In my review of Syberia, I pointed out some tenuous similarities between Kate Walker and Lara Croft, and a major reason why is because I had already started playing the sequel. While the first game was a very personal adventure for Kate, this one focuses on the literal journey rather than the personal one. Instead of spending time soaking in the details of a rusting automaton factory at the heart of a town fallen silent, Kate is dealing with ivory poachers as she makes her way to a mythical island in the frozen north. This Tomb Raider-esque plot works well as an adventure game, so the progression is a lot clearer than it ever was before. Even from the first few minutes, it’s also clear that the developers took note of how slowly Kate moved around in the first game, so the locations are more compact and the animations less stilted. If all the narrative context was vacuumed out, this would be the unambiguously better game, but that’s a pretty big “if”. Syberia may be a pain to navigate through, but all the little stories it builds together elevate it into something great, Syberia 2 just extends the main plot while losing sight of the nuanced presentation. While that could be considered a letdown, it heavily depends on the audience’s reaction to the ending of the first game. Some people love to follow a character’s entire journey and relentlessly speculate on narrative gaps, and this is the type of person the sequel caters to. Others enjoy seeing just the critical moments of a character’s personal arc, and in this regard, the first game can stand alone. I suppose this makes Syberia 2 a win for everyone; people who feel like the first game’s ending was perfect can skip it without missing anything, but the people who felt unfulfilled can get the conclusion they were hoping for.