of your hand, this won’t be an issue. But newcomers should be prepared for aimless wandering from one end of the map to the other.

The developers didn’t bother to improve the opening cutscene or the cinematics, simply inserting slightly AI-upscaled versions of the original files into the remaster. This is a blatant sign of corner-cutting, as the videos are not only hopelessly outdated, but also break immersion. For example, a cutscene will show a location from the old game with simplified graphics, while in gameplay it looks completely different. Also, Kate’s appearance in the videos is strikingly different from how she looks in the game itself. In some places, the neural network processing is especially noticeable — intended to sharpen and enhance the resolution, but in reality, it often only makes things look worse.

The character models are unimpressive, and Kate’s model is actually borrowed from Syberia: The World Before. The animations look clunky and unnatural, especially the facial expressions and movements during dialogues. It’s odd that, despite having fewer characters than The World Before, the remaster looks worse than the fourth game, where the animations were excellent. If you’re going to modernize the visuals, it should be done properly — especially in a game where dialogue plays a key role in storytelling.

Moreover, the remaster has lost the interactivity that was present in the original. Kate no longer looks around, fixes her hair, or displays other "living" traits that made the character feel real. Syberia — Remastered is missing many animations and little details that enriched the narrative. For example, the scenes where the heroine leaves her personal belongings on the train, orders tea, or uses the horn in Oscar’s cabin are gone.

The gameplay has been partially reworked to be closer to the modern The World Before. This applies not only to the camera, the new control system (including gamepad support), and the interface, but also to small details that dedicated fans will definitely notice — and likely won’t be happy about. The notebook with conversation topics has been replaced by a simple text table, the notes and hints system was borrowed from the fourth game, and saves are now tied to checkpoints, which means you can’t replay specific moments to get achievements. You’re left either renaming save files or replaying the game from the start. Frustrating.

Some quest tasks and puzzles have also been changed. For example, the puzzle with Oscar’s legs has been expanded, but the consequences of mistakes have been adjusted, and the punch card tasks have been noticeably simplified. Overall, there are changes to the puzzles and interactions, but they can’t be called outright bad. Yes, fans will surely be upset by the simplifications, but the core gameplay remains the same and works on the same principles as it did 23 years ago.

The interface and menus are organized just like in The World Before: inventory, progress journal, and a collection of documents. Localized text is now overlaid on top of textures, rather than integrated into the environment, which seriously impacts immersion. If you’re not familiar with the original, the interface won’t cause any issues, but fans of the first version deserve some sympathy.

Syberia — Remastered is literally overflowing with bugs you wouldn’t expect to find in a point-and-click game. The main character regularly gets stuck in environmental objects and invisible walls. Several times during my playthrough, Kate fell through the floor or got trapped on staircases with no way out. Sometimes, the camera detached from the character and flew out of bounds. This happened to me, the author, more than once.

The remaster has obvious problems with game logic: dialogues can suddenly cut off due to random actions, the heroine can endlessly circle around a door without finding a way forward, and some quests break if you do something out of order. This is inexcusable for a game where the main gameplay is built around solving puzzles and exploring locations.

The original voice acting is fine, but the localization and dubbing were taken from the “old” version without significant improvements. On the one hand, it’s nice to hear familiar voices, but on the other, the remaster lacks proper lip-sync, leading to awkward situations where a character keeps “flapping” their lips after the line is over.

The music is excellent. However, there’s a catch. The remaster’s developers decided to loop the melodies in each location, playing them over and over until the soundtrack starts to get annoying. In the original, most locations featured a meditative ambient background that greatly contributed to the overall atmosphere, while musical compositions only played in key story moments and important locations.

Syberia — Remastered is not a very successful remaster, and it’s clear it was released unfinished. Outdated cutscenes, ugly animations, gameplay elements borrowed from the fourth game, changes to puzzle structure, and a plethora of bugs outweigh all the advantages of the improved version of one of the best games in the point-and-click genre. Yes, the updated locations look beautiful, but everything else is much worse than in the original, which is over two decades old. I sincerely hope the developers change their approach to remasters — fans definitely won’t forgive such a slapdash job if it happens to the sequel.