Adventure fans have been waiting for the third game in Benoît Sokal’s classic point-and-click adventure series for so long that I’m not sure I can take the April 25 release date announced today at face value, but that’s when Syberia III is supposed to be out on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.
The story of American lawyer Kate Walker and the search for the mythical Russian island of Syberia (where the mammoths still live) began in 2002, when Microids released the first chapter of her adventure on PC. The game, developed by Microids under the direction of Belgian comic artist and game designer Benoît Sokal, received much praise, leading to ports for PlayStations, Xboxes, mobile devices and even a horrible Nintendo DS port.
Kate Walker’s journey continued in 2004's Syberia II, which was very pretty and had an excellent story but was kind of short. The ending of the second game came rather abruptly, leaving players to wonder about the fate of Kate Walker for more than a decade.
But now it’s back, hopefully. Syberia III begins with Kate Walker found left for dead by a nomadic tribe of snow ostrich farmers. This time the game is in full 3D, so the snow ostriches will really pop, and Inon Zur is doing the soundtrack, so it’ll sound as nice as it looks.
Originally announced in 2009, confirmed in 2012 with the announcement of Benoît Sokal’s attachment to the project, and delayed from last year to this spring, here’s hoping Syberia III makes it this time. I have some hope.