a few steps backward for the genre
Indeed, limited interaction is the major flaw of this game. Puzzles are relatively few, and most of them involve putting little objects or pieces of machinery in their correct places to make things work. The cursor indicates when you can use or pick up something to useful effect, so often you find yourself using things and picking stuff up just because you can, yet you don't know what you're doing it for. There are no different methods of manipulation to try, and you don't even have the option of manipulating or combining objects that are not correct. Doing this in other games have often had funny consequences. In Grim Fandango, for example, tell Manny to "pick up" the car, and he'll dryly say, "Sorry, I left my tow truck in my other pants." Syberia seems awfully linear and limited due to this, and despite the beauty of the environments, they don't truly come to life. Conversations are also very limited in that they play almost like movies. You get to pick the topic, and then you sit back and watch them talk on their own. No more dialogue trees. So playing Syberia ends up being a very passive experience. Most of the time you're either watching Kate walk silently across frames (VERY SLOWLY, I might add, and it gets tedious sometimes) or watching her talk with someone without your direct input.
Lastly, the game seems altogether too short. The story itself was intriguing enough to keep me fairly interested, but it's actually very simple and straightforward, and my expectations were sort of dispelled by its abrupt and inconclusive ending, which is obviously setting up for a sequel. It doesn't have that epic feel of Grim Fandango or The Longest Journey (well I guess that's why they called it The Longest Journey...).
Notice, though, that I keep comparing Syberia to other, older adventures that I hold in higher esteem. On its own, Syberia is definitely above average, for in these sad years the adventure genre hasn't had much to boast about. As I said, the 2D graphics and art design are gorgeous. The music is pretty good, but it doesn't seem to play all too often. Voice acting is professional and for the most part convincing. The puzzles tend to be pretty direct and not difficult. While some involve just finding a key, others are creative and original.
Bottom line: Good (especially the brilliant graphics), but the slow pace and limited interaction results in a bit of tedium and can make the player feel somewhat excluded from any real in-depth puzzling and adventuring. Also a bit short and dangling. Even so, it's the best adventure of 2002, so if you like adventure games, it will be worth it. Though if you haven't played Grim Fandango, The Longest Journey, or even the Monkey Island games, you should try those first.