Syberia 3 Coming This Year, Gets New Trailer
The place to be
Making videogames, I'm told, is a pretty complicated process that generally involves loads of work, little sleep and interminable volumes of coffee. As such, it's of little surprise that games get delayed and release dates slip from time to time. Take Syberia 3 [official site] - the first entry to Microïds' adventure series since 2004 - for example; it was announced in 2009, given a 2014/2015 release window, featured in the RPS Games Wot Could Be Conceivably Good list at the start of last year, and yet here we are in the middle of 2016 and it's nowhere to be...
Oh, Microïds have announced it'll release on December 1, you say? And it's got a new gameplay trailer into the bargain? Smashing.
For those new to the Syberia party, the first series instalment landed in 2002 and was a pretty solid affair with a decent plot and some relatively clever puzzles. I can't remember why I missed its sequel two years later, however I understand it wasn't very good - even if the series has gained sort-of cult status since. To quote the venerable John Walker, who is, by the way, fond of the original: "Syberia II was fucking awful".
This time round, intrepid lawyer Kate Walker resumes her leading role and is "back on the road with a new quest to fulfil." Author and artist Benoit Sokal has also returned and, in what is a first for the series, Syberia 3 is rendered fully in 3D. Whereas Syberia 2 was a continuation of the events that unfolded in the original game, Syberia 3's story is said to stand alone yet there does seem to be parts which crossover. Here's Microïds on that:
"This new episode of Kate Walker's journey begins as she finds herself adrift on a makeshift craft. Fortunately, a caravan of the Youkol people, whom she had already encountered in Syberia 2, finds her before her life slips away. Determined to evade their common enemies, Kate decides to help the nomads fulfill the oddest of their ancestral traditions: accompanying the transhumance of the snow ostriches to the holy steppes where they can reproduce."
With the finish line now officially in sight, the following video, named Kate Walker's New Journey, offers a brief insight into the game's development process as well as some in-game footage. Take a look:
Syberia 3 is due to release for Mac and Windows on December 1.