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. 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
  2. Gotxn
    Mar 26, 2021
    7
    -Good Story
    -Easy Gameplay
    -Nice Cartoon graphique (Walking Dead Episodes Like)
    -some little bugs not that bad
    -Fun
  3. 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
  4. 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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