Syberia

Story

In the game, the player controls the actions of American lawyer Kate Walker, who is sent to a remote French village to complete the takeover of a toy factory. Once in the village, Kate learns that the woman who owned the factory has just died and that she has a brother who must be contacted so that the takeover can take place. Her mission takes her across Central and Eastern Europe, which gradually makes her question her own life. The eponymous Syberia is a mythical island where mammoths are said to live. The game begins with Kate arriving in the fictional French village of Valadilène to attend the funeral of Anna Voralberg, the owner of a family-owned feather automaton toy factory. When Kate goes to see the village notary to finalize the deal, the notary tells her that shortly before Anna's death, the old lady revealed that her brother was not dead and buried, but still alive somewhere in the northeast. Now that his sister is dead, Hans Voralberg becomes the new owner of the factory, which cannot be sold without his consent. Kate has no choice: if she wants the takeover to succeed, she must find Hans. Kate's research reveals that Hans was injured while trying to recover a prehistoric doll depicting a man riding a mammoth. This stunted his development and left him mentally disabled. Hans' only goal became to find mammoths on which he could ride, as the doll depicts. To find Hans, Kate must take his train: a clockwork locomotive built by his sister at his request. It is manned by Oscar, an animatronic man who loves protocol and whom Kate must satisfy in order to depart. She is forced to delve into Hans' past to find two items that were precious to him: the mammoth doll and a clockwork music box. While following Hans' path, Kate makes her way to Barrockstadt, a run-down university whose train station serves as a botanical garden. The train stops short of the funding mechanism, so Kate must bargain with a nearby couple with a barge. They insist on getting $100 for their help, so Kate must fix the university's broken bandstand to get the stubborn university board to help. Along the way, she gets a lesson on the legend of Syberia and the customs of the mysterious prehistoric Youkol people who lived with mammoths and could tame them. Before she can leave Barrockstadt completely, she must pass the great wall that prevents her train from leaving. The next stop is Komkolzgrad, a dusty industrial complex from the communist era with two huge metal automatons overlooking the tracks. The place is run by the eccentric and somewhat crazy Serguei Borodine, who steals Oscar's hands to make his organist automaton work. He intends to build the biggest stage possible for Helena Romanski, a failed opera singer with whom he is obsessed. Kate has no choice but to get her on his behalf from a nearby spa in Aralbad. Serguei directs Kate to the neighboring cosmodrome. At the cosmodrome, Kate meets former test pilot Boris, a drunk who dreams of flying into space in a "flying wing" invented by Hans. After he sobers up, he teaches Kate how to operate an old airship when she helps him make the flying wing operational. He also warns Kate not to trust Sergei. Once Boris is launched, she uses his advice to launch the airship and fly to Aralbad. At the spa of Aralbad, Kate meets Helena after passing the manager. The elderly lady believes that she is too old to sing, having lost her legendary voice with which she can break glass. With a special cocktail mixed at the bar and a wine glass, Kate convinces Helena that she can still sing. Helena agrees to go with Kate. The performance in Komkolzgrad doesn't go quite as planned: As beautiful as Helena's voice is (she sings "Dark Eyes"), it doesn't stop Serguei from locking her up, because he wants to keep Helena by his side as his personal opera singer. Kate manages to free Helena and reclaim Oscar's hands, but Serguei isn't ready to give up without a fight and uses the workers' automatons to block the train. With some excess dynamite, this problem is eliminated and Kate takes Helena back to Aralbad. Surprisingly, none other than Hans Voralberg is waiting there, happy that Kate has brought him his train and Oscar. Hans shows little sympathy for his sister's death and signs the factory discharge papers without even reading them. He offers Kate a ride, but she initially refuses. However, when she wants to get on a plane to go back to New York, she changes her mind and jumps on the train at the last second. She leaves her job and her unfaithful fiancé at home to help an old man realize his dream.