Business lawyer Kate Walker is the heroine in this long story of the lost heir, in another title from Dream Catcher and Microids. You play the role of the business lawyer, traveling to a small quaint town in France to get signatures for a takeover contract of a toy factory. What you discover is not toys, but automatons, and these automatons are highly intricate machines, capable of limited independent thought. These machines are the source of many of the puzzles in the game.

The first town, Valadilene, is full of these almost magical creatures. They are all mechanical in nature, so they all require some type of energy source, like winding a spring or flowing water. They are very intricate, however. A mechanical automaton bows his head in greeting when you first arrive at a hotel. Doors are locked with automaton figures unless you have the right key. And in the Voralberg factory, automatons make fellow automatons. This is truly a fascinating place.

Anna Voralberg passed away the same day you arrived in the small village to get the contract signed. She reveals in her last testaments that her younger brother, presumed dead for over 40 years, is still alive and is hence the rightful heir to the factory. In order for the merger to go through, Kate Walker has to hunt down this missing heir. Since the brother left the family estate eons ago, and World War II got in the way, information about the brother is sketchy. Thankfully there is a mechanical train waiting on the platform. Its sole purchase is to take Anna to Hans, her brother. She died before the design of its engineer could be finished. Kate discovers the unfinished business, and finishes the construction of the automaton.

So Kate boldly steps aboard the train with the automaton Oscar as the train engineer. Together they travel through several cities, and encounter towns in Germany, Russia, and finally a coastal city on the Siberian peninsula. As for the title of the game, it is not misspelled. You will uncover the reason for the title, as well as the boy’s obsession with mammoths. Oscar is also there for comic relief. In a very similar way to Data of Star Trek lore, he dissects human culture with cunning remarks. He himself is straight and narrow, and annoying by-the-book at times. His voice, though, sounds like the tin-voice of C-3PO of Star Wars.

This adventure game is very bright in its scenery, in stark contrast with the later-released Salammbo (see previous review). There are few sinister forces about, and few dangers to the heroine, making this game excellent for young female players as well. The character grows with time, throughout the game. This adventure game also makes extensive use of the cell phone, which I thought was very clever and very modern. Most of the time Kate receives calls from the people back home, from New York. Through the conversation, you get a picture of Kate’s life in NYC and the people she are with. It is quite different from her experiences in these cities of Europe. The few times that the cell phone is used to make outgoing calls threw me, since it is not a part of my regular consideration when making decisions in the game.

A peek at the credits shows many French names. While the voices for the game are excellent, the subtitles were a bit off. The most common mistake was in punctuation. My guess is that the translator did a good job, but is not a native speaker.

The icon interface of the game was pleasing, and it did not take long to catch on. The puzzles were moderate, but there were a few points in the game that totally stumped me. In terms of programming, there were a few times that the screen froze without reason. One scene was getting on the elevator to the room of the family’s mansion in Valadilene. The movie for the ascent of the elevator never occurred, and the game froze. Reloading the save point resulted in the same thing, so a save point further back had to be used.

This charming game had absolutely stunning scenario. The colors were rich, and the canvas gave you an epic feel. Walking from scene to scene was also comfortable and not at all disorientating.

One humorous solution that the designers used to get around obstacles was Kate doing a half step. Since this is a third-person perspective game, and Kate could walk to large portions of the map, she is not expected to land exactly at the correct stop to transition to another sequence, say the first step to climb the stairs. Before the character actually takes the steps, she does half and quarter slides to get into positions, and begins the movement. It’s a solution. Not elegant by any means, but it serves the purpose.

Overall, Syberia is an excellent game built on an excellent story line. It is bright, clever, and fun to play. Near the end of the game, you will discover that the hunt for Hans Voralberg mixes the history of European states through WWII and Communism, as well as a deeper and older history of nomads following the mammoths.