Syberia 2 isn’t so much a sequel as the continuation and conclusion of the first game. The two parts could literally be played together as one game. The story begins on the magical windup train designed by the French automaton-designer Hans. He is accompanied by American lawyer Kate Walker, his very unlikely champion. The two of them are still attempting to find the mythical Island of Syberia, where the mammoths supposedly still roam. The game is a bit shorter than the first and the puzzles are a bit easier. While this might disappoint some players, the upside is we found the puzzles to be much more organic and intuitive this time around.
Gameplay: As mentioned, in general the puzzles are more organic this time around. Most of the tasks we got saddled with seemed to make some sort of sense. Because of this, there’s not as much frustrating to-ing and fro-ing as there was in the first game. There’s also not the annoyance of all of those locked doors that lead nowhere – remember that? There are a couple of pretty sticky puzzles, however. Two of them can be solved with enough trial and error, but one of them – involving a clock – feels a bit too much like a refugee from Reah or Schizm. This is probably the worst single moment in the game, as this opaque puzzle stops the game in its tracks until you solve it.
For the most part, however, the puzzles are lots of fun. There’s a particularly interesting one in which you use cups of water, a fish skeleton and an owl-like predator bird to manipulate a lemming through a maze of ice.