Syberia The World Before test: a very pleasant return for Kate Walker

With a bit of delay, Kate Walker is finally making her return in a new adventure that has learned from her mistakes.

Initiated in 2002, the adventures of the young lawyer Kate Walker do not seem ready to end, judging by the arrival of The World Before, the fourth opus in the franchise of the late Benoît Sokal. One of the dads of scripted point'n'click, to whom we owe the very good L'Amerzone and Paradise, gave us a farewell present in the context of an episode that was both eagerly awaited by fans, and by orphans of the old-school adventure game.

Syberia The World Before test: a very pleasant return for Kate Walker See the priceRead the conclusionSyberia: The World Before

A gripping story
A very fair VF
Interesting puzzles
Pretty environments

Still too rigid and calm
Riddles too easy
A few pointless trips

A real sequel

Let's cut short the first question that we are entitled to ask: yes, The World Before is indeed a sequel to Syberia III, but it's not that simple. Because the scenario of this fourth episode plays its plot in two stages. A part takes place in 1937, when fascism is gaining momentum in Europe, and another in 2004.

The first puts us in the shoes of a heroine very different from Kate Walker, it is Dana Roze, a young pianist who uses her talent to control the famous automatons of Hans Voralberg, while the second makes us embody the famous adventurer, who happens to be locked in a salt mine, doomed to slavery. As you can imagine, we end up getting out of this situation to survey the origins of an ancient world, but which seems to inevitably attract Kate to it.

Without saying too much about the scenario, it turns out to be fun to follow. The plot is more surprising in some respects than that of Syberia III, but also darker, since the rise of fascism will have serious repercussions on the epic of Dana. As for that of Kate, it will undertake an initiatory journey, the outcomes of which are interesting in many respects for fans of the series. For those who have not done the previous episodes, if we obviously advise you to do them right away, note that Kate will want to tell you about them in sequence (taking the form of "focuses with herself" at certain moments of the adventure), while the references to Syberia III are numerous. And then it is above all the opportunity to review the universe imagined by Benoît Sokal.

A revenge to take

Because despite a really mediocre third opus, it seems that for this new test, the Koalabs studio has benefited from a little more time to develop its project. Microids even pushed the title back a few months to give it time to hatch.

First, The World Before takes note of one of the main flaws of Syberia III, its gameplay. On PC, the title was barely playable unless using a controller. If everything is not yet settled, the choice was made to favor movements with the mouse, although the movements of the heroine gain in obvious fluidity joysticks in hand. The different puzzles, on the other hand, adapt very well to the mouse, with its push-buttons and hidden drawers.

True to its principles, Syberia: The World Before is not a particularly dynamic adventure game, and that's good, since that's not what we ask of it. The title multiplies the moments of grace, and likes to show us the extent of its environments, all while taking its time. Despite her talents as a detective, Kate Walker is indeed not very fast when it comes to moving around, and if this will undoubtedly bother some, it is clear that Koalabs above all wanted to pay tribute leaning on the sweet sensations of the saga.

JVFR

The missions, divided into several segments, have small secondary and optional objectives, the objective of which is more to teach you more about the universe than to give you a hard time. The difficulty of Syberia: The World Before is also not very high. However, some puzzles require switching from one heroine to another since the progress of the first can facilitate that of the second (and vice versa). The idea is quite good, although it is not necessarily useful beyond the simple glance to reveal the right combination for example.

The music, meanwhile, is by Inon Zur, composer of Dragon Age Origins. The result is a very pleasant soundtrack to listen to, especially the main theme. But the music is even better during the second half of the adventure. The VF is for its part provided by Françoise Cadol in the role of Kate Walker, as now four episodes. The actress is accompanied by a rather convincing and credible cast given the undoubtedly limited budget of the title, of which only the secondary characters can sometimes show a false note, or a Belgian accent, it's up to you. .

Syberia: The World Before

Difficult to sulk his pleasure when it comes to finding Kate Walker. The young heroine imagined by Benoît Sokal signs a remarkable comeback here after a failed third episode. In The World Before, fans will be delighted to find a tasty old-fashioned point'n'click, finally everything we wanted at the base, and a very nice tribute to one of the creators the most outstanding of the Spanish video game.