She later abandons her assignment, as well as her life and career back in the United States, to accompany the factory's heir in his search for the legendary island of Syberia, a sacred site to a fictional indigenous Siberian tribe known as the Youkols and is said to be home to the world's last surviving mammoths.

Upon meeting Voralberg, Walker decides to abandon her assignment and joins him on the clockwork train to search for Syberia, a legendary island sacred to the Youkol people and said to host the world's remnant mammoth population.

As a consequence of Walker's refusal to return to the United States as well as her decision cut ties with her employer, fiancé, close friend, and her own mother, she is pursued by a private detective hired by Marson & Lormont.

Determined to escape their common enemies, among them a Russian militia unit allied with a corrupt doctor named Olga Efimova as well as the private investigator hired by her former employer, she decides to help the Youkols fulfill their ancestral tradition of leading their snow ostrich mounts on their seasonal migration.

[9] The Collector's Edition of Syberia 3 includes a poster of Kate Walker, a copy of the comic book adaptation co-written by Sokal and his son Hugo, and a resin figurine of the character flanked by automatons.

[10] Rachel Kaser from TheNextWeb and Catalan publication Ara considered Kate Walker to be part of an emerging trend of realistically clothed and proportioned female protagonists who have become increasingly prominent in the video game industry since the 2000s.

[11][12] Argentinean narrative designer Alejandra Bruno considered Walker to be her favorite character and highlighted her significance as the protagonist of a graphic adventure game in which she shows a strong and empathetic temperament.

[14] Jonathan Kaharl from Hardcore 101 was intrigued by Sokal's exploration in Syberia 3 of the "ever growing need to conform" in the face of "threatening antagonists and sights of modern decay" through Walker and the Youkols, which gives the game a darker undercurrent compared to its predecessors.

[4] French website Le Point positively appraised Kate Walker and declared her the opposite of sexualized and combative video game heroines like Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider franchise.

He conceded that while it is easy for players sympathize with her because her frustrations are universally relatable to people living in modern society, the character's dialogue lacks personality and that she "does not seemingly to react to the fascinating things she sees".

[16] Kaharl thought that she appears to have experienced character growth by the events of Syberia II, but was unconvinced by the reasoning behind her decision to actively pursue Voralberg's dream to find living mammoths, criticizing it as a "deeply unsatisfying explanation".

[17] With Syberia 3, Kaharl expressed concerns that Kate's relationship with the Youkols, who are presented as cartoonish stereotypes, comes across as a white savior trope, a sentiment shared by a reviewer from Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

[4] Bella Lara Blondeau from CGMagazine praised Mann for bringing an emotional intensity and plainspoken charm to the role, and that she helped make Walker an "immensely likeable protagonist".

In a preview article published by Adventure Gamers, Richard Hoover felt that Mann's gruffer and more exhausted voice complements a seemingly renewed focus on Kate's growth as a character in The World Before.

Aimee Mann calling Walker's unconventional life choices "an excellent allegory for the coming out process" of people who identify as LGBT and a "dramatic break from heteronormative capitalist expectations".

[24] An essay published in the peer-reviewed journal The Moving Image observed that Kate Walker drives the action in the Syberia series, which is in stark contrast to most fictional works depicting Arctic representations that assume a male subject or a masculinist paradigm, and often involves a solitary journey or a struggle between life and death.