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I think with a little time we will look back on Syberia 4 as the best game in the series so far, much improved in terms of storytelling and attention to world-building. The game explores Kate as a character better than any game in the series, not to mention a lot of enjoyable and compelling side characters, even Oscar is finally hilarious - I didn't feel that way before personally. As for the pre-release hate that it got, I think much of it will be discarded once the community is more aware of the context, I can respect if someone dislikes the game, but only if they gave it a chance in the first place. As for technical issues, I am sure the complaints are all valid, it was okay on my end and I didn't have any big problems.
I feel I should briefly address some of the misguided negativity in the forums in regards to Kate's new love interest, which does not actually exist in this game. Not only the dialogue and the circumstances make it difficult to suggest, even if you choose to see it that way, the prologue is a very small part of the game that otherwise has no interest in exploring her romantic life. After the prologue, her friend is only mentioned a few times and has very little presence in the story despite being a catalyst for it, and if they were lovers, I feel like it would be brought up more often. The overall context just does not support that theory, and even if it did, that does not necessarily ruin the character, depending on how it would be handled. So when I see people saying that I won't buy a game because Kate likes girls now, that is not actually in the game.
( Kate was always warm toward most characters, and her personality past the prologue is largely driven by her own goals and exploration of her past. Meanwhile, Kate herself also goes through some of the darkest moments in her life, regretting her decisions, and feeling a strong sense of guilt - making her for me a much more complex character than what we got up to this point. )
Syberia 4, apparently comes with a bowl of chopped onions, I personally found the game very emotional through the second half, and I am not ashamed that I dropped a few tears, but I am ashamed to tell you exactly how many times it happened. I have the say that Oscar and his blunt personality was finally handled with a lot of charm, and honestly, he steals the show almost every time he gets a chance to participate. While the plot line was pretty obvious from the start, I think you can easily guess who Dana is, but the execution was still on point and this 10+ hour game will take you through a lot of suspense and well-crafted characters.
The world-building is naturally the best one in the series, but we still have to give them credit for all of the small details, I especially love that Hans still has a massive presence in the story despite his physical absence. The world is still full with the on-brand clockwork inventions that make it alive, and unlike the previous games, I found it a lot more believable in terms of applications.
(The game has some optional tasks in terms of achievements, but most of them are relatively small and just add a little bit of context to the world, such as optional lore and more rare interactions.)
I was a bit worried after the prologue about the stutter, I still had some but it was not nearly as bad, maybe a short delay every 30 seconds, it happens less after the prologue, most areas in the game are not as big as the academy square. On my end I didn't have any crashes with recommended specs, the only thing I could nitpick were some of the hotspot placements. Probably the best-looking 3D point&click adventure that we got so far, although you can tell they still cut a few corners if you know where to look, sometimes the shadows were too dark I feel in the places where you were not meant to pay attention. But what really matters is the details and populating the space with relevant content, which I think the game did really well. If not the best-looking adventure game, I think it's safe to say it's the most visually interesting game in the series.
To briefly touch on the puzzle design, I thought they had just the right amount of challenge, never too confusing, and if you followed the hints you would solve most of them very fast. Now I saw some arguments, saying they were too easy in comparison - no sorry, the puzzles in the first 2 games were convoluted because of the vast space in which they took place, there is a difference between difficulty and backtracking. I did have some issues with the interactions, the game has many puzzles with mouse movement or mouse rotation, which was slightly annoying for me.
There is a timed hint system which I personally don't mind, and most of the time it won't actually solve the puzzle for you.

Pros:

(+) I think Kate as a character was explored very well in this game, and I really got a good sense of her struggle and hesitation to return to normal life. The game has a lot of interesting characters and overall I found the story very compelling, it's full of suspense and it makes every chapter interesting to follow.
(+) For the most part, the game is very enjoyable visually and the world is full of Syberia's mechanical fantasy, full of attention to detail, fun places to screenshot, and deep mythos. I like the presence of the various characters that are not directly involved anymore, Hans is still felt throughout the game despite his absence.
(+) For me, the Syberia series was always about convoluted puzzle design, which I feel is not intentional, there was a lot of backtracking in previous games and pixel hunting. Everyone saying the puzzles were so easy here, I think they were more intuitive, I would agree with that.
Ultimately the game is about the story, not spending 40 minutes because you can't find a trigger.
(+) The game does a decent job with the optional achievements, it's still pretty linear and I didn't feel like the choices made that much of a difference, but it's always nice for the world-building.

Feedback:

Technical - I have similar specs to recommended, had a little stutter on some of the bigger locations, nothing too crazy though. Not having a flexible save system is never a great thing, maybe you could at least add chapters for those that want to find all achievements. Sometimes the floor hotspots got in a way, like they were not positioned properly so I kept walking up and down. I think the circular movement with the mouse should require less input, but not a big deal overall. Controls on first-person segments were confusing, at least the positioning part.
Other? - I don't really feel that I have any concrete criticism for the story or the world-building. Can I just say that Leon's 3D model was creepy, and I didn't feel that way about other characters. If anything I think there were a few story segments that were too odd, like him chopping the tree while not trying to disturb, but I guess like with any point&click game, some things just don't make a ton of sense.
Overall Thoughts: 9/10
I have a feeling people will disagree with me now, but given more time, I think this game will be rightfully recognized as the best Syberia game. All characters were compelling, and I really felt for them. Enjoyable world-building, lots of jokes, many beautiful places, what is there not to love. And like I said, you can hate on this game, but at least try to give it a chance first. "Refunded after prologue" - based on something that isn't actually there? Game is great, maybe could use a bit more optimization for the people at the lower spec end.
Review by: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/