Syberia II is a point-and-click adventure game designed by the Belgian comic artist Benoît Sokal, developed and published by MC2-Microïds. It is the second instalement in the Syberia series.
Syberia II includes a recap of the first game, so it does not require the player to have experienced the first entry in the series. Although it is stylistically identical, Syberia II improves by introducing more realistic character animation.
Syberia II was a commercial success, with sales above 600,000 units worldwide by 2006. The game was received favorably by critics.
Plot[]
The game begins following the events of Syberia with the law firm "Marson and Lormont" that American lawyer Kate Walker worked for in New York, calling in a private detective, Nick Cantin. The firm instructs the detective to locate and find Walker since her family is worried for her and they start to threathen the firm.
In the Russian town of Romansburg, Kate provides assistance for eccentric inventor Hans Voralberg, who seeks to find living prehistoric mammoths, and his automaton train engineer Oscar, by prepping his specially crafted clockwork train with coal. Shortly after completing this challenge, Hans falls ill, forcing Kate to seek treatment for him at a nearby monastery perched on a clifftop.
When she learns that the patriarch believes he cannot be cured and decides he should only be given spiritual salvation, Kate opts to find a cure for Hans, learning about a friend of his Alexei Toukianov who uncovered information on Youkol medicine. Finding his notebook hidden in the monastery, Kate recreates the medicine and uses it to treat Hans, before being forced to create an escape route for the pair when the patriarch refuses to let them leave.
Returning to Romansburg, Kate agrees to take a mechanical part to a local tavern and repair an automaton horses Hans created there for its owner. Upon completing the task, Kate hears the train leaving the station, and learns that two locals, brothers Ivan and Igor, hijacked it with the intention of reaching the fabled island of Syberia (inspired by the real-life location of Wrangel Island in Siberia, the last place on earth where mammoths survived), so as to profit from harvesting mammoth ivory. Forced to pursue them, Kate makes use of a railroad gangcar, used for maintenance, which she powers with a friendly Youki - an animal that is part seal, part bear, with dog-like traits.
Kate manages to catch up with the train, only to see that the two men abandoned it after it got stuck at a collapsed bridge, and fled by snowmobile with Hans. Disconnecting the passenger car from the locomotive, Kate, after restoring Oscar to full functions, continues pursuing them. The pair eventually track the thieves to a large statue in front of the end of railroad tracks. Kate discovers from Igor, who is having second thoughts and wants to return home, that Hans disappeared shortly after the brothers arrived. Confronting Ivan over her friend's location at the base of the statue, Kate is quickly trapped by him. Just before he is about to kill her, the ice beneath the statue they are standing on cracks and breaks, sending Kate plunging underground.
Upon awaking, she finds herself within a hidden underground Youkol Village, in which Hans is being treated by a local shaman who reveals that the man is on his deathbed. After managing to bring the locomotive into the village, Kate acquires the means for the shaman to transport her into Hans' dreams, which recreate the village of Valadilene in his childhood, and manages to reach him. Hans tells her to open Oscar's heart and after that she wakes up from the dream. When she asks Oscar what that means, the automaton leaves the locomotive to join his creator, whereupon Kate discovers that he was designed with a primitive exo-skeleton/life-support system to provide Hans the means to stay alive and fulfill his dreams. After witnessing Hans being placed into Oscar's shell, Kate learns that to reach Syberia, she must thaw out a Youkol boat within the village, and does so using the locomotive, discovering that Hans designed it for this purpose.
Boarding the boat, Kate, Hans and their Youki partner, soon become stuck in an ice floe. When Kate works to free them, the boat is hijacked by Ivan, who hid inside the boat and intends to leave Kate and continue to Syberia, but finds himself unable to operate the craft. Kate manages to return onboard and forces him off, whereupon he attempts to toss a penguin egg (a fictional North Pole species resembling emperor penguins) in defiance at her actions, only to anger the penguins guarding their nest and causing them to kill him.
Eventually Kate and Hans arrive at Syberia, whereupon they manage to use ancient Youkol horns to summon a herd of mammoths. Hans, delighted to meet them, is gladly allowed on their backs and rides off with them, as Kate waves him a tearful goodbye. Meanwhile, the head of the law firm - Marson - learns from their private detective that despite his best efforts following her, he calls it quits on his job, claiming that she has vanished without a trace.
Development[]
Syberia II was announced in October 2002, and was initially set for an October 2003 launch date. The game was produced in 13 months using Virtools Dev 3.0 development tools. Benoît Sokal indicated in an interview that at one time the development team was considering to create one single game for the entire Syberia story, but decided not to as it was so large.
In September 2003, Syberia II was delayed to the following year. It reached gold status on March 2, 2004, and was released for computers on March 30 in North America. Its Xbox version launched in the region on October 12 of that year. While Syberia II had been released for the PlayStation 2 in European countries by then, this version was rejected for a North American launch by Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA). GameSpot's Tor Thorsen said that SCEA's decision was made "due to the adventure genre's lukewarm popularity stateside". The company had previously rejected the PlayStation 2 version of Syberia.
Languages[]
Syberia II supports 7 languages:
- English
- German
- French
- Spanish
- Italian
- Polish
- Japanese
Full audio - except for Spanish and Japanese.
Additional material[]
- Syberia: Esthétique du jeu (eng. Syberia: Game Aesthetics)
- Tout l'art de Syberia (eng. All the art of Syberia)
- Syberia - two books series
Official sites[]
Syberia II Covers[]
