Beneath a Steel Sky

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
Beneath a Steel Sky is a very entertaining story about Rob, the character you control, who is kidnapped from his home in the wild outskirts known as the Gap, into the big hostile city in which the game takes place. After staging an escape, Rob must discover why he was brought here and find a way back to the Gap. Like almost all good adventure games, BASS has a great story with a lot of mystery and suspense which will keep you interested right up to a surprise ending. The game also has some good humor mixed in as well. Its not as off the wall as Monkey Island or Grim Fandango(which is good because BASS' story is meant to be a serious) but Rob and his robot Joey add some much appreciated levety to the rather dark story. The artwork and environments for the most part are rather well done(considering the age of the game) and add to the game's dark atmosphere. The simplistic two button control scheme didn't really hinder gameplay. I didn't really like it or dislike it. I guess to newbies of the adventure genre its probably a plus.

The Bad
The music is a different story. There was a few good tracks but I found it corny for the most part and it took away from the edgy mood. While we're on sound here... Am I the only one who noticed that Rob and Joey are the only ones without British or French accents. I guess Virgin Interactive didn't feel the need to "Americanize" all the other characters when bringing the game over to the States. Oh well. My biggest gripe with BASS is its lack of quality puzzles. There are very few puzzles that aren't of the "Use this item with this item" variety. When I did get stuck in this game the solution was often to go to a previously explored area and trigger an event that didn't make much sense. The lack of challenging puzzles will leave veteran adventurers bored and will make the game seem shorter than it is.

The Bottom Line
A good game to try if you've never played an adventure game before. It's certainly not a classic adventure game, but those who have enjoyed LucasArts' adventures will find the same strong story and and witty humor here. I just wish BASS would provide the same depth as far as puzzles go.

The Good
I liked pretty much everything, and the voice acting was superb for its time. BASS was made by Revolution Software, and that was not a very well known company back then, and to say that BASS could be compared to Lucasarts adventures is to say that they are pretty damn good at what they do!!!

The Bad
My copy of the game had a bug in it (which was probably why I bought it for $10), every 5 mins or so the game would come up with a blue screen of death and quit, so I had to save every 2 mins or so. Other than that it was fine.

The Bottom Line
If you like Lucasarts, then get this!!! This is very much like Lucasarts games.