Did you know, popular singer, Meghan Trainor is a huge fan of point and click adventure games? Ever since she bought her Amiga 500 off Britney Spears at a car boot sale in Cleckheaton, she was hooked. Her hit song, All About That Bass, is in fact a tribute to her favourite game, Beneath A Steel Sky. She was so impressed by the 15-disc epic’s dystopian future / cyber-punk story, that she gave up trying to win the European Cup on Sensible Soccer. After winning the League and F.A. Cup, Revolution Software’s second adventure became an obsession. Her life then became all about that B.A.S.S, no treble.
She then went on to use her fame and fortune to campaign fervently for a sequel to be made. Thanks to her efforts, it is now available for consoles and PC, and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank her for her efforts.
Set 10 years after its 1994 predecessor, Beyond a Steel Sky, returns us to the Gap and our hero, Robert Foster. An intro animation catches us up quickly and it’s not long before Robert must return to Union City in search of a kidnapped child. The city he left in the capable hand of his trusted companion, Joey, is not the utopia it appears to be. Mixing the barren desert planets of Philip K. Dick, and the philosophical artificial intelligence ponderings of Asimov, Beyond a Steel Sky leans into its sci-fi setting and effectively use it to set the scene.
It also helps with the out-of-box thinking you’ll need to navigate its many puzzles. Like the 90s adventure games that inspired and preceded it, solving a puzzle in Beyond a SteelSky it’s never as simple as putting a key in a lock. You’ll end up trying every item you scrounge and steal on everyone and everything, in every combination until you figure out what you need to do to progress.
However, this is not meant as a criticism. It’s exactly the kind of old-school challenge I wanted from the game and found it consistently comforting and rewarding. These kinds of games were never designed to tell you what to do or hold your hand while you figure it out, instead, they challenge the player to think creatively. Some people will say it disrupts the flow of the game, or that the story stalls in the middle, but this is just the pace of 90s point and click games. If you don’t like it, go back to your Fortnites or Minecrafts, and get off of my lawn, you whippersnappers.
It makes me feel old to say this, but it’s been 28 years since the original game came out, so I was expecting some graphical improvements. But I wasn’t expecting anything quite as lovely as the bright, cel-shaded art I was presented with. Complete with smart use of colour that not only makes the game look gorgeous but also helps set the tone and feel of each scene. This may have something to do with the return of legendary comic book artist Dave Gibbons as Art Director.
The Watchmen co-creator has done an incredible job of bringing these characters, old and new, into the modern gaming era. They look much more detailed and realistic yet are immediately recognisable and familiar. This goes for Union City as well. From the ground level, high-class utopia, to the rusty catwalks of the lower-class skyline. The attention to detail is breathtaking, especially for those returning to this universe. Every location has a nod or a wink to the original game, and while it’s not essential to have prior knowledge of the events of Beneath a Steel Sky, for those that do, noticing all the little in-jokes and easter eggs is very rewarding.
When it came to the gameplay, I was worried that adding a whole new dimension would ruin that nostalgic feeling I was desperate to feel, but they’ve done such a good job. To quote Todd Howard, it just works. I like to think that Robert Foster is my cursor and I’m moving him around the screen to click on things. The menus for characters and objects are easy to navigate and give you all your action choices in one place.
One of my bugbears of old point and clicks, was when you had to change your click to talk or examine and then click an object or character – This has been streamlined and then some.
However, the most exciting new addition is the hacking scanner that lets you switch up the various machines’ programming to help you progress. This adds pure logical puzzle-solving to the trial-and-error detective work that we are more familiar with from the previous game.
The soundtrack to Beneath a Steel Sky may sound dated and basic to the modern ear, but those MIDI files were a fantastic achievement in 1994. When paired with the crystal clear, well-written voice-acting, it makes Union City seem real and teeming with life.
Alistair Kerley, the composer for Beyond a Steel Sky returns and has really upped the ante with his take on post-apocalyptic scene-setting. Taking his inspiration from classic sci-fi films, from Star Trek to Stargate via Alien, he convinced Revolution that only a full orchestral score would do. The result is very pleasing and does its job to perfection. The instrumentation and textural palette provide enough flexibility to seamlessly navigate the ever-shifting tone of the game. The music pays close attention to the narrative and almost feels diagetic in any given sequence.
The voice-acting is also top-notch. The writing oozes with humour and is interwoven with nostalgic nods to the original game. The characters all have their own unique quirks, which makes you want to hear every dialogue option. Whether it’s the sound of the game’s many American, Australian or British accents, they all sound authentic and heighten immersion in the world. My personal favourite is the northern truck driver, who says his fuel cell is ’emptier than’t a politicians vows.’
I love this game for lots of different reasons. The nostalgia, the adventure, the hope that other long-forgotten gems will get sequels. But most of all because a skilled development team have put a lot of thought into crafting a brilliantly- balanced, well-written modern take on the point and click adventure genre.
As a busy father, this game can be played in smaller chunks without losing momentum and has quite a short total playtime, of around 10-12 hours.
Unless you are incredibly impatient, I would highly recommend playing Beyond a Steel Sky. Although you don’t have to play the original Beneath a Steel Sky to enjoy it, you probably should as it helps you to enjoy the setting’s rich lore to the fullest. Beneath A Steel Sky is also available on gog.com for free at the moment and would probably run on your work computer when your boss isn’t looking, so you’ve no excuse. (except the inevitable ones for why those TPS reports aren’t finished)
Once again we would like to thank Meghan Trainor for making all this possible and for being all about Beneath a Steel Sky.