I love the original Beneath a Steel Sky, and I was pretty excited to play a new game in this setting. How would they cleverly pitch a new story with old characters and the same city?
And that's what kills this game really: they didn't.
The story pretense is absolutely nonsensical and lacking any agenda from Foster. I will avoid the spoilers, but the story just happens and the main character just enjoys the ride of subsequent set pieces the developers prepared for him. The reimagined city is hard to accept, given the massive shift it suffered from the hands of Joey. Old characters' are exploited for cheap nostalgia factor, and treated as extremely important figures for some reason, while in the original game they were all just accidental obstacles and/or helping hands of Foster. The Museum of Joey is abhorrent. New characters are way too comical and don't really fit with the others. The story climax is rushed and inconsequential, really. There's no weight to anything. Important issues are brought up by the game - once, and they are repeated in the most basic fashion at the end. An attempt to give some commentary, or presenting both sides of the argument, falls short and dishonest. Yes, it does comment on social media and intertwining it with real life, but nobody needed the Beyond a Steel Sky game to reiterate the same old things again to undefined audience and from undefined standpoint.
The game even ironically remarks that it's plain worse than the original and there's no real point of it existing - yep, it does say that - but it doesn't change the fact that's the case, actually.
The switch to 3D is suprisingly successful. The city transition (especially the upper levels) is nice, and it's enjoyable to walk around familiar environments.
The gameplay is severely lacking. You're on a ride, and barely need to solve some simple puzzles. There's a neat hacking mechanic, but it's criminally underused and relies too much on stumbling on things by chance.