Beneath a Steel Sky (1994)

I was never much into adventure games and this one remembered me the reasons why - it represents all the bad things and lacks some of the good things of this genre. cons: 1) pixel-hunting: Several times an important item is easy to miss as it is some 2px small (piece of putty on ground, lightbulb socket in wall etc.). Some items are so indistinguishable on the background you will have hard time finding them (pliers on wall) 2) illogical actions: See that item? Just pick it up and don't ask why! 3) meaningless unrelated scenes: Would you like to acces that area? Just visit the guy over there and the area will open for no clear reason. 4) death: There are several possibilities to die so zou have to save often. Some death scenes can be avoided only by try/fail sequence, some require speedy searching with your mouse around the screen to avoid, some contain dialogs that explains a little of the world background so you should see them. 5] length: It is possible to finish the game during one cloudy autumn saturday. pros: 1) nice classic graphics: Hand-drawn graphics, resolution 320×200 px and 265 colours - this is the settings for an adventure game! 2) voices: Different accents, good acting. 3] story: The plot is good although you will not enjoy it until you finish the game and sum it up.

The setting is great, really convincing and easy to get immersed in. The storyline is interesting and seems to have the right balance of questions and answers so far. My biggest problem with the game is how the puzzles are as obscure and ridiculous as you may expect from this sort of game but what makes matters worse is you're usually not even sure what you're meant to be doing. Let's say in another P&C, you may be facing a difficult puzzle but you know it's something that will let you cross a gap or open a door. In BASS it's usually not clear what you're meant to be doing next, so you have absolutely no idea if you're even in the right area - are you stuck on a puzzle because you don't have all the items, or is it just that this area isn't actually a puzzle; you're just in the wrong place? And then *later*, it might just be a puzzle... This problem is compounded by the fact that there are 3 major levels to the city and each level is made up of many screens with many rooms going off each level. So say you're guessing that you're meant to be opening that door, getting into that room, fixing that robot, whatever... You have no idea where to look for that item or piece of information. You'll also often get items or info WAY before they're relevant and again, in another P&C this isn't such a problem because you know what your next objective is - in BASS you have an inventory of items that may be used on about 50 screens worth of objects, and you have no way of knowing which. It gets 4 stars for its great setting, sense of humour, characterisation of even the most incidental characters and the imagination and thought that's clearly gone into its creation. All those qualities redeem it almost back up to 5 stars in the face of incredibly vague objective and disappointing puzzles. Final thought: Normally when I check a FAQ when I'm stuck, I think "Of course!" but in this I was always thinking "... Right. How the hell was I supposed to know I was meant to go like 30 screens away to show that item to that guy at that particular moment?"

I remember playing this game way back and thinking, "Wow this world is amazingly detailed." Well, time has passed and this game hasn't lost a single bit of it's flavor. I f you are looking for an adventure game, look no further, this is it. Great characters, great setting and really tricky puzzles, what more could you want. It's also free. Did I mention it's free. Oh yeah it's FREE. GET IT NOW!

This game was released during the domination of Lucasart's point-&-click games, and while it wasn't compared favourably with them, it can certainly hold its own with the best. Okay the graphics are clunky, but the backdrops are detailed, the story quirky - going from serious to humourous very easily - and quite possible a cult classic in computer gaming. It's only let down really is the constant need to have some words of the dialouge in capitals even when they aren't being stressed; can can get rather annoying, especially since sometimes the speech is garbled back either background sounds or just plain bad recording at the time. Still, these are flaws that can be over looked and the game enjoyed nevertheless.

Well, considering that this game is being offered for free, the only real question to ask yourself is whether it is worth the short download time and small amount of space it will take up on your hard disc. If you don't want to read my review, here's the short answer; yes, it is. What are you waiting for? Download it! I'll keep this review to the point; BASS is a game with a wonderful story, although in my opinion the story could have been fleshed out a bit more. It's set in a city which is hundreds of stories tall, and feels to me sort of like a composite of the Los Angeles in Blade Runner and the city from Brazil. If a cool sci-fi story set in a place like that sounds like your cup of tea, than this game is for you. The graphics hold up fairly well, and if you run it through the included emulator you can tweak the graphics to be a little smoother. The voice acting is all very good, although I have to wonder how a bunch of British people (and one American guy) ended up populating a city in Australia. Of course the most important part of any adventure is the puzzles, and BASS has some really good ones. Most of them are very well thought out, but there are a couple that are nonsensical (and nonsensical puzzles are the bane of many adventure games, imo). One in particular involves launching a small animal into a pool of water with a catapult to destract a guard. What? Still, over all they are very interesting and make sense. Anyway, why are you still reading this? You should be downloaded Beneath a Steel Sky.