Beneath a Steel Sky (1994)

but takes too much time and effort

how to download a game in gog.com

I tried to like this game but it was hard. As other reviews point out, it tries to mix and match many themes and styles and ends up being good at none. My main complaint is the logical progression of the puzzles and the motivation to play. Let's start with motivation, for a large part of the game the main desire is to just 'go down' to the lower level, without any clear reason or much interest. There is little reason to care about the main character or his fate as there is little identification with his plight. The sidekick 'joey' is a lot more interesting and colorful. The main issue however is that there is no logical progression of puzzles. This is not to say that they are difficult. In fact most of the puzzles in the games, with one or two exceptions, are quite easy to solve after a bit of exploring. However the sore thumb is that things happen for no reason at all. Some area might be all geared for you to get an item and you kind of guess that the main purpose here is to get that item, even though there is no logical reason to do it. Often times once you get it the next puzzles offers a contrived reason why that item is needed. Also, the game state changes for no apparent reason. Some characters or areas might stay locked into a certain state and won't advance, even though you know you are expected to talk to this character about a certain topic next or the solution is in this or that area. However the character or area will remain locked until you complete a completely unrelated puzzle simply because the designers designed the puzzles in a particular sequence. This gets very annoying as is renders a very artificial and mechanical feeling to the game. The 'real' humans in the game don't differ from the mechanical androids that the game seems to dislike so much. There is even a whole 'court' sequence that you are required to passively participate in ( passively in the sense that your actions have no effect on the outcome ) and that has nothing at all to do with the story or progression. It feels like an obligatory and forced comic relief of sorts. The music is annoying and often intolerable, the voice acting is sometimes very good, but often quite bad and artificial and boring. Again Joey stands out as a character, so does Anita. However others, including the main character, are unmemorable. Sadly, the game is not bug free. I had the displeasure of encountering a 'show stopper' bug during my game session and needless to say it significantly ruins the game experience. However in a game this old, bugs are maybe more easy to forgive. Nonetheless, It might be worth GOG's time to patch this title in some what, since it is offered free and thus is a showcase of what GOG is offering to paying customers, and thus should be a polished experience. The areas are varied, and the challenge of the puzzles and the pride of accomplishment is there. There's even the obligatory 'I'd never solve that one puzzle without a hint book or random trying' that is characteristic of classic adventure games. The Art is nice and the ideas of a future dystopia are interesting, however in spite of all that the game experience drags with very little energy or motivation. What this games lacks most critically is good design. In particular it is badly in need of a user experience designer that can infuse it with purpose and polish the experiences and memories that people take away from the game and the emotions that gameplay evokes. All in all, it's a game that aims to be a classic, but fails short on the most critical aspects. On a side note: kudos to the designers and property owners for releasing the rights to this game into the public domain. This gives old games a second life and emphasizes that a game designers final aim is the pleasure, appreciation and memories that a game evokes in it's players. Despite the less than favorable review I wish Revolution a great success with the iPhone port of this game and even hope to see Beneath a Steel Sky 2 in the works someday. Bass still offers a lot of interesting concepts and directions that could benefit from further exploration.

i remember when this origanaly came out, i could not afford it back then, now its free and yes even as a free title still so disapointed. you need to use walkthrough guide just too play, as whats needed for each area to progress is just so out there that you would not think or know to do it will little to no hint/clues in the dialog. gave it 1 star for the fact its free and on linux too not just windows

It's a pretty good classic pixel graphic + animation game. I found myself taking a longer time trying to figure out what in the world I'm trying to do to beat this game. You kinda have to second guessing and search for something that you can use or even do something with it. I think I wasted my time trying to play this game because I can't seem to complete the game when it's like a riddle at the end. It's like working than playing it.