Syberia: The World Before - prologue (2020, official release 2021)

Syberia: The World Before - prologue (2020, official release 2021), created by Benoit Sokal, developed by Koalabs, published by Microids

After the disappointing Syberia 3, which I've never bothered to finish, Microids and Benoit Sokal have released a free prologue or a demo as I want to call it, of the new entry for the upcoming 4th Syberia game. 

The prologue begins in the picturesque town of Vaghen in 1937. Instead of Kate Walker, you step in the shoes of a young and talented musician Dana Roze, who is sitting in a tram conducted by a Voralberg Automaton. She is on her way to a convocation, where she is to perform a piano piece for the music academy. Her performance is a hit.

We jump forward in time, into 2004, Iron Taiga area salt mines. From there, we finally find Kate Walker, imprisoned in forced labour. In these mines, she is to hack away salt in hopes of finding ivory in order to pay back whatever crime she has committed. She isn't alone though, as she has befriended a fellow prisoner, Katyusha. They are about to embark on their morning shift when Kate receives a parcel containing devastating news.

Back in 1937, Dana has returned home. She is happy to have been accepted, but her mother tells her to write a thank you notice for her summer job. Just when she is about to write the letter, a brick is thrown through the window of her parent's store. With it comes a threatening note, signed by the infamous fascist organisation Brown Shadows. 

Back in 2004, Kate and Katyusha, by accident, break through the mine walls and find a cave with an old, WWII era train in it. They also find their means of escape. It's never that simple, as the end of the prologue concludes in a cliffhanger.         

One thing is quite evident: lessons have been learnt from Syberia 3. Most visibly, the game controls are much better, working nicely with either a mouse or a joypad. The gameplay feels more fluent. On the same note, the prologue does seem to be more story-heavy than any of the previous games. 

Graphically Syberia 4 looks solid. The lip sync is somewhat clunky, but the characters and the locations look very nice. The voice acting is good as is the music, so all in all, if all goes well, Microids might have a winner in their hands.

There are some minor issues here and there. The first issue for me was, that the game wouldn't start at first, but allowing it access through the firewall seems to have fixed that. The game runs smoothly most of the time, but there were some minor staggers here and there, but nothing major on that stance. 

Perhaps the biggest issue is the hotspots, which seem to at times be located a bit awkwardly, which can make them hard to notice. None of these issues is a game-breaker though and should be fixable. 

So yeah, all in all, a pleasant surprise from Microids. I didn't even remember the game was in the works, mostly because of how disappointing the 3rd game was. This does seem more interesting though and I enjoyed the short prologue more than I did of any moment I endured the 3rd game.