Beneath a Steel Sky (PC) Review

It is difficult to not get instantly hooked by Beneath a Steel Sky. The start of it does exactly everything that an opening act should do. It presents the back-story, the conflict, and interesting villains, all in a beautiful and action packed way. However, the true beauty starts the very minute the game kicks off.

The first puzzle is a real teaser and sets the tone for what players can expect in this point and click adventure. Robert, the aforementioned hero, is trapped on the upper floor in a room. Below there is a guard, and to his left is a door he can't open. To find the solution to this problem, the player must start to drag the mouse all over the screen until they eventually find that there is an iron bar stuck somewhere on the wall. Now the adventure is really on!

Many of the puzzles in Beneath a Steel Sky are about this sense of exploration. Often, at first glance, things seem impossible to solve, but once all options are exhausted and explored, a solution can more often than not be found in a smart way that capitalises upon everything the genre is known for.

Accommodating this gameplay, there is a wonderful story filled with twists, intrigue, and fun, as well as memorable characters that give the otherwise grey steampunk dystopian setting much needed colours that keep it light where it should be in order to better highlight the heavier parts and create mood enhancing contrast.

While fundamentally a good game at its core, time has had an impact. One big problem is the graphics that are sometimes not clear in terms of what is clickable or not, meaning that there is a requirement to scour the entire screen to sometimes find a clue. The voice acting also suffers from the old technology, which means it doesn't hold up to today's loftier standards.

Besides solely technical issues, though, there are also some aged design choices that reveal its age. There is a lot of back-tracking involved, for instance, and it is really easy to miss vital elements. While this was commonplace in the genre back in the '80s and early '90s, it is something that is sure to stand out in a negative way nowadays. However, while Beneath a Steel Sky certainly looks wrinkly around the edges now, it does so in positive ways, too. It is a game of its time, and one of the better point-and-click examples. It is certainly an adventure that fans of the genre will definitely want to give a try, and is well worth a place in the library of any gamer, especially those who enjoyed the games of that era.