Beyond a Steel Sky PC Review
Revolution Software may be best known for their Broken Sword series but before Broken Sword, Revolution released Beneath A Steel Sky (now available for free on GOG). This game would prove to be immensely popular and since then fans have been clamouring for a sequel. Now, 26 years later, a sequel has finally been released. So is this a welcome return to Union City? Or would we have been better off staying in the Gap? Let’s find out!
You play, once again, as Robert Foster, hero of Beneath a Steel Sky. He is in the Gap, which is how the Australian outback is known in this world and he is out fishing in a lake with a young kid called Milo and Milo’s father. Suddenly, Milo gets more than he bargained for as a huge machine with legs appears from the lake, knocks out both Foster and the father and kidnaps Milo. Foster promises his parents he will do everything he can to bring Milo back so he sets out on foot through the gap in search of Milo. The trail leads to the outskirts of Union City, the place where Foster himself was brought to ten years ago after being kidnapped himself and where he barely escaped with his life. Now, however, in order to find Milo, he will have to do the unthinkable: find a way back into Union City.
The story grabbed my attention from the outset and never let up. I was always motivated to find out more about why Milo was kidnapped and a few other subplots also develop which helps keep the player engaged. The story kept my interest all the way through with some nice twists along the way. The characters are as entertaining and as larger than life as you would expect from a Revolution game. Union city is also partly a character in this game. What’s refreshing about this game is that this isn’t some dreary depressing post-apocalyptic dystopia but actually at first glance looks like a utopia. Everyone seems happy and safe with all their needs taken care of. But throughout the game some cracks begin to appear on the surface as you see that not everything is as it seems.
The writing is of a particularly high standard. Much like their previous games, this game combines a serious overall story with plenty of humour sprinkled throughout. While the changes in tone in the original game from serious to comical were a little jarring at times it is handled better in Beyond and the humour is considerably more restrained this time. One of my favourite new characters is a poetry reciting D-royd called Tarquin with plenty of other fun characters you meet along the way. Joey, the sassy droid from Beneath, once again steals the game with his witty one liners when he appears later in the game. That said the game does get emotional in places and I am happy to say that for me at least the story worked for me throughout.
One of the things this game does well is bring the player up to speed on current events as it very quickly and efficiently reminds us of the main things that happened in Beneath. It is done so naturally and will help ensure that it’s not necessary to play the original if the player doesn’t have the time or the inclination to do so. Indeed while this game is a sequel it doesn’t rely on nostalgia or on the success of the original game and it stands well enough as a standalone game in its own right.
I played this game on PC with a controller and I found them very intuitive and easy to use. You move the camera with the right analog stick or the mouse and you move Foster with the left analog stick or keyboard. Hotspots light up when you get near them much like Grim Fandango and while there is no hotspot finder like we find in other adventure games, I didn’t have any issue with pixel hunting although a few times I did have to maneuver the character and camera a little to be able to interact with the hotspots. Virtual theatre also makes a return in this game which is basically where the characters move around and carry out tasks on their own. This works well in the game and helps ensure the city feels alive and the NPCs feel natural rather than simply standing in one place like they do in most other adventure games. That said a few times it can be difficult to interact with a character when they keep walking away from you which can be a little frustrating at times. It was also a joy to walk around this beautiful, vibrant city and I only wish we could have explored more.
The puzzles can usually make or break an adventure game. More recent games have done away completely with traditional puzzles and only include choices as replacement for these traditional puzzles. Other games, in their attempt at creating challenging puzzles sometimes make them illogical and frustrating instead. Thankfully they are logical and interesting and fit well into the story in Beyond. They are well thought out and never did I feel as if any were simply there as an arbitrary obstacle to prolong the game or impede progress. They fit naturally in the game and were quite fun to resolve. You have the usual inventory objects although there is no inventory combination and it’s usually only possible to select the correct option which avoids time wasting but may spoil the challenge for some. You always have a clear objective so I was never wandering around aimlessly not knowing what to do. The puzzles are mainly on the easy side but some are a little trickier. Luckily this game also includes an in-game hint system which can be accessed in the menu screen so is never intrusive. The game will give you a vague hint at first to help point you in the right direction with the hints getting more and more specific until it gives you the answer outright although experienced adventure game players shouldn’t really need to use this all that often.
One of the most interesting types of puzzles is the hacking puzzles. Several times in this game you need to access your scanner which will allow you to hack into nearby electronic objects. Sometimes you will need to hack into moving objects so you will need to be quick. Again these puzzles are usually quite simple and logical but they are a lot of fun. It’s also possible to hack into objects for fun which I admit I did quite often during the game. Even though this type of puzzle may have been slightly overused and there could have been a little more of a challenge sometimes they were still a lot of fun to solve.
This is also available on Apple Arcade although if you are playing it on an Apple device I would highly recommend playing with a controller and connecting to a TV if possible. Firstly the controls may be awkward if you are using your fingers on an I-phone or an I-pad so a controller would be a definite plus. Also this game deserves to be played on as big a screen as possible to really get the most out of the game. It’s a little like watching a movie with great special effects on a phone compared to the cinema and for me this game would be best enjoyed on as large a screen as possible.
This takes us to the graphics. Beneath was a traditional 2d pixel art point and click adventure which was certainly beautiful for its time. However Beyond is cel shaded 3d direct controlled. While many adventure games have certainly suffered in the past in 3d and while the graphics look very different in Beyond, for me they are absolutely stunning. The 3d in this game looks better than in Escape from Monkey Island, Gabriel Knight 3 and Simon the Sorceror 3D and I would compare them more to the graphics in Dreamfall. In fact the graphics also serve the story well as the colourful art style perfectly suits the perceived “happiness” of the people of the city. The backgrounds are also stunning. Several times I would stop and simply move the camera around to admire the view. There may be some uncanny valley with the characters and 2d has a particular charm that is difficult to achieve with 3d but in this case the 3d works and makes the game feel a lot more cinematic and dynamic than it otherwise would have been.
As with Beneath, Dave Gibbons, most well known for the graphic novel “ The Watchmen”, makes a welcome return to collaborate once again with Revolution. The intro cut scene is done as a graphic novel and is simply beautiful. You can definitely tell that a talented and experienced comic book artist such as Dave Gibbons was involved and while the rest of the cut scenes are done very well, it is a shame that we don’t see a return to this style of cut scene later in the game.
The voice acting and music are also of a high quality throughout. All the voices match the characters well and while some voices may be a little exaggerated this is in keeping with the larger than life characters themselves. There are also a variety of accents such as American, Australian, English, Welsh and Irish which helps to demonstrate how cosmopolitan Union City is supposed to be. The voice actor for Robert Foster is different to the voice actor in Beneath which at first was a little jarring but I got used to it very quickly. He also did a great job in the role and other highlights are the voice actors for Joey and Mentor Alonso who is able to demonstrate the subtle threat simply with the intonation of his voice. The music is done by an orchestra and help fit the scenes and is extremely pleasant to listen to throughout.
Revolution were kind enough to provide me with an early access beta version of the game for PC and while the game was mostly stable and I was able to finish it without any issues, there are some bugs and glitches. Only once did I need to reload the game as the other glitches were minor. These consisted mainly of NPCs walking into you while you were in a conversation with another character, or characters walking through each other and through objects. These glitches however didn’t detract at all from my enjoyment of the game. The developers are also aware of these glitches and have already added patches to fix some bugs in the Apple Arcade version so I am confident that they will work to fix these glitches for the full release or shortly thereafter.
The game took about 15 hours to complete and it is a testament to this game’s overall quality that even with the glitches in the beta version I played I still absolutely loved this game. Not only is this my favourite adventure game of the year so far but it is one of my favourite adventure games of all time. It seems like the stars were perfectly aligned to give us this almost perfect combination of fantastic story and writing with clever, fun and logical puzzles, memorable characters, high quality voice acting , beautiful orchestral music and stunning backgrounds and art style. At its heart it is a traditional adventure game which takes what is best about old school adventure games such as story, exploration and puzzles and adds them to Beyond in a way that modernises the adventure game genre and ensure that this game can be enjoyed equally by old school adventure game fans and newcomers alike.
Pros
Story grips you from the start and keeps your interest all the way through with a dramatic ending
Well written dialogue with serious overall story with humour sprinkled throughout
Memorable characters
Fun, clever puzzles that are well integrated into the story
Gorgeous art style with stunning backgrounds
High quality voice acting and beautiful orchestral music score
Vibrant city that feels lived in
Fun to explore the city and intuitive controls for PC
Game doesn’t rely on nostalgia or knowledge of original game to be enjoyed fully
Great combination of old school adventure game which modernises adventure genre
Good length at 15 hours
Objectives always clear so no aimless wandering around
Non-intrusive optional in-game hint system can help with puzzles without spoiling the resolution of puzzle
Cons
Can be a little difficult to interact with characters and droids when they’re moving
Would have been nice to have been able to explore more of the city
Puzzles mostly on the easy side for those looking for a tough challenge
Beta version has some minor glitches but these will probably be resolved for game’s release or shortly after
Beyond a Steel Sky Steam Apple Arcade Official Site
Interview with lead designer and Revolution CEO Charles Cecil here
Interview with Revolution co-founder and Beneath a Steel sky developer Tony Warriner here.