In The Ice Sits A Boat, Where The Boat Takes You. . .

When I reviewed Syberia, I said I'd probably pick up the sequel at some point. So guess what I did last week?

Syberia II picks up where the first one left off. You're still playing as Kate Walker, the New York lawyer who sought out Hans Voralberg to finalize the purchase of his family's automaton factory, only to decide you'd accompany him in his clockwork train on his quest for the land of Syberia and the mammoths that supposedly exist there.

Despite the fact he's brilliant, Hans is still a frail old man, so he's more hindrance than help. Which means it's up to Kate to do all the work. "Work" in this case, means dealing with every problem that comes your way. Hans falling ill, crumbling Russian infrastructure, the weather, homicidal monastic orders, bears, and all manner of puzzles  will get in the way, and Kate's going to have to figure out ways around all of them.

This game is exactly like the first one. Which means some of the puzzles are clever, and others are maddening, because I'm not sure how you'd solve them other than just randomly flipping switches until something happened. The scenery is lovely, but the camera is unhelpful. The entire game is a series of different screens, and for each screen, there's only one camera angle. Which means you can't swivel it to get a different view, and sometimes that would come in very handy. I was stuck in one area for a half hour because I couldn't see there was another trail I could take. Because the entry for it was at the extreme edge of the bottom of the screen, so you couldn't tell what was there. If I could rotate the camera, I would have found it immediately. So that's irritating. There's still quite a bit of back-tracking, and Kate hasn't learned to run faster yet.

But these were problems I had with the first game as well. The story and the larger world that was hinted at made it worth all the frustrations, and that's largely the case here. Syberia 2 doesn't instill me with quite the same curiosity about what's happened in the world as the first one did, but that's because Kate spends most of her time out in the wilderness. There aren't many signs of human habitation to begin with, so I don't find myself what wondering what's happened to them. At the same time, there are still some wondrous things along the way, and I find myself sharing Kate's awe at them.

That's something the sequel maintains, is the sense of connection I had with Kate in the first game. I don't entirely share her concern for Hans, but I can appreciate her determination to save him. In general, I really like Kate Walker. That this started as a job, but it became a chance for something more and she seized that chance. When she gets frustrated, or exasperated, it's usually with something that would provoke the same response in me, so I empathize with her. She's determined to see this through, to get Hans to Syberia. Maybe because a part of her recognizes how much she gave up for this, and she doesn't want it to be for nothing. But that doesn't harden her. She keeps a sense of humor about things, but more critically, she's still a kind person overall. The game has one moment that's shocking (in a horrifying way), and a couple that are truly touching, and the graphics and voice acting make convey that Kate feels the same way. When Oscar decides it's time for him to have a purpose, you can hear a little panic in Kate's voice, because she doesn't understand what he means, but she's grown to care for him and she's worried. And dang it, I'd grown to care for Oscar too. That was a gut-punch of a scene.

There is one problem with doing such a good job of making me like Kate, and that's the ending. I have no idea where the ending leaves Kate. I mean I know where she is, in a geographical sense, but in a larger sense, it's a little dire. Hans just left her there, alone, thousands of miles from anything. Something I read about the ark they took to get there suggests it moves on a specific current, so it only goes back to the Youkol Village every 10 years. The detective her boss sent after her, turned back well before that. No one is coming after her, so is she just stuck there? I sure hope not.

Concerning ending aside, the story, voice acting, and world building of Syberia 2 more than make up for my frustrations with the camera and some of the puzzles.