Nearly 20 years ago, a third-person point-and-click adventure game known as Syberia made its debut on PC, PlayStation 2, and the original Xbox console. The brain child of Belgian comic artist and game developer Benoît Sokal, the title had a budget of €2 million, at the time the highest allotted to any game by publisher Microids.
The game was considered a commercial success and was acclaimed by critics and players for its puzzles, compelling story, and steampunk graphic design. Over the years, it was ported to multiple platforms, including the Nintendo DS and Switch, PS3, Xbox 360, and mobile devices. From the start, the story of Syberia was so vast that the development team knew it would require multiple installments to complete, though it took until 2017 for Syberia 3 to be released.
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A fourth game in the series, Syberia: The World Before, was announced in 2019 and was planned for a 2021 release before the disruption of the coronavirus pandemic. Unfortunately, Benoît Sokal, writer, artist, and creator of the series, will not see the finished product. On May 28, Sokal passed away at the age of 66 after battling a long-term illness. In a statement, French company Microids stated that Sokal was “a true visionary and extremely talented artist,” who had “left an indelible mark on Microids’ history.”
Benoît Sokal got his start in 1978, drawing for a Franco-Belgian comic magazine, where he created a series called Inspector Canardo about an anthropomorphic duck detective. A strange idea, perhaps, that resulted in the release of 23 graphic novels through 2013. In 1986, Sokal joined the team at Microids to develop Amerzone, a first-person adventure game based on Inspector Canardo. He then went on to create the Syberia series, which gained a cult following, and eventually became art director at Microids.
Syberia tells the story of an American lawyer named Kate Walker, who is tasked with overseeing the sale of a large company in the French village of Valadilène, and soon finds herself traveling across Russia and Europe in search of Hans, the brother of the company’s late owner. Hans has an aptitude for creating automatons and other clockwork mechanisms, and these form a central element of the game. Solving puzzles and rebuilding complex machines such as music boxes, giant clockwork dolls, and locomotives, Kate ends up immersed in a mysterious world that begins to change her view of what’s important in life.
Upon its release, Syberia earned numerous awards, including Best Computer Adventure Game of 2002 by PC Gamer, as well as a Reader’s Choice Award for Adventure Games, Best Graphics, and Best Story on PC by other media outlets. Syberia 2 likewise received high praise and sales, but did not ultimately earn many awards. The third game did not fare nearly as well as its predecessors, but still maintains a dedicated fan base who appreciate the world created by Benoît Sokal.
Syberia: The World Before is currently in development.