Never would I have thought that Beneath a Steel Sky would get a sequel. Therefore, I was quite enthusiastic and had high expectations. After all, in 1993 "Beneath" offered one of the most interesting worlds of the 90s. So here's a chance to return to a social dystopia with citizen classes, wacky shops and virtual worlds? Count me in! Unfortunately, the second instalment is a bit toned down in terms of atmosphere and setting. Sure, we roam Union City again, but unfortunately, it looks rather mediocre most of the time and with little variation. Nevertheless, the technical aspects are fantastic and I would like other developers to take a leaf out of this hybrid of third-person and point-and-click. Rarely have I seen such a good modernisation of a genre. Unfortunately, the story is outdated in comparison. It feels like we spend half the game chasing after a MacGuffin to which Foster may have an emotional connection, but we as players have none. We keep getting caught up in what feels like endless dialogues that seem to go around in circles forever. This doesn't just annoy us but also makes Robert look pretty stupid. A picture of a fool that I couldn't really get rid of until the end. The puzzles, on the other hand, are standard with combinations, although there is also a little twist here with a hacking device. This allows us to swap configurations of advertising boards, robots and other devices so that, for example, a button opens a door when you are not authorised instead of triggering an alarm. However, this is rarely challenging, unless the places to be hacked are stupidly placed. After about an hour, the story picks up a bit and builds up some tension again, although the game only manages to build up a mystery around the city until about an hour before the credits, which is then solved faster than you can shout EX-TER-MIN-ATE. Beyond a Steel Sky is quite fun, because the game can excite with the one or other narrative of this megacity, but unfortunately doesn't manage to build up enough depth and follow in the footsteps of its direct predecessor.

A tale of media illiteracy.

You see signs of the game not trusting the player to understand information very early on - it encourages you to ask the same thing multiple times to really make sure that you know what you need to do (on top of the existing hint system), but the answers only change slightly each time, creating a lot of repetition. Especially early on, your character is bewildered by pretty much everything and has to ask the most obvious things - and this is not related to the trope of an outlander coming to a high-tech area. You initially think nothing of it, assuming they were just quirks of the devs trying to help you.

But it just gets worse. As the tension builds up, you come to an incredibly disappointing Marvel-esque cutscene that makes absolutely no sense, is completely avoidable and foreseeable and ends with, of course, a sacrifice and a tearful goodbye. It does literally nothing for the story, no character arc has been changed, nothing in the world is different.

The actual ending is what broke me. The idea of man vs machine, empathy vs logic, and the interpretation of happiness is not new - in fact it's a mainstay of the sci-fi genre (though at least we avoided the ubiquitous utilitarianism topic for today). And this game presents an absolutely naive interpretation of it. Firstly, it concludes at 'this one specific obviously bad way of making everyone happy is not good', without challenging the innate notion of happiness being the end goal. Secondly, and most importantly, the end sequence is literally you using the power of logic against a machine that for some reason didn't see the issues with its own bad logic. You, the player, don't even get to think - you just solve the kid's version of a rubik's cube and the protagonist automatically does the arguing for you - no thinking necessary! In an even more child-like manner, the different opponents you defeat using the power of logic cower and disappear (forever), and the antagonist then... dies for some reason.

Why is this so childish? This the dream sequence, the l'esprit de l'escalier of rational™ people - that your opponents will listen to you, you have all the answers, and your opponent will then back down because your power of logic is just too strong. In a way, you can interpret it as a hopeful appeal to democracy, to activists who can change the minds of the people in charge. But while that's true to some extent, in reality it's more than a single person happening to just... go to the people in charge (which nobody else did) with a perspective from outside (because everyone inside is brainwashed) and the people just listen and accept whatever you say (because they were solely in charge because they think they're doing what's best for everyone, even if they're wrong).

Overall, the Obvious Bad Thing (kidnapping children) that happened at the beginning and is the motivation for the entire journey turns out to be... not really connected to the overarching theme. It's not actually pivotal to anything that's happening in the city, it's explained away in a single line. Even worse, it provides the protagonist a counterargument for the previous battle using the power of logic - so it can't even challenge its own assumptions labelled as 'bad' on a fundamental level, it has to resort to things that the writers themselves made up. This also applies to the apparent resource exploitation of another city which, if you haven't played the previous game, gets mentioned one or two times tops - the theme doesn't imply such an exploitation must happen, but it provides an argument because otherwise you couldn't have easily defeated an opponent using the power of logic.

At least it covers the theme of a social credit system, but to a very limited extent. What happens as the citizens get infinite Qdos (their social credit system) and are basically freed? We don't know, it doesn't get explored. Neither do we get even a hint of discussion that human governance (after defeating the evil robots) isn't great either - at most by looking back at 'the old city' (bad) but it doesn't get explained, maybe it was in the prequel game.

I feel like I keep writing about games that do boring interpretations of their themes, but I never see a base version of them done well. I do wonder if I have to give some older game or media credit for that, but I don't think I've played/read/watched them then. At the same time, it feels cheap to recognize a genre mostly because of themes that I often identify as lazy. Maybe we're just beyond that, and this game is from 2020 anyway.

I still do appreciate its creative hacking games, the voice acting and actually the more interesting faces of the people you meet - literally. Its tone is also fun, which kind of excuses its random quirks.

Just like Ghostrunner, it has some okay gameplay which might be worth its while but the pure disrespect shown towards the player during the thematic conclusion makes it unworthy of recommendation. Play State of Mind or maybe even Whispers of a Machine instead.

This is a very interesting game. What it’s trying to tell is well presented, even if the voice acting is not completely serious. I like the voice actors. They have a certain charm like Resident Evil from the past but better. It gives them personality even if it might not be the best voice acting you heard. Back to the story, it starts slowly and there might not be a lot of plot at first, but you’ll slowly realise that the world itself and showing you how humans live in Union city was a build up to its message. It’s actually a pretty powerful story with heavy themes that are presented in light hearted and colourful ways. It made me think of current wars, exploitation and how the happiness of certain groups/countries always come at the expense of others even if ideas are well intentioned.

What’s also impressive is the fact the game references a previous game that I haven’t played, but it’s still presented in a way that keeps me up to speed with what I need to know and keep my interest. It makes me want to play that game but it’s probably too old compared to this. It would be nice if they remake it in the style of this game.

The gameplay is mostly exploring areas, talking to NPC with full voice acting and trying to solve puzzles, mostly through a hacking device and other items you find along the way. The puzzles are fine for the most part except for one. There will be a point where you’re going to need to lure out an artist. The last steps were a bit too much. The game does have an in-game hint system but it’s unlocked in steps with each step taking 30 seconds before you can see the next one. It was annoying when I figured most of it myself and just trying to check the one bit I was missing. Other than that, I enjoyed the gameplay a lot. The way the hacking device was used is pretty original.

I’ve played the game through Apple Arcade and while it’s impressive for on iPad game and perfectly playable, it was clear that my iPad Pro 2020 isn’t strong enough. The game doesn’t look as pretty as the pc version based on the gameplay video I’ve seen, there are some pretty long load times, there are also some stutters mostly near the end etc. I wish I played the game on my pc to enjoy it fully but then I wasn’t sure of the game’s quality before playing it.

I’m not a huge point and click adventure fan. This one is less of a point and click adventure and more of an adventure 3D game with some of those elements sprinkled here and there. The game might not start on a high note but it becomes better the more you play. It took me over 13 hours to play the game extensively but missing 5 achievements, I wasn’t really trying to get them. It’s definitely worth playing Beyond a Steel Sky!