Beyond A Steel Sky

 PC
Metascore
70

Mixed or average reviews - based on 29 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 29
  2. Mixed: 14 out of 29
  3. Negative: 1 out of 29
  1. DarkStation
    Jul 10, 2020
    90
    I like how Robert Foster is an old-fashioned game hero with no inner demons to drown or who is operating in a trendy grey area where no one is neither good nor bad. In fact, Beyond a Steel Sky is in many ways respectful of genre traditions but with modern wisdom and presentation. The game can be enjoyed without prior knowledge of Beneath a Steel Sky but obviously, it has a lot of gentle nods to its predecessor. And unlike the original game that felt too short for me at the time, Beyond a Steel Sky has a good length to it with a well over dozen hours to see it through. During your stay in Union City, you will encounter some sensible and some crazy people, solve many tricky situations with a common sense and wit alike, bump into unexpected faces of the past, get your grumpy friend Joey back, visit the old cyberspace, uncover the truth beyond, erm, the steel sky, and leave some goodbyes along the way.
  2. GameWatcher
    Jul 10, 2020
    90
    Beyond a Steel Sky reminds me a lot of the Telltale games, but better -- it has the writing, the plot drama, and the voice actor quality that made the older adventure games such a success, but with a modern engine, present-day graphics, and a full 3D camera that beats all Telltale offerings into a pulp. I was actually a bit surprised by how less serious BASS2 starts compared to the previous game, but it eventually evolves into a more significant tale as things are not what they seem and start to unravel, revealing their dark side. In the end, Beyond a Steel Sky is a surprisingly good adventure game -- which is no small feat in today’s industry -- and while different from BASS, it matches the original’s quality. If you’re a fan of old LucasArts titles, Telltale games, or one of the many people that waited 20 years for BASS2, this is definitely an adventure game you should get your hands on.
  3. PC Gamer
    Jul 13, 2020
    81
    Filled with what made the original game great, this second trip to Union City has been worth the 26-year hiatus.
  5. CD-Action
    Oct 15, 2020
    80
    Do you know how it feels to experience a sequel to a game you played (and loved!) 26 years ago on your Amiga? Do you know how it feels to realize that it was worth the absurd wait? I do now. Beyond the Steel Sky is not perfect but it reminded me why I used to enjoy adventure games so much back in the day. [10/2020, p.66]
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  6. Telegraph
    Jul 31, 2020
    80
    The most notable downsides to the game are its technical wobbles, with the camera jolting out of place, the odd audio glitch and rare instances of item hotspots not appearing and requiring a restart. These are a shame -and one hopes eminently fixable in upcoming patches- but are not enough to take the shine off a smart, funny and handsome slice of classic adventuring with a modern sensibility.
  7. Guardian
    Jul 27, 2020
    80
    Unfortunately the game has a few logic issues of its own. A handful of bugs, including one that breaks the game and forces you to retreat to earlier saves, threatens the delicate relationship of trust that exists between player and designer, as each time you get stuck, you question whether the fault lies with your reasoning or simply a glitch. Patches will, no doubt, quickly fix the issues, at which point Beyond a Steel Sky will join its stablemates as a modern classic.
  8. PC Games
    Jul 19, 2020
    80
    With Beyond a Steel Sky, Revolution Software, the team around Charles Cecil and comic book legend Dave Gibbons, has successfully transported the fascination of classic adventure games into modern days. Clever ideas, charming characters and witty dialogues make the sequel to „Beneath a Steel Sky“, which was released 26 years earlier, a must-play for every adventure fan. Hopefully we don’t need to wait that long for our next visit to Union City. It would be a shame.
  9. Adventure Gamers
    Jul 15, 2020
    80
    It’s not a perfect game, but Beyond a Steel Sky is a perfectly joyful experience and a faithful sequel for anyone who loved the original game, while bearing the standard for what a modern science fiction adventure should look and sound like in 2020.
  10. Cubed3
    Jul 13, 2020
    80
    Beyond a Steel Sky brings old school point-and-click adventure into the 21st century, with an action, and humour-packed plot, and a compelling sense of character. Puzzle-solving strikes that nice balance between satisfying, but not too complicated as to force the player to be bogged down at the expense of the story. The story itself at around 10-hours long or so, is a classic science-fiction adventure, and it hits all the right notes of action and emotion, despite Robert Foster not being exactly the most compelling character out there. While there are a few bugs and little niggles as far as movement animation being a bit stiff, these are cancelled out by what the game does well, which is in its high octane cinematic narrative quality.
  11. GameGrin
    Jul 10, 2020
    80
    A fantastic adventure with some at-times brain bending puzzles that stays remarkably true to the original game. Some minor technical issues mar the experience slightly but it’s a great return for Foster and Joey.
  12. Eurogamer Italy
    Jul 10, 2020
    80
    Beyond a Steel Sky is an excellent adventure game with a well-made narrative and a very inspired art direction.
  13. IGN Italia
    Jul 31, 2020
    77
    A good adventure game that faithfully recaptures the spirit of its predecessor while also welcoming new players with a few accessibility options and a storyline that can be appreciated even by those unfamiliar with Beneath a Steel Sky.
  14. Ragequit.gr
    Jul 10, 2020
    76
    Decent story and a well-crafted plot, but plagued by many bugs and glitches, with some polish, Beyond A Steel Sky could be a much superior experience.
  15. Vandal
    Jul 28, 2020
    75
    If you’re looking for a Beneath a Steel Sky, you’ll find a good one here. Although it has some obvious shortcomings, we appreciate the ambition to bring back the series, its puzzle design and its storytelling. Graphic adventure fans won’t be disappointed.
  16. Meristation
    Jan 30, 2022
    70
    Beyond a Steel Sky pays its particular tribute to the 1994 classic, while renewing and adapting its graphics and controls to the new times. Despite some minor flaws such as the conversational system, some somewhat crude facial animations or some occasional bug, the sequel does not disappoint. The return of Robert Foster is something that is appreciated and that suits the genre very well.
  17. Cultured Vultures
    Jul 14, 2020
    70
    Beyond a Steel Sky isn’t a perfect game, but it’s made with a lot of love and attention from the developer.
  18. Worth Playing
    Jul 13, 2020
    70
    There's a solid adventure game in Beyond A Steel Sky. The puzzles make sense and ease newcomers to the genre, the story is mostly on point, and the writing is robust. Whether you're a longtime fan of the original or just coming to its world now, there's plenty to enjoy in Beyond. The multitude of technical gameplay and presentation issues make it difficult to eke out all of the joy you can from the title. If you can deal with all of that, then you'll find a fine adventure game to sink your teeth into. Otherwise, you might want to wait for a few patches to see if the issues get ironed out.
  19. Jeuxvideo.com
    Jul 12, 2020
    70
    Quotation forthcoming.
  20. PC Invasion
    Jul 10, 2020
    70
    Beyond a Steel Sky has some technical issues but it's excellent writing and interesting storytelling make it well worth experiencing.
  21. Gameblog.fr
    Jul 10, 2020
    70
    Beyond a Steel Sky is a a worthy follow-up to the original game. Its story, characters, atmosphere and puzzles are truly enjoyable and its comic book visuals are totally fitting. It's just too bad that it doesn't feel well polished and that some people will, more than surely, have some headaches because it's sometimes really tough to know what the next objective is.
  22. God is a Geek
    Jul 10, 2020
    70
    After 26 years, Beyond A Steel Sky is a strange yet welcome sequel. Not quite fresh enough to stand alone nor nostalgic enough to stir the memory, it nevertheless manages to thoroughly entertain if not thrill.
  23. 3DJuegos
    Jul 17, 2020
    65
    In many ways it is a worthy tribute to its predecessor, achieving it especially well in the most purely storyline face and in its modern graphic adventure mechanics thanks to the hacking system.
  24. 4P.de
    Jul 14, 2020
    64
    Tense and stylish adventure with entertaining, yet a little to easy solvable puzzles – but held back by a multitude of bugs and technical problems.
  25. Edge Magazine
    Aug 13, 2020
    60
    In the end, it falls beneath our expectations as often as it stretches beyond them. [Issue#349, p.96]
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  26. TheSixthAxis
    Jul 17, 2020
    60
    Beyond A Steel Sky has an enjoyable tale to tell that compliments the original game, building a newer, more modern dystopia atop the foundations of the Union City of old. It's just a shame that it's so rough around the edges.
  27. GameSpew
    Jul 10, 2020
    60
    Beyond a Steel Sky still comes off as rushed and sometimes disjointed, with more than a few rough edges. Right up until the final ten minutes I could swear I was only halfway through the game. It’s still worth the trip if you’re a fan of the original, but Beyond a Steel Sky’s flawed journey doesn’t go far enough to truly recommend.
  28. GameSpot
    Jul 20, 2020
    50
    All of my save files display playtimes that do not match up at all to how long I actually played the game. Often choosing to interact with a person or object would mean that Robert would turn around and walk away, very slowly, with control taken away from me until he reached an arbitrary destination. Textures frequently popped in late, lagging behind camera angle changes in cutscenes--the game is poorly optimized, which can impact its ability to sell the grandiosity of Union City.
  29. Screen Rant
    Jul 12, 2020
    50
    The best option is probably still the handheld version, then, as there isn't enough going on with the game's PC port to make it noticeably better than its mobile variant.
  30. Riot Pixels
    Aug 21, 2020
    44
    A primitive adventure in all regards, complete with bad writing, poor puzzle design, and 10 years old graphics. It’s absolutely helpless.
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In Progress & Unscored

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  1. Eurogamer
    Jul 14, 2020
    Handsome visuals can't quite make up for bugs and a lack of urgency.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
6.8

Mixed or average reviews- based on 33 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 33
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 33
  3. Negative: 5 out of 33
  1. true_240
    Jul 27, 2020
    4
    TL;DR
    Overall game tone, mood, and puzzles got more cartoonish/kid, a lot of dull uncanny valley characters, cheesy cliches, and bugs. All    TL;DR
    Overall game tone, mood, and puzzles got more cartoonish/kid, a lot of dull uncanny valley characters, cheesy cliches, and bugs. All elements feel disconnected from each other. Lack of QA and lots of annoying bugs. I liked graphics, models, level design, and lightning, but it's not enough for a good game. Verdict - Didn’t like it, get it when it’s on 70% sale. If you are looking for a good, smart and stylish cyber-punk adventure, check out oldies or indies like The Red Strings Club

    WHY?

    Just to get the idea of how relevant is my review could be to your experience.
    I’ve played the original “Beneath a Steel Sky” back in the 90s as a kid. It was not even a cd-version, it was a floppy version without voiceover and if I remember correctly, the PC my family had just a pc speaker instead of a fancy “sound blaster” card, so it was mainly just beeping and clicks as a sound.

    I’ve replayed the original later though my life and played Broken Sword 1-4 from the same game development company “Revolution” as well as dozens of other quests, point-n-click, adventures, and whatever you call them games, including all the classics from Lucas Arts and Sierra of course.

    When I found out about the sequel called “Beyond A Steel Sky”, I was very excited, as good cyber-punk never grows old on me. I knew that it was already available through Apple arcade, but decided to wait, as I didn’t want to be affiliated with Apple’s “new gaming service” in any way. Well, fast-forward to me buying the game when the sale started on Steam.

    If you are not familiar with the original - then just a couple of words about the setting. The game is set in a dystopian future, the player assumes the role of Robert Foster, who was stranded in a wasteland known as "the Gap" as a child and adopted by a group of locals, gradually adjusting to his life in the wilderness. After many years, armed security officers arrive, killing the locals and taking Robert back to Union City. He escapes and soon uncovers the corruption which lies at the heart of society. The sequel takes place ten years later after Rob’s peaceful life is interrupted by violent events, that force him to return to Union City.

    Visually game set me right on the mood for a good old adventure game with a nice “comic book” feel, reminding some sort of Telltale Games mixture with Borderlands. I was surprised by the camera and control style (which is not point-n-click apparently, but a 3rd person action gamepad style), which gave me the impression of more action inclined adventure style.

    Through the first hour, I realized that it’s just a gimmick for a feel of “a familiar to contemporary AAA action” user experience, yeah you will have to walk around to find the needed characters and items, but no action per se of any sort. And by the way, physics for moving around is buggy - you going to be stuck in spots with plenty room, stuck into other characters, experience buggy pathfinding with your character doing a “moonwalk” while stuck in a coffee-table and similar stuff.

    The more I was playing, the more I was getting disappointed. And there are reasons for that. Minor bugs in character behavior, camera, and sound were annoying and distracting from the story, and puzzles were way too linear and not thrilling.

    As I got the middle of my 12-hour game (which would take less for a walkthrough - I would say I’ve spent 2 hours at least dealing with bugs, reloading savegames, and listening to needless dialogues) I realized that I’m not going to have a deep and fun experience, but decided to finish the game anyway.

    At this point, I didn’t have any connection with the characters left, nor with the narrative. Most of the characters and the plot were very cliche for my taste, and occasional fun dialogues of Joey and Rob are lost in the massive spineless waves of non-essential and dull dialogues of non-essential and dull characters. At some point it felt like it was the developer’s goal to waste your time on these and long walks around, just to make sure that average gameplay time would hit a certain mark.

    The game world is very beautiful but empty at the same time. It’s interesting to see the scenery once and basically, that’s it. Why choose the form factor of the open world and at the same time not introduce anything that will breathe in life into it is beyond my understanding. Technically you have dozens of NPC wandering around to imitate life, but with the fact that you can’t even talk with them (Hey, Little Big Adventure 2, an open-world 3d adventure from 1997 had more life in it) it just adds more to the uncanny valley.

    Speaking about uncanny valley - unfortunately, the animation in the game is terrible, very crude and characters don’t even blink EVER. Feels like the animation style doesn’t work with the actual models/graphics at all, which brings me to a thought, that    … Full Review »
  2. nd_
    Aug 8, 2020
    0
    58 players peak today? 322 reviews? for usd 35? lets just all admit its a fail. people that played it 26 years ago already have other games,58 players peak today? 322 reviews? for usd 35? lets just all admit its a fail. people that played it 26 years ago already have other games, better games, as industry was developing all these years - and this title appeared to have nothing to offer for a new generation. nostalgy didn't work.… Full Review »
  3. Epinerf
    Jul 20, 2020
    0
    Does not work ...

    I would love to play this and will change this review when they will fix the oustanding amount of bug and crash
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