Beyond a Steel Sky

Most adventure games now that are good still feel like they are missing a middle or an end. This has a whole story and it flows nicely. A great follow-up to the original.

Presentation 8/10: Graphics are quite pleasant. Not mind blowing but the art direction conveys the sense of the city and can look beautiful at times. Voice acting is adequate. Music seems barely there, but not intrusive. Story 7/10: Having recently played the original, the story gives the player a good incentive to re-visit the city and get a "what happened after" sort of feeling. The use of focused, small areas, instead of multiple screens, keeps the player focused on the task at hand. Gameplay 7/10: As mentioned under Story, the play areas are smaller and more focused, which to me seems like an improvement over the traditional point-and-click adventure, multi-screen, try everything on everything style of the past. However, the use of invetory does seem limited, and even though the attempted hacking device feels more like a gimmick, it is focused enough to get you along. The only real complaint I have is that the character movement is a bit too slow and clunky. Summary 7/10: A fairly decent adventure game, if a bit on the easy side. Not a must play, but interesting enough if you are a fan of the genre.

All I can say is I wish there are more games like this one. I also wish the makers would consider making a sequel. I loved every moment of the game-play. The brilliant comic-like graphics, The sound and inspiring story-line, The believable and likable characters (droids included), the challenging puzzles ..... the quirkiness of it, all of it !!! Another game showing that there is no nee to add fighting to make a game engaging and interesting. I really wish there were more games out there like it because this one is quite the unique gem. Again to makers: please make a sequel !

During a time period such as this, one tends to be very cynical when it comes to games. Maybe that is part of the reason why this game resonated with me so completely. One of the best adventure games (and games altogether) in a long while and a wonderful signifier how old studios like Revolution can still create worthwhile and unique games. I can't stress enough how good it feels to see studios with their own stamp and atmosphere on a new game that is unmistakeable. Emotional and atmospheric continuation of a classic with a story that definitely fits our own real world present moment. Quality is always timeless. I cherished this experience.

Having fond memories of Beneath a Steel Sky, I was excited to play this game. Playing with a controller felt really clunky - not sure if it is different with a keyboard. it felt like there were limited discoverable/actionable things to do besides go here, hack that, go here hack this then sit through a long cut-scene, explaining the story then repeat the same thing over again. We don't get to organically discover the story. Having played and loved many classic point and click/adventure games like the Unwritten Chronicles series, Syberia series, Runaway series, Broken Sword series - to name a few, it just felt really dull and disappointing to play. The story felt forced and most puzzles just involve positioning yourself in a the right place to hack something. And using your crowbar to open something. The complaints aside, the only thing that engaged me and kept me playing was the top notch voice acting!