Syberia 3 Reviews
Syberia 3's ample potential for greatness is squandered by an awkward translation, poor design, and a heaping helping of technical issues.
Syberia 3 feels like a game that was made because everyone involved in the project felt an obligation to make it. It has its moments, and as a fan it's great to see Sokal's work reach a proper conclusion, but it's also difficult to see how this game will find an audience; even among existing fans of Syberia, tastes change over 13 years, and it's hard to see how this game has done anything to encourage people back for one more spin with Kate Walker.
It's been 13 years since the release of Syberia 2, but third chapter doesn't look like something Sokal was thinking about all this time, hoping to create a truly special and memorable game. No matter how hard you try to hint at one more game in the series, even nostalgic fans won't be waiting for it after what they saw in Syberia 3.
Review in Russian | Read full review
While 13 years is certainly a long time to put a series on hold, perhaps another 13 could have been used to help Syberia 3 ready itself for release.
Syberia 3 had great promise, and still does have plenty to offer - if a lot of the flaws and bugs can be tweaked post-launch by the developer, that is. However, in its current state, the only mildly intriguing story, surprisingly weak puzzles, and the shockingly poor controls, plus the numerous bugs and glitches encountered, make it very difficult for even the biggest Syberia fans to persevere through this third Kate Walker adventure.
Shallow, buggy and uninspired, Syberia 3 fails to live up to its predecessors.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
"I took no pleasure in writing this. In fact, writing this piece was almost as miserable an experience as playing through Syberia 3. It really pains me to say this. The series was among my favorites in the genre and I was looking forward to seeing it continue. It looks and feels as if it was designed and made in the mid-to-late 2000s, just as the genre was shifting toward 3D environments. However, this didn’t stop recent games such as Dreamfall Chapters to deliver a more polished experience (on the same engine, no less). If it were just an issue of graphics I wouldn’t be bothered but the lack of either time, resources or effort invested shows and permeates throughout all aspects of the game save overall world design and music. Frankly, I can’t fault it for lack of trying, I can see the game wanting to be good, but it’s just not enough. And sadly, patches can only solve a pittance of its issues."
The developers have been working hard to play catch up in a genre that they once held a title belt in. Microids had so much time to make something outstanding, and yet their effort feels half-hearted. Fans of the series will likely find the result of all those years to be underwhelming.
Syberia 3 manages to squander all the series' charm with a low-stakes plot, clunky gameplay, and a number of distracting bugs. It is playable, but severely lacking in entertainment value.
Some solid puzzles can't rescue what is an otherwise terrible adventure game.
Syberia 3 is just flat-out bad – an ugly, buggy, irritating, insulting title that should never have seen the light of day.
I have no doubt that Syberia fans will lap up Syberia 3, but newcomers might wonder what all the fuss was all about.
Syberia 3 has been stuck in development hell for seven years, and the final product is a technical shamble that delivers next to no enjoyment, playing as if it needed to be there for three times as long.
Horrible to control, horrible to listen to, really surprisingly ugly to look at, and and all-round mess, I've no desire to put myself through this. So, I shall state for the record: Maybe it's amazing! I mean, it obviously isn't, because it seems unlikely they'll fire the voice cast and implement a new control system some hours into the game, but I can't assure you they haven't. What I can assure you is I've been here too often, seen this too many times, to put myself through it again.