Syberia

I played Benoit Sokal's eponymous Syberia. An epic of an Adventure game, its an absolute treat just to watch each frame of the game. The details are superb, and we travel from esoteric, sleepy alpine hamlets like Valadilene - ofcourse, after solving very complicated riddles that almost make us a part of those locales - to Barrockstadt, where I am currently at. You are Kate Walker, an American lawyer in the storyline. An acquisition bid by a toy company brings you to an Austrian town of Valadilene, the HQ of the Voralberg family. The town is a beautiful, sleepy town, but surprisingly has 2-3 visible inhabitants. The rest of the inhabitants are automatons - clockwork characters with a soul element added to them, thanks to the genius of Hans Voralberg, a mysterious member of the Voralberg empire. Kate's seemingly routine work gets murkier by the news of the death of Anna, the head of theVoralberg empire, the very day of her arrival at Valadilene (and this is almost where the storyline starts). Her boss, a ruthless Jay Jonah Jameson type character based out of NY, doesn't want her to return without closing the deal. And so, in the absence of Anna, Kate would have to find the mysterious brother, Hans, to complete the deal...and what follows is a very interesting process of clue-finding and investigating and solving, and traveling eastbound - from Valadilene, to Barrockstadt, to many other towns across Russia into Siberia...all amidst an incredibly beautiful setting. A must have game...I am enjoying it more than The Longest Journey and Riven. But I love this genre (not as much as I love RTS games though). I also have another of Benoit Sokal's titles - The Sinking Island..haven't played it much though...