5. Syberia Remastered

Syberia is an adventure game from 2002, and its status as a cult classic can’t be denied. So it makes sense that many gamers had high expectations for this remaster, especially as the studio behind the original game (Microids) was involved in its development. However, some aspects of the remaster dragged down the experience, such as the fact that cutscenes had not been remastered, just cropped to fit modern widescreen displays in most cases. This made the comparison with the new 4K in-game graphics jarring, to say the least. Also while the visuals had gotten a nice facelift, some of the grit of the original was lost in favor of polish…

The fact that Microids simplified some puzzles (although admittedly improved others) did not go down well with fans either, as did the lack of manual saves (the game does autosave at points though). And onscreen markers everywhere, while convenient, did take away from the joy of exploring Syberia’s wondrous locales. The result is a mixed bag, then, so this remaster of a classic game is therefore one of the most disappointing games of the year.