Beyond A Steel Sky

 PC
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

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  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 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    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    … Expand
  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, 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.
  3. sursurk
    Aug 8, 2020
    10
    It's like a Telltale game, if Telltale games had actual gameplay. You have a world to explore, you talk to characters, pick up items and use them to solve puzzles in order to progress in the game. It's a great fresh take on the point and click adventure genre.
  4. unpredictable
    Jul 22, 2020
    9
    A lot of things said about that game and Inwould like to mention my own impression.
    I am really a fan of TRON movies, and I can say that TRON:Legacy changed my mind. Beyond a Steel Sky really look like TRON. That's why I changed my mind once more and decided to register here and tell you what I think
    I think the game is really good. That raises some questions about AI, happiness and human    A lot of things said about that game and Inwould like to mention my own impression.
    I am really a fan of TRON movies, and I can say that TRON:Legacy changed my mind. Beyond a Steel Sky really look like TRON. That's why I changed my mind once more and decided to register here and tell you what I think
    I think the game is really good. That raises some questions about AI, happiness and human nature. I think you should give it a try if you like cyberpunk, dystopias and so on Right now the game gas some bugs and some translations are missing, also my vcard gets hery high T in Gram's house, especially in his room. All of this is not too bad, but I think nothing can really get 10/10. That's why it's 9.    … Expand
  5. Kalbranai
    Aug 13, 2020
    9
    I’ve no history with the original game from 1994, but this is a rich world with so much unexplored potential. The dialogue is kinda cheesy, but I was very impressed with the overall story. The way they implemented the scanner system to interact with holograms, droids, consoles, etc, was incredibly cool! I wished it were longer!
  6. 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
  7. Bubber
    Jul 20, 2020
    6
    Not a bad game. It's got an ok story and interesting characters. Graphics are good for a budget game. If you like this type of puzzle adventure games then you will probably have a good time. However the game needs more polish, it's possible to get into a bad state in several places where you have to reload an old save to make progress and sometimes the puzzle solutions don't seem to workNot a bad game. It's got an ok story and interesting characters. Graphics are good for a budget game. If you like this type of puzzle adventure games then you will probably have a good time. However the game needs more polish, it's possible to get into a bad state in several places where you have to reload an old save to make progress and sometimes the puzzle solutions don't seem to work so you end up having to do the same thing a couple of times until it works. Also I did experience a couple of crashes while playing though the game.… Expand
  8. gamejediben
    Aug 3, 2020
    8
    As a huge fan of Beneath a Steel Sky from 1994, I was so surprised to see this sequel but it was a pleasant surprise to be sure. It can be a little glitchy and janky but Im sure they will patch it up in the weeks to come. The story is full of humor and its really great looking too at least in the environments. The character models are very plasticy looking but its not a game breaker forAs a huge fan of Beneath a Steel Sky from 1994, I was so surprised to see this sequel but it was a pleasant surprise to be sure. It can be a little glitchy and janky but Im sure they will patch it up in the weeks to come. The story is full of humor and its really great looking too at least in the environments. The character models are very plasticy looking but its not a game breaker for me. My only real criticism is that its pretty short but the experience was well worth my time. Easily an 8 out of 10 for me.… Expand
  9. Gotxn
    Mar 26, 2021
    7
    -Good Story
    -Easy Gameplay
    -Nice Cartoon graphique (Walking Dead Episodes Like)
    -some little bugs not that bad
    -Fun
  10. PublicNuisance
    Aug 4, 2021
    7
    I often times don’t enjoy point and click games because they fall into certain stereotypes that I dislike. I figured that Beyond a Steel Sky could avoid those because it is a third person puzzle game rather than a standard point and click puzzle game. In some ways it does do better but in others it falls into the same traps. The ways it fails are that, just like in point and click games,I often times don’t enjoy point and click games because they fall into certain stereotypes that I dislike. I figured that Beyond a Steel Sky could avoid those because it is a third person puzzle game rather than a standard point and click puzzle game. In some ways it does do better but in others it falls into the same traps. The ways it fails are that, just like in point and click games, many of the puzzles revolve around trying to combine items regardless of whether they appear to go together. I prefer if they make logical sense. The game at least tries to justify it with their hacking game. Basically you can search for devices in the immediate area and swap parts of one with another in order to get a device to do what you want it to. It is at least unique in the genre although they got it to be annoying by making many hacks time based. For instance I need to swap different speech commands from a device to a robot so I need to wait for the robot to be near, swap the speech to him and then go to another device and wait for the robot to be near and swap the speech to the second device. Often times I understood what the game wanted from me but I felt annoyed at having to keep waiting on NPC navigation to line up in order to do what I knew needed to be done. Other times I didn’t know what the game wanted at first. For instance why would I have thought to use a toaster to interface with a satellite dish ? I figured it out by doing to age old combine everything trope. One thing I will give the game credit for is their hint system. It has possibly the best hint system I have ever seen. It doesn’t outright tell you at first but gives enough detail for you to figure things out. It also has a cool down so you have to try to work things out before asking for more hints. The only downside is some of the puzzles not following logic which makes it needed more often then I would like. I must sound like I disliked the game but overall I didn’t. Some puzzles I will give it praise for are the Linc Space puzzles which I enjoyed. The story was also great. I thought I had guessed where it would go, then thought I must be wrong and was confirmed right all along. There are a good set of characters and good progression although the beginning has a pretty slow pace. The voice acting was superb all around. The graphics were a nice art style with a good use of colour although the hair detail could have been better.

    I played Beyond a Steel Sky on Linux. It crashed on me once and froze once. There were 4 AA settings; a V-Sync toggle; an FOV slider that went from 80-110; and 9 other graphics options. You can skip cut scenes but not pause them. Alt-Tab worked. You could manually save although not during certain moments and there are 12 save slots to use. The game does auto save at various points as well. While the graphics have a nice style they don’t justify the performance of the game which often felt laggy. I don’t have exact frame rates to quantify it, just my feeling and the eye test. I did note that for the most part the game only used one CPU core and would often times peg my GPU at 100% usage. The graphical detail didn’t justify the GPU usage and the single CPU core being used was sloppy optimization. There were also several small technical blemishes such as characters chins going through their cloaks; droids walking through people during cut scenes; and certain textures being very dark during the reflections spa level.

    Game Engine: Unreal
    Game Version Played: 1.4.28330
    Graphics API: Vulkan

    Game Settings Used: All Highest at 1920x1080
    GPU Usage: 39-100 %
    VRAM Usage: 1506-4488 MB
    CPU Usage: 1-21 %
    RAM Usage: 2.4-3.8 GB

    Overall the game is worth playing and has enough positives going for it that I enjoyed myself more than I was annoyed. The story is great and makes me forget about the various technical blemishes. I paid $23.99 CAD for it and would say $15-20 would be a better price point for it, certainly not worth the $40 CAD it currently goes for.

    My Score: 7/10

    My System:

    AMD Ryzen 5 2600X | 16GB DDR4-3000 CL15 | MSI RX 580 8GB Gaming X | Mesa 21.1.5 | Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500GB | Manjaro 21.1.0 | Mate 1.24.3 | Kernel 5.13.5-1-MANJARO    … Expand
  11. GIVEMETWOMAPS
    Dec 22, 2020
    9
    The story is good and the minigame it centers around is surprisingly fun and wide in scope. I haven't encountered any bugs.
  12. Dirk1972
    Aug 3, 2020
    9
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Another great game from Revolution and a worthy sequel to Beneath A Steel Sky. Beyond's execution is a bit on the glitchy side, including graphics clipping, dodgy camera angles etc., but the game has had an initial patch since release which has fixed a lot of the more glaring issues. The story definitely has it's surprising/funny moments, especially the banter between Robert and Joey, and LINCspace makes a welcome nostalgic return. You don't have to have played Beneath first to enjoy this game, but I recommend that you do, because doing so will make all of the references in Beyond - and there are a lot of them - that much more meaningful. All in all, one of my favourite games of 2020 so far!… Expand
  13. GamingCouchSpud
    Dec 1, 2021
    8
    Beyond A Steel Sky is the sequel to classic cyberpunk science fiction point-and-click adventure game Beneath a Steel Sky, released on the Amiga in 1994.
    It has only taken 27 years to be made! So, it better be good.
    You play as Robert Foster, you live in a community in the desert wastelands, a child had been taken after a brutal attack, and it is your job to tracking them down and bring    Beyond A Steel Sky is the sequel to classic cyberpunk science fiction point-and-click adventure game Beneath a Steel Sky, released on the Amiga in 1994.
    It has only taken 27 years to be made! So, it better be good.

    You play as Robert Foster, you live in a community in the desert wastelands, a child had been taken after a brutal attack, and it is your job to tracking them down and bring them home. You find yourself travelling to Union City, one of the last mega cities on the planet, a planet that has been ravaged from war and political strife.

    Union City is a seemingly perfect utopia, controlled by AI, everyone seems happy, everything seems wonderful, but with anything that seems so perfect, when you scratch beneath the surface, you find out that things are not at all what they seem.

    Instead of a 2-dimensional world, that the previous game lived in, the modern point and click adventures takes on a much more 3-dimensional appearance, and a feeling of more freedom with that. Beyond a Steel Sky is very much a cyberpunk thriller, but within the point and click genre, whereby you will have to solve puzzles, speak to people, find out what is really going on, and try to solve the abduction of a child. And while that is a very serious subject, the game does have a humorous side within its Cyberpunk world. One of the achievements you will want to get is to make a robotic butler fall over, to do this you need to hack into the laundry machine, and change some settings so that the water over flows. You then return to the butler, and ask him to do the laundry, follow him downstairs, stand back and enjoy the hilarity. Many of the puzzles will need you to hack machines, but often you will need to engage in a lot of dialog with people, to find out the information you need, sadly this can sometimes feel a bit tedious, when you just want to get on with the game, and not just listen to seemingly endless dialog.

    Early puzzles include helping people, who in turn reward you with things that will help you to solve the next puzzle. Similar in game mechanics to the Telltale games like Batman: The Enemy Within and Tales from the Borderlands, if you have played those games, you will instantly feel comfortable playing Beyond A Steel Sky. Although Beyond A Steel Sky does feel much grander in scale than those games.

    The Good
    The graphics are superb, everything looks and sounds great, and despite a few dodgy voice acting, overall, the acting and graphics are top quality. The game is easy to play, the puzzles are logical, and never too difficult.

    The Bad
    A relatively short game, and as mentioned earlier, some of the dialog can be a bit tedious.

    Overall
    If you are a fan of point and click adventures, or the Telltale series of games, then you will instantly fall in love with Beyond A Steel Sky, and feel right at home as you play, it is far from perfect, and a little short, but even so, it is a game you should consider adding to your collection.

    I score Beyond A Steel Sky a very strong 8/10    … Expand
  14. ARSM
    Jul 19, 2023
    6
    The game is almost unplayable without a guide.

    Yes, it has well-written dialogues, but it doesn't provide you with enough guidance on our current goal or problem. You may need to get into the different parts of the city and do dozens of barely related tasks to complete the current set of problems. And it doesn't make sense even when you read it as a guide.

Critic Reviews

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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. 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.
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  2. 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]
  3. 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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