I've always raved about Broken Sword to be one of my favorite point’n’click adventures which to me was the peak of the classic genre, hitting me just at the right time with the right topic to skip school for a couple of days on release. Despite that, I've never actually played any older games by Revolution Software, who started their Virtual Theatre Engine on Lure of the Temptress followed by Beneath a Steel Sky.
You can find a lot of the personnel on Lure of the Temptress already. David Sykes, Tony Warriner, Dave Cummins, Stephen Oades and Charles Cecil, they're all there, but the game, at least in retrospect, is a catastrophe and so it took until the release of the sequel Beyond a Steel Sky to find my motivation again. And even finally starting my 7 hour playthrough of Beneath a Steel Sky in perfect timing for its 30th anniversary in March 2024, it still took me two months to attempt finishing it.
I'm not angry at all at the old games, because GOG gave them away for free and I think they're no charge ScummVM games these days anyway. Revolution probably know very well that they might have a history with these programs, but they didn't age all that well. Beneath a Steel Sky though is still worth looking into, if you're prepared for what to expect.
Beneath a Steel Sky starts with digitized comic cutscenes that of course are a little pixelated given it's 1993/94, so it does make sense to include basically the same panels by Dave Gibbons in print form with the original release. The story is about a wasteland citizen stumbling into an amnesiac urban neo noir family affair that nicks elements from Mad Max, Blade Runner and Star Wars so elegantly it would create false anticipation to use them as an actual description. But you'll understand the references when playing.
Have you played Broken Sword? You'll notice the pace in storytelling is quite similarly fast, whilst some puzzles can drive you insane by having you use items multiple times and having you stop looking for pixels as there rarely is a lot to discover, until you finally are required to use that one little spot that will reveal itself by a mouse over on a minimal hitbox. The fully dubbed version of Beneath a Steel Sky could be so nice, wouldn't it have its quirks that might still have looked like a good idea back in the day. Let's say the music by Dave Cummins isn't on the most pleasant side either.
Beneath a Steel Sky seems clearly to be a child of its time, when tabletop role playing worlds like Cyberpunk and Shadowrun kept the Neuromancer tropes alive in the nineties until we finally got movies like Johnny Mnemonic and The Matrix. Virtual Reality was a big futuristic thing as well, though contemporary peripherals had been cumbersome and ineffective. It was enough hype to have New Line Cinema implement the topic to their new interpretation of an old Stephen King short story with The Lawnmower Man in 1992.
Those very enigmatic cyberspace episodes were rather complicated puzzles to solve for me in Beneath a Steel Sky either, especially when showing the more uncomfortable attributes of the game, which aren't in the controls as much as within the fact you can fail. Having to reload your card into the terminal here is just as much a waste of time as having to restore the game after dying, so prepare yourself for timing issues and constant saving to avoid consequences.
On the other hand Beneath a Steel Sky identifies as a cynically written story though and having a robot sidekick to upload into several shells is adding to the humor just as shady surgeons or factory owners. It's a future dystopia just right up my alley, but at a certain point it was just running around for a couple of hours more or seeking help in a guide. Unless you want that from an otherwise short game in 2024 you'll probably understand we've had some evolvement in clever writing and programming, so the experience can still be challenging but less frustrating in modern graphic adventures.
Given the zero costs that's alright, I guess, especially with Broken Sword on the horizon, which was another improvement for the Studio. Compared to Lure of the Temptress, Beneath a Steel Sky was a gigantic leap forward and that's still something to honor in retrospect. I might sure have thought differently of Beneath a Steel Sky back in the day, quite possibly as a Revolution like they named themselves.
As an adolescent, the alienation within a rather bizarre civilization could be something relatable. I'm not even sure the vision is that far off, maybe not our exact present, but a society based on a computer network with district restrictions and employment for rather pointless activities to keep people occupied is close enough. And there's a certain nostalgia for lower resolution pixel graphics as well, so there's a chance you'll feel at home playing Beneath a Steel Sky today. Have I said it's free?
You can find a lot of the personnel on Lure of the Temptress already. David Sykes, Tony Warriner, Dave Cummins, Stephen Oades and Charles Cecil, they're all there, but the game, at least in retrospect, is a catastrophe and so it took until the release of the sequel Beyond a Steel Sky to find my motivation again. And even finally starting my 7 hour playthrough of Beneath a Steel Sky in perfect timing for its 30th anniversary in March 2024, it still took me two months to attempt finishing it.
I'm not angry at all at the old games, because GOG gave them away for free and I think they're no charge ScummVM games these days anyway. Revolution probably know very well that they might have a history with these programs, but they didn't age all that well. Beneath a Steel Sky though is still worth looking into, if you're prepared for what to expect.
Beneath a Steel Sky starts with digitized comic cutscenes that of course are a little pixelated given it's 1993/94, so it does make sense to include basically the same panels by Dave Gibbons in print form with the original release. The story is about a wasteland citizen stumbling into an amnesiac urban neo noir family affair that nicks elements from Mad Max, Blade Runner and Star Wars so elegantly it would create false anticipation to use them as an actual description. But you'll understand the references when playing.
Have you played Broken Sword? You'll notice the pace in storytelling is quite similarly fast, whilst some puzzles can drive you insane by having you use items multiple times and having you stop looking for pixels as there rarely is a lot to discover, until you finally are required to use that one little spot that will reveal itself by a mouse over on a minimal hitbox. The fully dubbed version of Beneath a Steel Sky could be so nice, wouldn't it have its quirks that might still have looked like a good idea back in the day. Let's say the music by Dave Cummins isn't on the most pleasant side either.
Beneath a Steel Sky seems clearly to be a child of its time, when tabletop role playing worlds like Cyberpunk and Shadowrun kept the Neuromancer tropes alive in the nineties until we finally got movies like Johnny Mnemonic and The Matrix. Virtual Reality was a big futuristic thing as well, though contemporary peripherals had been cumbersome and ineffective. It was enough hype to have New Line Cinema implement the topic to their new interpretation of an old Stephen King short story with The Lawnmower Man in 1992.
Those very enigmatic cyberspace episodes were rather complicated puzzles to solve for me in Beneath a Steel Sky either, especially when showing the more uncomfortable attributes of the game, which aren't in the controls as much as within the fact you can fail. Having to reload your card into the terminal here is just as much a waste of time as having to restore the game after dying, so prepare yourself for timing issues and constant saving to avoid consequences.
On the other hand Beneath a Steel Sky identifies as a cynically written story though and having a robot sidekick to upload into several shells is adding to the humor just as shady surgeons or factory owners. It's a future dystopia just right up my alley, but at a certain point it was just running around for a couple of hours more or seeking help in a guide. Unless you want that from an otherwise short game in 2024 you'll probably understand we've had some evolvement in clever writing and programming, so the experience can still be challenging but less frustrating in modern graphic adventures.
Given the zero costs that's alright, I guess, especially with Broken Sword on the horizon, which was another improvement for the Studio. Compared to Lure of the Temptress, Beneath a Steel Sky was a gigantic leap forward and that's still something to honor in retrospect. I might sure have thought differently of Beneath a Steel Sky back in the day, quite possibly as a Revolution like they named themselves.
As an adolescent, the alienation within a rather bizarre civilization could be something relatable. I'm not even sure the vision is that far off, maybe not our exact present, but a society based on a computer network with district restrictions and employment for rather pointless activities to keep people occupied is close enough. And there's a certain nostalgia for lower resolution pixel graphics as well, so there's a chance you'll feel at home playing Beneath a Steel Sky today. Have I said it's free?
5 Comments
@RedBackLoggd Thanks for remembering. Yeah, I must admit I've rediscovered darts for me last October and spend a lot of time tinkering with equipment and practice. It lead to video games rather being Mario Kart and Pokemon and we played a bit of Uno again. There simply hadn't been games I've finished in a way they'd be worth writing about. I'm also considering joining a darts club and entering tournaments after summer, which is easier to do than finding video arcades or pinball in the area. It also happened last vacation we didn't have anything like that nearby and as we played a lot of pool and table tennis aside from the darts we didn't even unpack the Switch we had brought. I miss the amount of gaming, but it's also a lot of fun to do something else in person for a change.
Beneath a Steel Sky, yeah, I totally understand we've come past that, but the genre has been worse aside from a couple of Lucas Arts adventures in many aspects before as well. I can't really judge them for something that was rather well made compared to the games available before. What I didn't point out as much, because I don't really have a better idea, is that the ending feels quite rushed, like typically if scheduling or budget require to toss some of the big ideas they might have had. If that was the case an expanded remake would make more sense to me than just for the mechanics. Frankly, without spending extra time on restoring and figuring out what to do Beneath a Steel Sky is a rather short game.
Beneath a Steel Sky, yeah, I totally understand we've come past that, but the genre has been worse aside from a couple of Lucas Arts adventures in many aspects before as well. I can't really judge them for something that was rather well made compared to the games available before. What I didn't point out as much, because I don't really have a better idea, is that the ending feels quite rushed, like typically if scheduling or budget require to toss some of the big ideas they might have had. If that was the case an expanded remake would make more sense to me than just for the mechanics. Frankly, without spending extra time on restoring and figuring out what to do Beneath a Steel Sky is a rather short game.
That's dope man, happy you find a new hobby (possibly more than a hobby to be?). I admittedly haven't gotten into darts myself, but it's crazy how talented people are in that game.
Video game wise you have a point, but I think there were enough cyberpunk movies released beforehand that it could've drawn from to create a better story at the very list. But look, we'll just agree to disagree on the story ultimately.
I actually don't remember thinking the ending was rushed because they had more than set-up the grand villain beforehand. I think the bigger issue was that they went the body horror route rather than sticking with cybernetics, so that's why all the random experimento jumbo felt strange.
Video game wise you have a point, but I think there were enough cyberpunk movies released beforehand that it could've drawn from to create a better story at the very list. But look, we'll just agree to disagree on the story ultimately.
I actually don't remember thinking the ending was rushed because they had more than set-up the grand villain beforehand. I think the bigger issue was that they went the body horror route rather than sticking with cybernetics, so that's why all the random experimento jumbo felt strange.
@RedBackLoggd Hey, mate, just to let you know, I've started Beyond a Steel Sky and quit right after the gorgeous comic strip intro. Why? Because I've got no motivation to play a 3D runaround game with keyboard and mouse. Sadly I think I might have even paid a rather high price close to release, really having had high hopes. I should have researched better, but who would expect... Well, Monkey Island 4 and others should have taught me.
Haha, yeah a lot of those 2D adventure series tried to go to the 3D route and rarely succeeded. Hopefully you give it another go.
RedBackLoggd
28 days ago
I definitely disliked the game more than you, but you do a great job painting the backdrop it originally came out in and your last sentence about it depicting a relatively-realistic dystopia is definitely worth noting. I still think it would've fared better had the script been given a fresh overview and the insta-deaths removed.