This is just Neuromancer for Australians
one of my favorite adventure games of its era in terms of presentation but i struggled a bit with some of the puzzle gameplay. some of the environments made readability of interactable elements difficult and it started to feel like it veered into pixel hunting territory. also not sure if it was just this version of the game or not but some of the music was a bit grating (i don't think it was the compositions so much as the soundfonts? used).
either way, i'm glad to have played this at last and i'm hoping to enjoy Beyond a Steel Sky.
either way, i'm glad to have played this at last and i'm hoping to enjoy Beyond a Steel Sky.
love the setting, voice actin and everything, but some of the puzzles are ass
being a long time fan of the Broken Sword series I had to play this game.
the story is amazing, a dystopian future were machine control the life of the human race.
the graphic still enjoyable for a game this old.
the voice acting excellent and funny something that always done right by Revelation studio.
in term of game-play and puzzle, I enjoyed most of it but I found it very difficult to find some objects on some part of the game because it is not clear and you have to hover the mouse cursor very close to objects to bring up the action button.
overall a decent short point and click game.
the story is amazing, a dystopian future were machine control the life of the human race.
the graphic still enjoyable for a game this old.
the voice acting excellent and funny something that always done right by Revelation studio.
in term of game-play and puzzle, I enjoyed most of it but I found it very difficult to find some objects on some part of the game because it is not clear and you have to hover the mouse cursor very close to objects to bring up the action button.
overall a decent short point and click game.
BaSS is by no means a perfect game. as a point n click of the early 90s, it's has its fair share of "how the hell was i supposed to know that" puzzles, and being a point n click of the 90s NOT by lucasarts, it also has a few deaths that may set you back a good amount. the deaths are pretty rare, rare enough that i was surprised the first time it happened and thought it was a joke that the game would undo. but no, you go back to the last save. but general rule of thumb for PnCs of the era is "save early, save often", and besides a couple of cheap deaths, they're at worst a minor annoyance. no, the real problem of this game is the aforementioned puzzles. you will need to play this game with a guide. just an example, there's one moment where you need to get into a shed. how do you do that, well you need to open it's lock. but you need to examine the door with the left mouse button to find the lock. trying to use the door with the right mouse button, and finding out its locked that way won't trigger the lock to actually show up as something interactable, despite being visible on the door the entire time. and even then, the lock is incredibly small, maybe the smallest object in the game, so you have to pixel hunt something you probably already tried looking for. and then foster says "it's an old fashioned lock", so one that uses a key, specifically NOT a keycard. there actually was a key earlier in the game that was taken away from you too, so what could the solution be? just use a keycard on the padlock. "it's an old trick, but it works!"
i would have gone mad if i didn't have a walkthrough. oh also, the 2 page walkthrough that comes with the steam and gog version of the game? yeah dont bother with that, just look online for a guide, theyre all better
beyond some annoyances, i actually do quite like this game a lot, and i somewhat regard it as one of the best point n clicks of the era, and i do highly recommend it for anyone interested in early 90s point n clicks such as monkey island. as i said before, there are deaths so it's not quite as forgiving as lucasarts games, but dont let that deter you, theyre rare enough and the game is short enough that it won't matter much. it's nowhere near as punishing as say, a sierra game.
the story is fine enough. it's got a strong opening, but then mostly comes to a halt aside from some moments here and there. and even then, the ending is a bit abrupt. i feel like instead of going back and forth messing with an insurance agency and a travel agency, there could have been more focus put on advancing the story and getting through the city in a more organic way, but that's just me. where this game really shines is it's writing and characters. it has a wit as sharp as monkey island's and humor to match. i also appreciated what little of it's cyberpunk dystopia that was there (there arent many areas in the game)
overall, this game, despite its issues, is well worth playing. it's free on steam and gog, just play it already
i would have gone mad if i didn't have a walkthrough. oh also, the 2 page walkthrough that comes with the steam and gog version of the game? yeah dont bother with that, just look online for a guide, theyre all better
beyond some annoyances, i actually do quite like this game a lot, and i somewhat regard it as one of the best point n clicks of the era, and i do highly recommend it for anyone interested in early 90s point n clicks such as monkey island. as i said before, there are deaths so it's not quite as forgiving as lucasarts games, but dont let that deter you, theyre rare enough and the game is short enough that it won't matter much. it's nowhere near as punishing as say, a sierra game.
the story is fine enough. it's got a strong opening, but then mostly comes to a halt aside from some moments here and there. and even then, the ending is a bit abrupt. i feel like instead of going back and forth messing with an insurance agency and a travel agency, there could have been more focus put on advancing the story and getting through the city in a more organic way, but that's just me. where this game really shines is it's writing and characters. it has a wit as sharp as monkey island's and humor to match. i also appreciated what little of it's cyberpunk dystopia that was there (there arent many areas in the game)
overall, this game, despite its issues, is well worth playing. it's free on steam and gog, just play it already
It lives in the shadow of Broken Sword but it is nice nonetheless.
Short and sound is mediocre but it just feels....nice overall
French review with Beyond - https://lacritiquedumoment.wordpress.com/2022/12/15/beneath-beyond-a-steel-sky/
Short and sound is mediocre but it just feels....nice overall
French review with Beyond - https://lacritiquedumoment.wordpress.com/2022/12/15/beneath-beyond-a-steel-sky/
This review contains spoilers
Spoilers at the very end only
Ever play a game that stumbled so much in all the important departments, it was ultimately a chore to finish? Well I have, and it’s called Beneath a Steel Sky. Developed by Revolution Software and published by Virgin Interactive Entertainment, it’s an older PnC title that feels outdated even by 90s standards. Top that off with an obnoxious comedic tone and you have a very unenjoyable product.
You glean the backstory through mandatory and optional conversations, but the general gist is you’re in a dystopian Australia run by evil corporations. As protagonist Robert Foster, you’ve been kidnapped by one of these entities and have to figure out what’s going on: why do they want you? What illegal products is the company making? And why does everyone in Union City quake at the mention of the supercomputer LINC? You’ll have to figure this out for yourself.
If you haven’t guessed from this excerpt, Beneath leans heavily into cyberpunk tropes, albeit without the typical aesthetic. Gone are the neons of evermore, instead replaced with something more akin to steampunk with a touch of post-Gulf War kitsch. If you’re not inside a building, you’re gazing at carbonized iron surfaces 80% of the time, with a yellow tint simulating the desert biome encompassing the metropolis. The plainness doesn’t quite evoke corporate dystopia, however Beneath partly compensates for this with its interiors: not only are they individually-furnished based on the owner’s occupation, but they also hold a slew of garish advertisements centered around the commerce gimmick of the establishment. One room may boast dirty plaster strewn with Americana, another red paneling lacquered with sheen and portraits- the assortment on display can be quite a sight.
Or so I suppose. A large issue you’ll find with the graphics is how condensed and grainy everything is. I get that this was an inherent flaw with the DOS operating system, but Beneath’s more photorealistic schema makes it shabbier compared to other titles from that era like Day of the Tentacle and Secret of Monkey Island. You genuinely can’t tell whether the texturing you’re witnessing is from the fabric itself or the Windows’ compressment. Worse, still, are the human models, which, despite being partly designed by Dave Gibbons of Watchmen fame, lose his pleasant penciling when brought into a pseudo-3D projection. Expressions are non-existent, every body-type is rehashed, and eyes look like they were drawn by a caveman trying to channel Charles Schulz. The one saving grace are textiles. Major and even some minor NPCs are adorned with special calicos that vary tremendously in color, length, and fashion. It’s so well-crafted it honestly does a better job identifying an individual’s socioeconomic status than the story.
That unfortunately might be the last unabridged praise I make as every other facet of Beneath falls apart, beginning with the sound. The three sonorities are horribly edited together, the music and vocality, in particular, being so loud you can hear the volume tear that occurs in speakers at higher decibels. While you can independently turn down the music, you have to use a master control for the voice acting that concurrently affects the others.
Quality-wise, the music is terrible. There are a minimal amount of tunes in the game and most of them opt for a generic exploratory leitmotif headlined by an atrocious brass melody. It doesn’t sound cyberpunk, nor does it express sci-fi in the slightest. I relished anytime the music was programmed to take a backseat to the SFX as, at least there, you get better value, from the humming of a machine to the clanging of instruments. It’s all repetitive, of course, and using items tends to have almost no synchronized din; however, I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t at least some effort put here to make things atmospheric.
Appreciation for the voice acting will vary from gamer-to-gamer. With the exception of Foster’s robot companion Joey, it’s evident the creative team was going for some 60s cartoon vibes in terms of the enunciation; that is, the actors are walking a fine line between being overly-dramatic and tongue-in-cheek. There’s no doubt they’re laboring over simply reading lines off a page, but whether or not you find the performance itself annoying or amusing shall depend on your personal tastes. For me, the charm wore off within the first couple of hours, and it didn’t help that Revolution Software opted to hire a lot of artists specializing in mediocre Cockney accents (why an Australian would speak like that is beyond me).
Then there’s the gameplay. You’d think it would be simple, Beneath being a point-and-clicker, but Revolution someone managed to make things unnecessarily complicated. To start with, you’re not told how to access the menu- that’s right, the very thing that allows you to modulate settings and save your dang game is kept a secret, and I ended up having to Google it. And no, it wasn’t an obvious answer like press ESC or M that you could at least claim could’ve been resolved via player intuition- you have to literally press ALT+F5 (name me one other game that uses the ALT+FUNC combo?!). And on that note, saving has a couple of flaws. There is no auto-save, meaning you’re gonna have to create manual checkpoints constantly, and doing so is not as simple as hitting a hotkey: the file has to be clicked and then new text inputted over the slot, otherwise it doesn't register.
You’ll want to get a hang of this interface quickly as Beneath features death scenarios I guarantee you won’t see coming, and you don’t want to lose more progress than you need to. I mean it when I say that some of the most random encounters and actions will result in your termination, with the game occasionally being so condescending as to warn you AFTER you’ve perished+. If that wasn’t bad enough, Foster’s walking speed is abysmally slow, and while this does tend to be an unfortunate aspect of PnCs, others like Grim Fandango and the Daedalic library have contained features like a run option or double-click teleport to alleviate the annoyance.
Instead, Beneath provides a mechanic that simultaneously addresses both this sluggishness and the lost progress from premature deaths, as well any copious backtracking, which is the ability to increase the speed of the game. Either through the menu or CTRL+F, you can kick the tempo into high gear, allowing you to dart through areas and story beats fast. The problem is, this isn’t restricted to Foster- it gets applied to the NPCs and interactable objects too, which in turn impedes you when you have to do punctual actions with one or the other. It also boosts the celerity of any SFX in the vicinity, turning those monotonous noises into an irate cacophony.
As far as the puzzles are concerned, most of them are actually pretty solvable via good old-fashioned deductive reasoning. 90s PC adventures were known for their nonsensical solutions, and so it was nice to play a game that didn’t indulge (as much) in such cheap tactics. Sadly, though, I did end up having to consult a walkthrough more than once, and it was because of vital objects often appearing near-indistinguishable from the background. I know I’ve brought this up before with titles like Grim Fandango and I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, but I actually felt it was worse in Beneath because of that aforementioned haziness of the environmental textures. There were many instances where I got stuck, only to read that I had failed to pick up an important tool from a prior chamber I thought was empty. This has reportedly been resolved in the iOS remaster, but if you opt to play the original PC version, be sure to run your mouse over EVERY square inch of the screen, otherwise you may miss out on a key you need down-the-line.
To end on two positive comments, I did appreciate how the game froze whenever you pulled up your inventory, as well as the chain reaction of gathering clues/knowledge from other NPCs and using that to open up new dialogue branches with others.
Now, we come to the story, and man is there a lot to talk about. Beneath was written by Dave Cummins, who also did the score, and let me say that his writing is tawdrier than his music. Reading up on the production process shows that there was an intent to hit a balance between serious and comical, but the end result is incredibly lopsided towards the latter. The game begins on a harsh tragedy, only to swiftly subside its thematicness in favor of a tone that can best be described as a sitcom. Foster will either end up in places where he makes dumb observations about the layouts, or engage in conversations with kooky characters and try and one-up them. The worst part is the majority of it isn’t even funny. You get dad jokes, bad puns, wannabe catchphrases, non sequiturs, and even toilet humor (thank goodness they at least staved away from pop culture references). Given all the petty attempts at quick wit, it truly felt like a rejected script from the Hanna-Barbera catalog. The only parts I did chuckle at were the interactions between Foster and Joey, primarily due to Joey’s “straight man” role culminating in him retorting with definitive statements whenever Foster tried to act stupid or patronizing.
Besides these lackluster confabulations, the narrative also suffers from neither building its world, nor exploring the dark subject material on display. Whereas other cyberpunk releases have you move throughout a city or cities, here you’re spending the entire game in a single building complex that houses a multitude of businesses. I’m not claiming this Dredd/Raid premise couldn’t have worked, but what you learn about Union City is gleaned purely from the single perspective provided by the denizens of this one area, no diversity in thought. Working-class or elite, everyone has the same views on the governing Council and the aftereffects caused by LINC’s genesis.
In terms of secondary concepts, anything interesting you happen upon is treated as a joke or purely surface level++. Pretty disappointing considering this is the one space cyberpunk generally excels at.
It goes without saying that I don’t recommend Beneath a Steel Sky. It’s a cult classic for a reason- it’s inferior to other PnCs and doesn’t offer anything interesting to compensate. It’s a shame too as the animation work is superb for the time, however, it can’t overcome the narratorial, visual, and technical downsides.
Note- Gibbons also drew comic panels illustrating the opening and closing moments of the game. So well done are they that, even without the voiceover, you could have easily interpreted the story. Brought me back to when I first read Watchmen all those years ago, though the screen stretching does make their pixelation a bit blurry.
Note #2- In a couple of cutscenes, you actually see some 3D animation in the form of a helicopter that still looks good. Definitely amazing given the limited budget Revolution Software had on hand.
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+Getting vaporized by the elevator scanner after trying to prematurely use Reich’s ID results in the Guard’s commenting that you shouldn’t have swiped a stolen ID. Getting murdered by the third Android, redoing the section, and successfully uploading Joey to the second results in him telling you not to awaken the other droids.
++A surgeon trades organ transplants for surgical modifications, motorbikes were banned, a newspaper terminal lists the same headlines ad nauseam regarding terrorist activities, information warfare between the corporate hegemonies is said to be economically brutal, the endgame has you uncovering the production of androids for the takeover of the human race, LINC being a sentient AI, whatever that wall of flesh was in finale, and more. Very fascinating ideas not expanded upon in the slightest or outright ignored.
Ever play a game that stumbled so much in all the important departments, it was ultimately a chore to finish? Well I have, and it’s called Beneath a Steel Sky. Developed by Revolution Software and published by Virgin Interactive Entertainment, it’s an older PnC title that feels outdated even by 90s standards. Top that off with an obnoxious comedic tone and you have a very unenjoyable product.
You glean the backstory through mandatory and optional conversations, but the general gist is you’re in a dystopian Australia run by evil corporations. As protagonist Robert Foster, you’ve been kidnapped by one of these entities and have to figure out what’s going on: why do they want you? What illegal products is the company making? And why does everyone in Union City quake at the mention of the supercomputer LINC? You’ll have to figure this out for yourself.
If you haven’t guessed from this excerpt, Beneath leans heavily into cyberpunk tropes, albeit without the typical aesthetic. Gone are the neons of evermore, instead replaced with something more akin to steampunk with a touch of post-Gulf War kitsch. If you’re not inside a building, you’re gazing at carbonized iron surfaces 80% of the time, with a yellow tint simulating the desert biome encompassing the metropolis. The plainness doesn’t quite evoke corporate dystopia, however Beneath partly compensates for this with its interiors: not only are they individually-furnished based on the owner’s occupation, but they also hold a slew of garish advertisements centered around the commerce gimmick of the establishment. One room may boast dirty plaster strewn with Americana, another red paneling lacquered with sheen and portraits- the assortment on display can be quite a sight.
Or so I suppose. A large issue you’ll find with the graphics is how condensed and grainy everything is. I get that this was an inherent flaw with the DOS operating system, but Beneath’s more photorealistic schema makes it shabbier compared to other titles from that era like Day of the Tentacle and Secret of Monkey Island. You genuinely can’t tell whether the texturing you’re witnessing is from the fabric itself or the Windows’ compressment. Worse, still, are the human models, which, despite being partly designed by Dave Gibbons of Watchmen fame, lose his pleasant penciling when brought into a pseudo-3D projection. Expressions are non-existent, every body-type is rehashed, and eyes look like they were drawn by a caveman trying to channel Charles Schulz. The one saving grace are textiles. Major and even some minor NPCs are adorned with special calicos that vary tremendously in color, length, and fashion. It’s so well-crafted it honestly does a better job identifying an individual’s socioeconomic status than the story.
That unfortunately might be the last unabridged praise I make as every other facet of Beneath falls apart, beginning with the sound. The three sonorities are horribly edited together, the music and vocality, in particular, being so loud you can hear the volume tear that occurs in speakers at higher decibels. While you can independently turn down the music, you have to use a master control for the voice acting that concurrently affects the others.
Quality-wise, the music is terrible. There are a minimal amount of tunes in the game and most of them opt for a generic exploratory leitmotif headlined by an atrocious brass melody. It doesn’t sound cyberpunk, nor does it express sci-fi in the slightest. I relished anytime the music was programmed to take a backseat to the SFX as, at least there, you get better value, from the humming of a machine to the clanging of instruments. It’s all repetitive, of course, and using items tends to have almost no synchronized din; however, I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t at least some effort put here to make things atmospheric.
Appreciation for the voice acting will vary from gamer-to-gamer. With the exception of Foster’s robot companion Joey, it’s evident the creative team was going for some 60s cartoon vibes in terms of the enunciation; that is, the actors are walking a fine line between being overly-dramatic and tongue-in-cheek. There’s no doubt they’re laboring over simply reading lines off a page, but whether or not you find the performance itself annoying or amusing shall depend on your personal tastes. For me, the charm wore off within the first couple of hours, and it didn’t help that Revolution Software opted to hire a lot of artists specializing in mediocre Cockney accents (why an Australian would speak like that is beyond me).
Then there’s the gameplay. You’d think it would be simple, Beneath being a point-and-clicker, but Revolution someone managed to make things unnecessarily complicated. To start with, you’re not told how to access the menu- that’s right, the very thing that allows you to modulate settings and save your dang game is kept a secret, and I ended up having to Google it. And no, it wasn’t an obvious answer like press ESC or M that you could at least claim could’ve been resolved via player intuition- you have to literally press ALT+F5 (name me one other game that uses the ALT+FUNC combo?!). And on that note, saving has a couple of flaws. There is no auto-save, meaning you’re gonna have to create manual checkpoints constantly, and doing so is not as simple as hitting a hotkey: the file has to be clicked and then new text inputted over the slot, otherwise it doesn't register.
You’ll want to get a hang of this interface quickly as Beneath features death scenarios I guarantee you won’t see coming, and you don’t want to lose more progress than you need to. I mean it when I say that some of the most random encounters and actions will result in your termination, with the game occasionally being so condescending as to warn you AFTER you’ve perished+. If that wasn’t bad enough, Foster’s walking speed is abysmally slow, and while this does tend to be an unfortunate aspect of PnCs, others like Grim Fandango and the Daedalic library have contained features like a run option or double-click teleport to alleviate the annoyance.
Instead, Beneath provides a mechanic that simultaneously addresses both this sluggishness and the lost progress from premature deaths, as well any copious backtracking, which is the ability to increase the speed of the game. Either through the menu or CTRL+F, you can kick the tempo into high gear, allowing you to dart through areas and story beats fast. The problem is, this isn’t restricted to Foster- it gets applied to the NPCs and interactable objects too, which in turn impedes you when you have to do punctual actions with one or the other. It also boosts the celerity of any SFX in the vicinity, turning those monotonous noises into an irate cacophony.
As far as the puzzles are concerned, most of them are actually pretty solvable via good old-fashioned deductive reasoning. 90s PC adventures were known for their nonsensical solutions, and so it was nice to play a game that didn’t indulge (as much) in such cheap tactics. Sadly, though, I did end up having to consult a walkthrough more than once, and it was because of vital objects often appearing near-indistinguishable from the background. I know I’ve brought this up before with titles like Grim Fandango and I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, but I actually felt it was worse in Beneath because of that aforementioned haziness of the environmental textures. There were many instances where I got stuck, only to read that I had failed to pick up an important tool from a prior chamber I thought was empty. This has reportedly been resolved in the iOS remaster, but if you opt to play the original PC version, be sure to run your mouse over EVERY square inch of the screen, otherwise you may miss out on a key you need down-the-line.
To end on two positive comments, I did appreciate how the game froze whenever you pulled up your inventory, as well as the chain reaction of gathering clues/knowledge from other NPCs and using that to open up new dialogue branches with others.
Now, we come to the story, and man is there a lot to talk about. Beneath was written by Dave Cummins, who also did the score, and let me say that his writing is tawdrier than his music. Reading up on the production process shows that there was an intent to hit a balance between serious and comical, but the end result is incredibly lopsided towards the latter. The game begins on a harsh tragedy, only to swiftly subside its thematicness in favor of a tone that can best be described as a sitcom. Foster will either end up in places where he makes dumb observations about the layouts, or engage in conversations with kooky characters and try and one-up them. The worst part is the majority of it isn’t even funny. You get dad jokes, bad puns, wannabe catchphrases, non sequiturs, and even toilet humor (thank goodness they at least staved away from pop culture references). Given all the petty attempts at quick wit, it truly felt like a rejected script from the Hanna-Barbera catalog. The only parts I did chuckle at were the interactions between Foster and Joey, primarily due to Joey’s “straight man” role culminating in him retorting with definitive statements whenever Foster tried to act stupid or patronizing.
Besides these lackluster confabulations, the narrative also suffers from neither building its world, nor exploring the dark subject material on display. Whereas other cyberpunk releases have you move throughout a city or cities, here you’re spending the entire game in a single building complex that houses a multitude of businesses. I’m not claiming this Dredd/Raid premise couldn’t have worked, but what you learn about Union City is gleaned purely from the single perspective provided by the denizens of this one area, no diversity in thought. Working-class or elite, everyone has the same views on the governing Council and the aftereffects caused by LINC’s genesis.
In terms of secondary concepts, anything interesting you happen upon is treated as a joke or purely surface level++. Pretty disappointing considering this is the one space cyberpunk generally excels at.
It goes without saying that I don’t recommend Beneath a Steel Sky. It’s a cult classic for a reason- it’s inferior to other PnCs and doesn’t offer anything interesting to compensate. It’s a shame too as the animation work is superb for the time, however, it can’t overcome the narratorial, visual, and technical downsides.
Note- Gibbons also drew comic panels illustrating the opening and closing moments of the game. So well done are they that, even without the voiceover, you could have easily interpreted the story. Brought me back to when I first read Watchmen all those years ago, though the screen stretching does make their pixelation a bit blurry.
Note #2- In a couple of cutscenes, you actually see some 3D animation in the form of a helicopter that still looks good. Definitely amazing given the limited budget Revolution Software had on hand.
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--
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+Getting vaporized by the elevator scanner after trying to prematurely use Reich’s ID results in the Guard’s commenting that you shouldn’t have swiped a stolen ID. Getting murdered by the third Android, redoing the section, and successfully uploading Joey to the second results in him telling you not to awaken the other droids.
++A surgeon trades organ transplants for surgical modifications, motorbikes were banned, a newspaper terminal lists the same headlines ad nauseam regarding terrorist activities, information warfare between the corporate hegemonies is said to be economically brutal, the endgame has you uncovering the production of androids for the takeover of the human race, LINC being a sentient AI, whatever that wall of flesh was in finale, and more. Very fascinating ideas not expanded upon in the slightest or outright ignored.
A classic adventure game with great art, music and writing. It can get pretty dark at times, but there's a healthy dose of comedy present as well.
The only issues I have with it are certain limitations related to its age, like the low resolution making it hard to find important items and such at times, otherwise commonly known as "pixel hunting".
"Be vigilant."
The only issues I have with it are certain limitations related to its age, like the low resolution making it hard to find important items and such at times, otherwise commonly known as "pixel hunting".
"Be vigilant."
Complete playthrough. While clearly graphically impressive for its time, as my first time playing Beneath a Steel Sky it didn't really hold up as well as I'd hoped, not quite capturing the same 'magic' as so many LucasArts classics. The puzzles often feel unintuitive in their solutions - particularly on the occasion when there's a timing based element to them - and without the comedic element that serves to counter the potential for similar criticism in the case of, say, the Monkey Island or Sam & Max games. That said, the sci-fi story is compelling, alongside a strong cast of well-written characters, so I can see why the game is held up by many as a classic of the point-and-click adventure genre - and it raises my interest in trying out the recently-released sequel.
Android
A by the book '90s point and clicker. It's all done in a style familiar to your old LucasArts or Sierra template. It's not up there with the best, but fans of the genre should take a look.
Had a lot of fun with this game. Some great tracks and a neat universe that made the writing engaging. Controls took some getting used to.
An adventure classic, often unfairly underrated. Quite a dark plotline coupled with some crazy humour.
Cool setting and really nice intro, story was also good. The puzzle design was sometimes hit or miss, I often didn't know where to go next and the solution was rather illogical.
"Beneath A Steel Sky is one of the best classic point & click adventures you can get for free. It still has its fair share of problems, of course, but the wonderful setting makes up for a lot. We play Robert Foster, a former Union City citizen who fled with his mother to the Gap, Australia's outback, many years ago. Years later, he and his robot AI Joey are unintentionally pulled back and an adventure out of the city full of mystery, crazy technology, social criticism as well as the background of Foster's past begins, which doesn't have to hide from science fiction films like Blade Runner and Matrix. As gameplay, we are given a simplified point & click control. Instead of verbs, we use a left click to look and a right click to use. Besides the puzzles, there are many interesting dialogues with the strange characters of the city as well as a small handful of timed puzzles. These remain mostly logical as long as you don't miss all the items in the pixel look. From time to time, however, it seems as if the game is waiting for a trigger that has nothing to do with the puzzle chain, which actually led to frustration at one point or another. The great strength of the game remains without a doubt the world and the story. We work our way from the upper platforms, which are full of industrial and administrative buildings, further and further down through shopping and residential districts to the greened ground level. All with a lot of cynical humour and allusions to the real past of the city. The deeper we get, the more we learn, only to abruptly face the end in a grand finale of the story. This is the second major weakness of Beneath a Steel Sky. Revolution could have taken more time to finish the story. However, the time leading up to the finale tightens the atmosphere and tension so much, which makes up for it somewhat. The game remains a great science fiction point & click game and should be played by anyone interested in the genre."
Overall a good game with only the rare outlandish puzzle, although this game will really make you pray for the modern "double click to leave area immediately" function.
I do wish a little more time was spent on the world itself, it never really becomes apparent what, if anything, is wrong with the city.
I do wish a little more time was spent on the world itself, it never really becomes apparent what, if anything, is wrong with the city.
had to pull up a guide a couple times but i LOVE the vibe
I didn't expect to like this game as much as I did. I got it for free on GOG (its free on Steam too I think) and that was the only reason I gave it a go really. But I thought it was great! Obviously it's old but the graphics are still good actually, its easy to get immersed in the environments for there is so much detail there. The puzzles are more logical than most adventure games and, though the solutions usually involve a lot of pixel hunting, they make sense are satisfying to solve. Where the game really shines (for me, anyway) is in the characters, story and dialog. The overall story is interesting and mixes comedic moments with the horror and tragedy that can be expected from any story set in a dystopia. I felt that this mix worked and made the protagonist (and side-kick) likeable. The way it was written made me want to hear every dialog option and every little comment that the player character makes when examining an object. The array of eccentric characters you meet felt real and unique and I found myself backtracking after developments in the story to check to see if there were any more dialog options and, while sometimes there were when there was a specific reason, I was often disappointed to find that I had reached the end of my conversations with these NPCs. Maybe I'm going too far with praising this game but I enjoyed the hell out of it and immediately played the second one (which is great too, though obviously feels different due to being newer) just because I needed more of this game.
Great story destroyed with stupid jokes
-The art is really good; not the best though. Depending on you, you might really like the art design of the game like I did. It is one of the very first games that would come to my mind when I think about "Rust-Punk" alongside Machinarium.
-The story as I said is really really good and has a lot of potential; but it's filled with stupid jokes. Not all jokes are stupid though, some are quite funny.
-The level design is mid to above-average, at best. Most of the game is smooth and all you need to do is to listen well or use your brain a little; but some of the puzzles are really irritating. It happens a lot, when you have to go somewhere but the game doesn't give you a clue about it. You should just go back and forth so many times, until you get lucky.
This game is really good for people who like point and click adventure games, specially considering the fact that "Beneath a Steel Sky" is free; but if you are new to the genre, it is a terrible choice.
-The art is really good; not the best though. Depending on you, you might really like the art design of the game like I did. It is one of the very first games that would come to my mind when I think about "Rust-Punk" alongside Machinarium.
-The story as I said is really really good and has a lot of potential; but it's filled with stupid jokes. Not all jokes are stupid though, some are quite funny.
-The level design is mid to above-average, at best. Most of the game is smooth and all you need to do is to listen well or use your brain a little; but some of the puzzles are really irritating. It happens a lot, when you have to go somewhere but the game doesn't give you a clue about it. You should just go back and forth so many times, until you get lucky.
This game is really good for people who like point and click adventure games, specially considering the fact that "Beneath a Steel Sky" is free; but if you are new to the genre, it is a terrible choice.
This is my first point-and-click game in a long, long time (if ever) and its a pretty old game so I admit I might be judging it pretty harshly here, but it wasn't too great of an experience. The setting is pretty good, the story is pretty okay, most of the puzzles were not great. I felt as the objects I had to click on were not apparent, and the objectives you had to do were pretty mundane (wine glass puzzle, lightbulb in the subway, etc.). Voice acting was too inconsistent, ranging from "pretty good" to "awful and lifeless" between two lines of dialog.
I love this game so much that I was as sad when I found out how short it was when I looked up a video walkthrough when I got stuck the first time, and so I was even more sad that it was all over (lucky for me, the very next year when I finished the game, it got a modern tell-tale style (from what I could tell from the screenshots) game that I could come back to, and I don't care if the plot sucks, just as long as it has good OST and the characters have the same essence they had in the first game, I haven't played it yet because by the time it came out, I already moved on to another fandom about two weeks later after I finished the first game.
Back to the first game though, characters are fun and interesting, and although Robert isn't the most interesting character, he's become one of my main f/os and to this day he still is ever since I completed the prologue and even more when I completed the game and I love the world it's set in, the world-buliding is incredible, it is interesting.
Part of the soundtrack is really good, listened to some of them on repeat after I heard them in-game, even with the DOS sound quality, but for others I prefer the remastered versions.
This game is also supposed to be comedic, but the only dialouge that gave a couple of chuckles for is the robot's dialogue, very rarely for any other character.
Back to the first game though, characters are fun and interesting, and although Robert isn't the most interesting character, he's become one of my main f/os and to this day he still is ever since I completed the prologue and even more when I completed the game and I love the world it's set in, the world-buliding is incredible, it is interesting.
Part of the soundtrack is really good, listened to some of them on repeat after I heard them in-game, even with the DOS sound quality, but for others I prefer the remastered versions.
This game is also supposed to be comedic, but the only dialouge that gave a couple of chuckles for is the robot's dialogue, very rarely for any other character.
Why would you ever want to play a point and click game if it isn’t funny? Or even worse, one that set out to be serious at first but then tries to be funny and just trips on its own dick every time? In a game that deals with encroaching automation, a society that implements a system of social credit, and the prospect of an AI supplanting all human thought and emotion, what I really want to do is catapult a French poodle into a pool in order to get a key to the next place.
It’s called tone! Pick one!
It’s called tone! Pick one!
Nothing really special, both story and puzzle-wise.
I'm a complete newbie when it comes to point and click games, especially those not made in the past ten years or so. Beneath a Steel Sky was recommended to me as a good starting point into the classic P&C titles of yesteryears, and I wasn't disappointed, for the most part.
Puzzles are largely logical, requiring a certain level of thought without driving you insane. That being said, there's still a certain level of pixel hunting involved and some relatively easy things to miss. While P&C titles are notorious for 'dead-ends' I didn't come across any during my playthrough; albeit I could just have been very lucky.
Both the soundtrack and voice acting are passable, and graphically it's easy enough on the eye - considering its age. Perhaps my biggest gripe is that I found certain areas of the game fairly tedious, where the story was just a bit too slow for my liking. That being said, I'm sure when I revisit after exploring similar times, I'm sure that opinion may change.
If you're like me and looking for a non-brutal entry point into the P&C genre, this could be just the ticket.
Puzzles are largely logical, requiring a certain level of thought without driving you insane. That being said, there's still a certain level of pixel hunting involved and some relatively easy things to miss. While P&C titles are notorious for 'dead-ends' I didn't come across any during my playthrough; albeit I could just have been very lucky.
Both the soundtrack and voice acting are passable, and graphically it's easy enough on the eye - considering its age. Perhaps my biggest gripe is that I found certain areas of the game fairly tedious, where the story was just a bit too slow for my liking. That being said, I'm sure when I revisit after exploring similar times, I'm sure that opinion may change.
If you're like me and looking for a non-brutal entry point into the P&C genre, this could be just the ticket.
Achei bacana, um meio termo entre os adventures mais sérios da Sierra e o humor caricato da LucasArts. O desenvolvimento dos personagens é fraquinho, mas o ambientação cyberpunk é muito boa e alguns puzzles fenomenais. Gostei principalmente da interpretação que o jogo faz de como seria a internet (ou, como chamada no game, LINC-Space).