A Haunting, Atmospheric, Sometimes Broken Adventure

Syberia VR captures much of what made the original title a special game, but numerous immersion-breaking flaws leave me yearning for more polish.

The original Syberia was an unusual game, even in its own time. Released in 2002, an era dominated by games like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Halo, and Metroid Prime, Syberia was a counterpoint to pop gaming. It was a ponderous, quiet, and eccentric point-and-click adventure filled with obtuse puzzles in a clockwork-powered alternate Europe. Yet Syberia thrived, selling over 500,000 copies, creating for itself a small but loyal fandom drawn to the game’s unique melancholy charm and otherworldly art direction.

Much of the original game’s magic stemmed from its creator, the late Belgian writer, comic artist, and game developer Benoît Sokal. Known early in his career for creating Inspector Canardo, Sokal soon began writing and developing video games based on a fictional, interconnected, and whimsical universe, of which Syberia is a part. Sokal died in 2021 during the development of Syberia: The World Before, but his work lives on and continues to evolve.

Which brings us to Syberia VR, an ambitious remake of the original game built from the ground up for Meta Quest 3. We’ve seen this sort of thing attempted before, most notably with Cyan Worlds’ Myst VR. In that instance, the resulting game was a great achievement. For the first time, we could manipulate the beloved point-and-click adventure game’s many puzzles that once only existed on flat screens.

But does it work with Syberia?

The answer is… sometimes. In its best moments, Syberia VR is a beautifully crafted interactive objet d’art to be held and handled and loved. But at other times, it’s a broken game, a rusted grandfather clock puking its cogs out in the corner of the room.

A Haunting Mystery

The plot of Syberia is unique, to say the least. We play as American lawyer Kate Walker, who’s arrived in the (fictional) French village of Valadilene to finalize the sale of a once-glorious automaton factory to a United States-based toy company. Kate must secure the signature of the owner of the factory, Anna Voralberg, except on arrival, Kate discovers that Anna has just died, leaving ownership of the factory to Hans, her brother. Hans is missing, Kate must find him, and this leads us on a sprawling journey across the European continent with a dozen twists and turns. And I’d be remiss not to mention the woolly mammoths.

That’s right. The beating heart of Syberia’s plot is one man’s lifelong obsession with prehistoric pachyderms.

Meanwhile, the mysteries around Kate deepen as she becomes entangled in the lives and secrets of Anna, Hans, the childlike Momo, and the automata “living” in the decrepit factories and creaking estates of Syberia’s unusual world.

Stepping into Sokal’s World

Jumping from flatscreen to VR is naturally Syberia VR’s greatest gamble, and in the attempt, it gets many things right. Environments are gorgeous and atmospheric. The cobbled streets, aging workshops, oak-paneled offices, and rickety railcars are all rendered with remarkable care, and all are defined by that specific blend of desolation and eccentricity that made the original’s art style so remarkable. Everything in Syberia is just a little off and vaguely lifeless, like a weird dream.

Walking through Valadilene in VR is eerie in the right way. Houses tower above, while the factory squats with unsettling purpose. The automata feel uncomfortably alive as their brass heads and glassy eyes follow you in physical space, making them more disquieting than they ever were in the series’ flatscreen games.

On Quest 3S, Syberia VR looks great with its dramatic lighting and painterly detail. However, there’s also noticeable draw-in on textures, especially at distance, where things look brutally low res. At other times whole sections of the game fail to render (mostly behind the player). They pop in, rather, a moment after we turn to look. These graphical glitches occur often, and they’re pretty annoying.

Puzzles and Bugs

Syberia has always relied heavily on mechanical puzzles, and VR naturally transforms these into tactile interactions. You twist knobs, slide levers, insert keys, and manipulate contraptions by hand.

Tasks are presented in a non-linear way, meaning that we’re free (to an extent) to pursue solving puzzles and advancing our story in whatever order we like. You can head to the graveyard and unravel the mystery of the supposedly dead Hans first, or you can choose to explore the factory grounds first. It’s up to you, and when it all works, it works well. The glaring issue is that Syberia VR regularly breaks down.

For example, early in Syberia, we come across a hedge maze with lever-operated, color-coded gates. To reach the center of the maze, we must navigate to the correct colored levers and open the correct gates. This eventually leads us to a special key that can operate a machine, which in turn allows us to climb a ladder into Anna’s attic. In VR, this should feel tactile and fun. Unfortunately, my key is bugged. Grabbing it and inserting it into the machine ended up being impossible, with the key dropping away and falling out of the environment altogether. This ruins my sense of immersion as I restart the game.

Elsewhere, a certain character delivers a line of dialogue and a request. After that, he freezes in place when handing me a crucial quest item. I couldn’t talk to him again or use the quest item. And though said item does then appear in my inventory as intended, I wasn’t able to interact with the next step of the quest at all. The puzzle soft-locked and only a full game restart fixed it.

This is a terrible problem, given that VR experiences inherently depend on smooth and realistic object interaction. When Syberia VR breaks down, it breaks down hard.

Exploration and Movement (or Lack Thereof)

The beauty of Syberia’s environments is compelling. Navigating through them is not. There’s no delicate way to say it; Syberia VR currently needs a patch or two.

Kate’s walking speed is so sluggish that it’s almost parody, and while there is a sprint button, it’s hard-mapped to clicking and holding the left analog stick. On the Quest controller, this becomes painful as there’s no “toggle to run” option.

Turning options are likewise limited to snap turning only, which feels archaic compared to modern VR titles that almost universally include a smooth turning option. While Syberia VR features a hybrid control scheme that lets me teleport to where I want to go, these environments really should be explored as fluidly as possible, and that’s just not possible with the current scheme.

Music, Sound, and Atmosphere

If there’s one element that never falters, it’s found in the game’s soundscape. The music is enchanting, a blend of melancholy piano, airy strings, and subtle, almost fairy-tale motifs. These ebb and flow behind an ambient foley of scraping metal, grinding gears, rumbling engines, and an ever-present distant wind, sweeping leaf litter across vast and empty courtyards.

While Kate is a smart, competent, and internally conflicted character who’s just a bit brittle from years of trying to be the perfect employee, the perfect daughter, and the perfect romantic partner, she’s surrounded by a cast of truly heinous jerks. Her boyfriend, mother, and boss are all insufferable, demanding, and selfish, as they tug and howl at Kate from across the sea. In all cases, the voice acting is excellent. Put on headphones and the world of Syberia simply lives.

Syberia VR – Final Verdict

As it stands, Syberia VR has a few too many game-breaking bugs, movement and comfort settings that leave much to be desired, and flaws that frequently strain player immersion in ways that VR can’t afford. Yet the soul of Syberia is found in its dreamlike melancholy, its exploration of death and autonomy, its sadness and light, and all of these things live on.

Though it’s a flawed game, Syberia VR is also beautiful, atmospheric, and captivating in a way that few games can manage. It preserves Benoît Sokal’s unique vision and lets us inhabit his game world more fully than ever before. If it gets patched to address the controls, bugs, and comfort issues, I’d be inclined to give a higher score.

UploadVR uses a 5-Star rating system for our game reviews – you can read a breakdown of each star rating in our review guidelines.