In the early 2000’s, Syberia and shortly after, Syberia II, were two of the best adventure games around. They follow the journey of Kate Walker, a North American lawyer trying to secure a sale in France, but the situation goes askew as she needs to find the legal owner of the property she’s trying to purchase. Her endeavour to find Hans Voralberg takes her to a mythical island called Syberia, where mammoths are said to inhabit. A sub-plot runs alongside Kate’s journey involving her troubled relationship with her fiancé, dictated by cutscenes and phone calls she receives. Syberia II essentially continues the story, with Kate helping Hans to fulfil his dream of finding and riding the mammoths inhabiting Syberia.

We at VGU were fortunate enough to travel to Paris for a private event at the Microids office, to take a look at the forthcoming sequel. Syberia III picks up exactly where II left off, despite releasing over 12 years later. The steampunk aesthetic returns as Kate awakens in a hospital bed next to an injured Youkol, the short intelligent humanoids that were first introduced in the second game. The first noticeable change from the prequels is that Syberia III is now in a highly detailed 3D world, as opposed to the 2D appearance featured before. It was built from the ground up for PS4 and it shows, with a lot more detail in the surroundings while sticking to the original artistic direction – snowy steampunk has never looked quite so stunning.