Platform: 3DO Interactive Multiplayer

Developer: Xatrix Entertainment

Publisher: Interplay Entertainment

Release Date (NA): January 1996

Genre: Action/ Adventure

Nerd Rating: 3 out of 10

Reviewed by NerdBerry

Cyberia…? Cyber what? Yeah, me too. Never heard of it. But now you have, thanks to The Bacon. Interplay and Xatrix tell us to “Experience the Future with Cyberia” and from the looks of it, we really were experiencing the future. The 3DO is often regarded as having weak game titles, and Cyberia is no exception. But it’s not all negative for this somewhat forgotten MS-DOS port to console. Cyberia would see its original MS-DOS self get ported to the Playstation and Sega Saturn in addition to the 3DO. Many games during this era saw multiple platform releases as everyone attempted to cash in on the brand new 3D fad sweeping the nation and killing the likes of Sonic, Streets of Rage, and Donkey Kong Country. Tsk tsk what a shame too because this whole “3D real interactive gameplay” thing going around was pretty abysmal, in no small part due to the lack of technology. But nevertheless, these developers kept on truckin’ with only one thing in mind: Graphics. Gamepaly was entirely secondary to the graphics because it only had to LOOK cool to sell well. Sigh… I’m glad those days are behind us… for the most part.

The year is 2027, and our story takes place five years after an economic collapse on a global scale. Two opposing factions have risen to control the world, the Cartel – who controls the east, and the First World Alliance – who controls the west. Devlin, who leads the First World Alliance, gathers intelligence stating that there is a massive weapon being developed in Siberia (by a third party not involved in either faction) called the Cyberia Complex. Devlin hires Zak to retrieve intelligence on the weapon and ultimately save the world.

In an effort to not spoil the story and give away too many details, I will have to end the story here. But Zak is tasked with discovering this weapon, and when he finally detects this weapon, he discovers more than he expected. Even though Cyberia is an action and adventure game, there are heavy doses of puzzles scattered throughout the game. You are actually able to individually adjust the difficulty on the puzzles as well as the action/adventure elements. This is a nice feature, which helps break some of the monotony in the puzzles.

Cyberia kicks off with some introductory cinematic scenes letting us know who is good, who is bad, and generically telling us what we need to do: “Go find the weapon!” The computer does about 90% of the controls, and oddly enough all we have to do as a player is press the left button to make Zak turn left then press forward to make him move forward. There are no other options. If you are facing the wrong direction and press forward, Zak won’t go anywhere. I find this to be insanely pointless and unnecessary, but I need to remind myself that this is 1994 and interactive gameplay is the way of the future!

After fumbling around the hallways of this random complex, I bump into some blonde chick who threatens to kill me. Would have been cooler if she threatened to show me her tits. But she didn’t. Anyway, after not knowing which button to press and getting shot 5 times, I finally figured it out. Press left. Not right, not back, not forward, not A… press left. This kept me alive. How the hell was I supposed to know what button to press?? It is soon revealed that she is on my team! We are discovered right away and must make a break for it! More random button pressing ensues. I jump into some crazy-looking space ship thingamajigger, and now I’m flying.

So far, Cyberia has been a little odd, confusing, and strangely mashed up. The story isn’t coming together very well but at least we got some action. In the scenes where Zak is flying, 70% of the screen is taken up by the interior of this aircraft full of pointless radars and a Jeep roll-cage, or whatever, and other useless crap that makes it hard to see. Despite not being able to see much, we are awarded some really fun flight simulator battles loaded with exceptional sound effects and action sequences. Don’t let that fool you as this stage is stupid difficult and hard.

Overall, I wish there was more I could say about Cyberia and I wish I could say something other than “visually stunning.” But that’s really all I can say that’s positive about Cyberia. The story is actually a really good one and there are some great Hollywood moments throughout, making Cyberia one of the earliest movie-style video games created (sorry Lawnmower Man haha – oh wait, that was like a video-game-styled movie). Unfortunately for Cyberia owners, Xatrix and Interplay left us high and dry with one of the least-enjoyable games on the 3DO.

However cool the action sequences, incredible graphics, and sound are, none of that is enough to make Cyberia all that enjoyable. Cyberia is a little top-heavy in the cinematics, but the same thing that makes the game visually stunning also plays into its weakness. The cinematics are not fully separated from the gameplay. Oftentimes in current games, you can tell graphically what is a cinematic and what is gameplay, but not in Cyberia. In this game, there will be a cinematic and Zak will just stop moving, waiting for you to press a button.

Throughout the entire game there are no prompts, no descriptions telling you where to go, what to press, what to do, or WTF is going on. Even though Cyberia hasn’t aged well at all and is entirely archaic, the lack of quality game control, story, and purpose would have kept this game at a low score even in 1996. I highly recommend not wasting your time or money on Cyberia for ANY platform. With so few enjoyable titles on the 3DO, it’s difficult to even explain why one should own a 3DO in the first place. And if you DO own a 3DO, please tell me what your favorite games are tell me why!

Nerd Rating: 3 out of 10

Reviewed by Nerdberry