Beneath a Steel Sky

The Good
Beneath a Steel Sky is, in a nutshell, both an excellent point-and-click adventure, and a work of art. The background graphics are all hand-drawn and look excellent, with lots of attention to detail. The game itself is very detailed and well made. Good plot, memorable characters, lots of objects to interact with, multiple scenes/events that take place during the game and extend the plot, and the puzzles bring a good challenge from start to finish. The game length is reasonable as well; not too long or too short. Dialogue is extensive, and often witty and humorous, while also crucial to solving some of the puzzles.

The Bad
The voice acting from the CD version could be described as somewhat cheap and boring, creating more of a budget feel. I personally thought that some of it was just flat out horrendous. Although the music isn't bad, it can get stale and repetitive if you're in a certain area for a long period of time. Some parts of the game may require a walkthrough, and/or a dozen saves.

The Bottom Line
Like I said in the review title, Beneath a Steel Sky is a point-and-click adventure you shouldn't miss if you're in to the genre, especially since it's freeware now. It has its flaws, but whatever, I'm willing to forgive and forget. Go and download it now, either from Classic DOS Games or GOG.com, or if you're a Linux user, look for it in the package repository for your distribution. You won't be disappointed. One word of advice, though: you might want to look for the walkthrough on the Internet, if you find yourself stuck on a ridiculously hard puzzle. Also, don't forget to save often.

That said, you're in for a uniquely good experience if you're playing this for the first time. Highly recommended.

The Good
This is one of my favourite adventure games, hands down. I enjoyed it immensely. The graphics were rather dated, even at the time I first played it, but they transmit the dark and, yes, steely ambience of this world. An innocent man crashes a helicopter into a hospital to save his own life. A sinister employer forbids the workers in a power plant to wear protective clothing, from nothing but pure malice. For all the technology in the city, either victimising or pampering its population, its deepest root is a nest of living veins and nerves. How could I not love it? There seems to be an underlying motif of chairs... throne-like VR chairs, used for medical treatment, or transmission of information, or torture.

And the plot, gods, the plot! It is so twisty and loopy, I will not even start on it. Suffice it to say, it would do justice to a good SF novel.

And I liked Joey. In my right mind, I would hate a cute robotic sidekick, but the many witticisms and body changes of Joey proved one of the joys of the game. Plus, of course, he turned out vital to the ending.

The Bad
Cyberpunk doesn't age prettily, but that was not a problem with this game. It felt real. My problem, rather, was that it seemed to be two distinct games. The first sector (about up until Foster entered the church) is rather LucasArts in style, though with a darker background, more violence and a more acrid sense of wit. (Backtalking robot sidekicks, a Mr Burns-style madman in charge, and so on.) Howsoever, from the moment Foster finds the dead bodies, it turns into a deadly serious cyberpunk thriller. (See the death of Anita, the torture chair etc.) Now, I like both genres, but it seems like there is no way to bridge the gap.

There could have been more of it. More of the cold war against Hobart, more hints about Obermann, more city to explore. But that's not really a bad thing.

Also, this is a personal thing, but I would have liked it even more if Reich had stuck around a bit longer. Continually trying to trick a sadistic personal nemesis as well as a faceless corporation and a sinister electronic deus ex machina would have made the story even more interesting. Oh well.

The Bottom Line
An involving, baroque, dark futuristic city trip of wit and drama. A must play for all adventure gamers.

The Good
A while ago, Revolution Software gave the source code for Beneath a Steel Sky to the makers of ScummVM (www.scummvm.org) so they could include support for it in their emulator. Not only that, they also allowed the ScummVM team to put the full game up for download, free. I figured there was no excuse not to try it. I'll never regret downloading those 67 Megs of pure magic.

The game begins with a comic book style intro cutscene, complete with still panels and "WHAM!" "BOOM!" and other sound effects. We learn that your character, Robert Foster, was in a helicopter crash when he was very young, and was stranded in the wilderness, or "The Gap." A tribe of people raised him there, and he built a robot named Joey. Then, police from the city he was born in come to get him. Just as they reach the city, the helicopter crashes. Foster survives again, and is on the run from the police, and tries to escape from the city. But he learns of the dark things that truly make the city run, and fights to...well, I don't want to give it away.

The point and click gameplay is simple, left or right click to move, left click to examine an object, right click to use it. Move the mouse to the top of the screen to select inventory items. The pixel-hunting problems of most point and click games are gone in BASS, because most important objects are very visible. The story is engaging and fast paced, and the puzzles are fun. Parts of the game were too hard for me, and I needed a walkthrough, but most adventure veterans should easily navigate the puzzles. I play these games for the story, really, not to experiment with inventory items. The voice acting (in the CD version) is very well done. The dialogue is also hilarious at times, giving the normally dark cyberpunk genre a lighthearted feel. Joey the robot is very humorous, and the courtroom scene in the later part of the game is extremely funny.

The Bad
The game has very, very few flaws. Obviously, the graphics and MIDI music are dated, but for a 1994 game, they are good. Still, they aren't as good as graphics these days, and the 320x200 resolution may require you to adjust your monitor. In the CD version, some voice acting is missing, and other times, the voice acting doesn't match the subtitles. I believe when you talk to Walter outside Burke's Bio Surgery, four or five lines are COMPLETELY different from the text displayed on screen. More minor voice acting things are present as well. For example, the text on the screen may say "jumper" (the British word for sweater) and the voice actors say "sweater." It's probably a localization thing, but it would've been nice if they changed the text too.

The Bottom Line
Before playing this game, I thought Grim Fandango was the greatest game ever made. Now, BASS is planted firmly next to that game in a tie. Even if you play with a walkthrough that spoils all the puzzles, the game is still one of the most entertaining things you can find. And since it's free now, there's no excuse to try it. It will be worth every single one of the zero dollars you pay for it.