The intro has a number of beautifully designed comic book style panels.These graphics sadly don’t carry over to the main game, however.īeyond’s graphics are a bit of a mixed bag. Beyond A Steel Skyīoth Beneath and Beyond a Steel Sky saw Watchmen comic book artist Dave Gibbons team up with Revolution co-founder Charles Cecil to create the artwork for the game. It’s hard to explain, but very simple to do and a really clever feature. There are often different options to swap to get the final result, and if a number of machines are located in a single area, you can swap options around from machine to machine. So it becomes:īuy Drink > Insufficient Money > Get Drink The hacking tool allows you to swap part of the sequence to change the final result. Here’s an early example from the game:īuy Drink > Insufficient Money > No Drink Foster can scan a machine, and change the way it operates to get it to work correctly. Robert Foster has a hacking tool which allows him to manipulate certain systems in the game world. There is one mechanic which isn’t quite a puzzle, but does involve some working out. ![]() Don’t panic, though, adventure game fans: there’s no Discworld’s Fishmongers Belt or Gabirel Knight’s Scooter puzzle here. These puzzles mostly take the form of finding items and taking them to individuals, using them in certain places and in certain ways or orders, and sometimes combining items. Beyond A Steel Skyīeyond a Steel Sky doesn’t have a huge amount of general puzzles (although there is a Towers of Hanoi, Hanoi fans), but it does have ‘point and click’ style puzzles. Occasionally you’ll be asked a direct question, and possible answers are shown in the tree, highlighted in green. Some subjects remain after they’ve been asked, and continually asking about it can lead to further information, while some subjects disappear altogether and others can even lead into new subjects. The lower center section of the screen displays a conversation tree, with various subjects or responses showing up. This can be a little intimidating to do around a three-dimensional space, but Beyond never overbears you with having too many things to examine.Ĭonversation works similarly to the likes of Mass Effect. ![]() Items are pretty standard fare: explore and examine your surroundings and Foster will usually pick up an item if he needs it, or if he feels like it could be useful. Generally speaking, there’s puzzles, talking and items to pick up. Beyond is, of course, now fully 3D, allowing us to see Union City in its full glory.Īs a non-combat, story-driven adventure game, Beyond follows the tried and tested game design of its predecessors. While others have claimed it is reminiscent of the Telltale style games, I actually felt it is much more like 2014’s Dreamfall Chapters. While Revolution Software decided to keep the traditional point and click style for the most recent Broken Sword sequel, Beyond moves about as far away as it can go without changing genres.īeyond uses a third person perspective, switching to various camera angles when you talk to someone or perform various actions. Beyond A Steel SkyĪs you might expect, Beyond is a very different game to Beneath. But Foster is about to uncover a mystery hiding behind the beautiful city’s aesthetic. Joey has turned Union City from a smoke belching industrial cityscape into a bustling modern utopia. This time it’s not protagonist Robert Foster on the receiving end - he’s a witness to a child being taken by a four legged vehicle instead.įoster takes it upon himself to follow the vehicle to Union City, a place he left at the end of the previous game, under the watchful eye of Foster’s robotic friend Joey. Much like Beneath, the game starts with a kidnapping. With all that time waiting, can Beyond a Steel Sky live up to the expectation?īeyond a Steel Sky picks up 10 years after the original game, and begins in a familiar fashion. It’s become a cult classic over the decades, and fans have long sought after a sequel. I generally don’t like to focus on a game’s graphics, but Beneath a Steel Sky really managed to nail down a Blade Runner style cyberpunk cityscape long before, well, the Blade Runner game did. What else I remember is being astounded by the voice work, sound, presentation and most importantly graphics. ![]() I vividly remember trying to play this game around 1995, and finding it cripplingly hard to progress. It’s been two and a half decades since the release of Beneath a Steel Sky, and I’m certain that most fans of the original game had given up on ever seeing a sequel.
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