Hello. My friend and I play the same game on 2 separate PCs (we live in different parts of the US) and we've run into 2 game killing bugs. Both are where Kate has to repair the mechanisms. the first is the slider puzzle. On my PC the sliders are out of order so the slider in column 2 from the left cannot be moved. On his PC, all is well. This killed my progress. The second is the left side cylinder rotating puzzle. On his PC there is no hole where there should be a hole in the 3rd cylinder. These bugs stopped our progress completely.

I love this game, but these bugs are bad. Play at your own risk.

I finished Syberia: The World Before. I wish I hadn’t.

This is one of the most frustrating and poorly designed adventure games I’ve ever played — not because it’s hard, but because it consistently disrespects the player’s time, logic, and intelligence.

Yes, the game looks pretty. The environments are detailed and expensive-looking. That’s about the only consistently positive thing I can say.

Everything else suffers from a lack of professional design discipline.


Friction without meaning
Large parts of the game exist purely to slow the player down: pointless mazes (the cemetery being the worst offender), wandering with no feedback, and “puzzles” that add nothing to story or gameplay. Many of these sections should have been cut entirely or turned into non-interactive cutscenes.

The user interface seems to follow the same paradigm: meaningless friction - the game constantly invents new ways for established UI interactions.

Broken interaction logic
Hotspots are often nowhere near the thing you logically want to interact with. Correct intent is frequently rejected without feedback. You can be holding the correct item, clicking the obvious target, and still get dialogue like “I should find X” while literally holding X in your hand.

Arbitrary progression gating
Progress is often blocked by invisible state flags or strict interaction order, not reasoning. Talk to the right character at the wrong time? Nothing happens. Look at the right object before the script allows it? Dead hotspot.

Puzzles that aren’t puzzles
Most challenges boil down to:
-clicking the one pixel that works
-remembering an unprompted detail from hours earlier
-wandering aimlessly until a trigger fires

There is little logic, no systemic learning, and no sense of mastery.

Narrative indulgence over player experience
The game repeatedly mistakes ambiguity and delay for depth. Mood is prioritized over motivation, symbolism over causality. The player is expected to endure confusion rather than be engaged by discovery.

The cemetery scene says everything. Wandering in the labyrinth is visually impressive and completely pointless. No new information, no payoff, no meaningful interaction — just time-consuming wandering. Someone decided this had to be interactive simply because it was built.


If this were a movie, it might have been tolerable.
As a game, it’s an exercise in irritation.

Pretty visuals cannot compensate for:
-poor interaction design
-arbitrary puzzles
-lack of internal logic
-a general disregard for the player’s time

I really would have liked to enjoy this one, tried real hard, but failed. I finished it out of stubbornness, not enjoyment.

I would not recommend doing the same.

This whole series of games is brilliant. From the first release that I played back in 2002 till the final one, I loved every single one of them. The way the music and visuals are representing the story is breath taking every time. Sure, the gameplay can feel kind of static or buggy at times compared to newer games, but for the nostalgia it feels the same as the first release. And they even made a quick recap for those that haven't played the previous parts of the story, so you can still enjoy the magic of this game.