Beneath a Steel Sky (1994)

interesting game took me all night to complete. guaranteed night mare the night after

Tough pick between 3 and 4 stars. I chose 3 because the GOG mandate is to "review the game on its own merits." If you factor in the price of "free", it gets bumped up to 4. In words, I'd describe at "fun enough, but not memorable." I really don't understand why this game comes so highly reviewed. Reasons: -Graphics. The graphics (and sound quality) in this game are pretty bad. "But you're playing a 90's adventure game! They're supposed to be bad!" This game was released in 1994, and has the graphics and sound quality of 1990/1991. There was a lot of progress made in those years, and this game didn't even try to keep up. -Story. The glory of the adventure genre is that it immerses you into a story. This game requires you to get 2/3rds of the way through it for a story to emerge beyond "I want to go down the elevators." Once the story does start, its really predictable and all the "plot twists" are "yeah... that was obvious 4 hours ago..." -Characters. Adventure games shine when you love the characters. In an effort to preserve the mystery of "who is this? Why does he matter?" The game really doesn't give you any information about the main character. The result is he comes across as flat and uninteresting. No one else in the game really gets enough screen time for you to invest in either. Sadly, the most developed personality in this game is the robot. Things I DID like about the game: -Price. Can't beat free. And I *did* enjoy myself while playing it. It's not a bad game, it's just not a very good game. -Puzzles. The strength of this game is its puzzles. I enjoyed solving them, and none of them were outlandishly illogical, nor did it feel *too* easy. I enjoyed solving my way through the game.

´The graphics and production values of this thing is top notch, but the story or the characters never really takes off. A lot of jokes, but more cringes than laughs. Most of the dissapointment stems from the puzzles. I spent most of the time walking around trying to try this thing with that thing just to make anything happen. You never really know what you are supposed to to or where you are supposed to go. But those criticisms aside, you can tell that this is a classic. And even the documentation looks beautiful, with great comics art. And being completely free, i still recommend it, because, hey you might like it more than me. And in that case, good for you!

Beneath a Steel Sky caught my eye because it was created by Revolution, the developers for the popular Broken Sword franchise. It was intriguing to me because as an Australian we rarely see video games actually set in our country. There are various references to Australian culture including aboriginals, fosters beer, animals, Hobart and the game's setting, Union City which is Sydney. I instantly connected Beneath a Steel Sky with the Sydney Harbour Bridge, one of the finest steel structures in existence and an obvious inspiration for the game. The cultural impact isn't profound enough to deter people from this game, it's merely a pleasant inclusion without any harsh stereotypes, I seriously laughed at the Foster's beer reference although now we drink VB and Four X. You are introduced to Robert Foster, an orphan who was adopted by the Aborigines after being involved in a copter crash at a young age. Now far older and full of wisdom and witty remarks, Foster is swept away by a team of storm-troopers back to the city where he was born. Souless steel towers littered with pipes are all that greet him, everything has changed for the worse. It's a fascinating setting. Society has been completely reformed with the poorest living near at the top level and the richest residing the bottom. A clear gap is defined early on and we learn everything is governed by a mysterious council and a computer known only as LINC. If you've ever read 1984 or Brave New World you'll understand Big Brother has clearly assumed total control. The dystopian world is enigmatic and fun to explore with excellent artwork for every scene. Don't cocern yourself with any "darker" shades though because the accompanying humor overrides that time and again. Some characters even move between areas to make it feel more alive. As an adventure game it's generally what you'd expect. Talking to people for information and clues on what to do next, using one item on another. One of the differences is that you can die and there are many ways to fail, including a rather unexpected and hilarious disintegration. Puzzles range from too simple to obscure and complex. Getting into the security building using a grappling hook took me a while to figure out since the game expands as you gain access to more levels. Overall it's a little short and can be finished in about four hours, I thought there was less dialogue from characters than other games however it is voice acted and well at that. Speaking of sound I'm concerned about bugs that could possibly be censorship. Sometimes lines of dialogue aren't uttered at all. Then we come to the music and I just didn't like it because it pierces your ears and is only a short loop. That's about the only gripe I have with the game though, otherwise it features a solid story which is appealing to any cyberpunk fanatic. Fun, free and thrilling!

I think the problem with this game is the story and the scenarios. I mean, the cover, the intro, the comic style, etc. seem to say that this is a story about a futuristic world. You can imagine a big city with flying cars, floating buildings, fighting robots, teleporting devices, silver suits... And then you find a plot where you must just find a way to escape from a kind of factory in a not so much futuristic place (except for the nice Link interface). It's good for a beggining, but the whole story should have a bigger set of locations. And well, it's funny and some characters are really hilarious but it isn't what you expect at the beginning of the game. Also, there are too much of the two things I hate in an adventure: stuff that doesn't seem to have any utility but it has and, much worse, stuff that you are sure will have an important role for the story but doesn't have. Both things makes you try again and again everything with everything until finally you find something. For example, you feel stupid when you go here and there trying the same things all the time because you didn't see a little switch hidden in the background picture. The other thing is worse: if, for example, in an adventure you find some glue it's ridiculous that they don't give it any use. Or if they give you a piece of rope or a key, you need to use it soon, because they are things that can be so useful. It's not fair of them to make you keep it almost all the game until you can use it. They should know you will try a key in every door you find all along the game. Some times in such adventures you have a key and a closed door but they don't match! The key is for a cabinet at the end of the game and the door must be broken with a bar. It's cruel and it shouldn't be permitted! And what about a closed cabinet that you won't be able to open? You will try everything to open it until you find a new way to go and you will finish the game without having opened it. AAARGHH!! Anyway, the game has the classic flavor and it's a story you will remember forever, but it's not all it could be. There are too many loose ends that could be avoided and you will wish a BASS 2 where all that necessary future stuff is explained.