Posted By: BobH
Syberia on Android Tablet - First Impressions - 01/19/14 12:05 PM
I bought Syberia for my Android tablet about a week ago from Google Play for US$4.99. I have only been able to put in a couple hours or so on it so far but thought I would share my first impressions. I will add more as I come across things worth mentioning. I don't intend to put any spoilers here but if I do later, I will put them inside a spoiler tag.
Note: I played this game on my PC for the second time about a year ago. I am going from that memory for any comparisons between PC version and Android. If there are any requests for specific comparisions, I can load up the PC version. Also, if I am remembering something wrong from the PC version, please do correct me.
HARDWARE/GAME DATA
Hardware: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, this was the original tablet from Samsung
OS: Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich), Samsung stopped updating Android past 4.0.X for my tablet
Syberia Storage Used: 1.30GB
Syberia Ram Used while Playing: 22.6MB
LOADING
As you can see, the download is huge and took a long time to load to my tablet. Other than that, it downloaded and installed just fine.
The game starts up pretty quickly, about 10 seconds including 2 splash screens. After that it took only about 3 seconds from when I touched "Continue" until the saved screen appeared and it was ready to go.
APPEARANCE
The screen is beautiful. It looks the same in tone and detail as I remember the PC game. I have seen complaints that the screen is stretched to fit 16:9 ratio from original 4:3 ratio making everything look wider. The screen does completely fill my 16:9 tablet and I think this is probably true but I personally didn't find it a distraction and probably wouldn't have noticed it if it wasn't pointed out.
As I mentioned, the game screen fills my tablet screen area and there are no menus or borders, the background image completely fills the screen.
The first obvious difference between the tablet version and the PC version is that all of the "hot spots" on the screen are visibly marked with the icon that you would get on the PC if you moused over that spot. I am fine with this since I have played twice before but for someone that has not played Syberia before this could be a pretty big negative. It takes away any need to search the screens to find the hot spots.
My memory is foggy for the PC version as to how you get to the inventory window. On this tablet there is a white square in the lower right corner of the screen (the same size and appearance as an inventory slot) and you tap that square to bring up the inventory window. The inventory window appears to have the same layout as the PC version. The top row has the cell phone on the left and the big eye on the right (to examine items). Then there are 30 inventory slots visible, with a scroll bar on the right that presumably allows more. The bottom row has a MENU button on the left and an X button to close the window on the right.
SOUND
As near as I can tell, the sound is the same as the PC version. It has the beautiful haunting music, the spoken dialogue and the sound effects like running water. It all sounds good and I didn't notice any unusual delays or breaks in the sound.
GAME PLAY
Game play is the same as I remember the PC game working with the exception that you don't have to mouse over hot spots to see them.
You tap the screen on a hot spot to activate it. You can tap the screen outside of a hot spot to move Kate to that spot but I haven't found a reason to do so yet.
When you tap a person that you can talk to, you get the familiar list of possible responses and you just tap the response to have that play out. It is simple and intuitive.
To use an item in your inventory, you open the inventory window, tap the item and close the inventory window again. Now the white square to open the inventory will contain the inventory item and when you tap a hot spot that can use it, the game will try to use it.
Well, there's a start. If you have any questions or want me to check something just reply.
Note: I played this game on my PC for the second time about a year ago. I am going from that memory for any comparisons between PC version and Android. If there are any requests for specific comparisions, I can load up the PC version. Also, if I am remembering something wrong from the PC version, please do correct me.
HARDWARE/GAME DATA
Hardware: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, this was the original tablet from Samsung
OS: Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich), Samsung stopped updating Android past 4.0.X for my tablet
Syberia Storage Used: 1.30GB
Syberia Ram Used while Playing: 22.6MB
LOADING
As you can see, the download is huge and took a long time to load to my tablet. Other than that, it downloaded and installed just fine.
The game starts up pretty quickly, about 10 seconds including 2 splash screens. After that it took only about 3 seconds from when I touched "Continue" until the saved screen appeared and it was ready to go.
APPEARANCE
The screen is beautiful. It looks the same in tone and detail as I remember the PC game. I have seen complaints that the screen is stretched to fit 16:9 ratio from original 4:3 ratio making everything look wider. The screen does completely fill my 16:9 tablet and I think this is probably true but I personally didn't find it a distraction and probably wouldn't have noticed it if it wasn't pointed out.
As I mentioned, the game screen fills my tablet screen area and there are no menus or borders, the background image completely fills the screen.
The first obvious difference between the tablet version and the PC version is that all of the "hot spots" on the screen are visibly marked with the icon that you would get on the PC if you moused over that spot. I am fine with this since I have played twice before but for someone that has not played Syberia before this could be a pretty big negative. It takes away any need to search the screens to find the hot spots.
My memory is foggy for the PC version as to how you get to the inventory window. On this tablet there is a white square in the lower right corner of the screen (the same size and appearance as an inventory slot) and you tap that square to bring up the inventory window. The inventory window appears to have the same layout as the PC version. The top row has the cell phone on the left and the big eye on the right (to examine items). Then there are 30 inventory slots visible, with a scroll bar on the right that presumably allows more. The bottom row has a MENU button on the left and an X button to close the window on the right.
SOUND
As near as I can tell, the sound is the same as the PC version. It has the beautiful haunting music, the spoken dialogue and the sound effects like running water. It all sounds good and I didn't notice any unusual delays or breaks in the sound.
GAME PLAY
Game play is the same as I remember the PC game working with the exception that you don't have to mouse over hot spots to see them.
You tap the screen on a hot spot to activate it. You can tap the screen outside of a hot spot to move Kate to that spot but I haven't found a reason to do so yet.
When you tap a person that you can talk to, you get the familiar list of possible responses and you just tap the response to have that play out. It is simple and intuitive.
To use an item in your inventory, you open the inventory window, tap the item and close the inventory window again. Now the white square to open the inventory will contain the inventory item and when you tap a hot spot that can use it, the game will try to use it.
Well, there's a start. If you have any questions or want me to check something just reply.
