Beneath a Steel Sky (1994, DOS) Review

EVERGOOD BUT NOT GREAT

Also for: Amiga, Amiga CD32, iPhone, Linux, Macintosh, Windows

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I started this third or fourth replay of Revolution Software's classic point-and-click adventure Beneath a Steel Sky to assess its worth as a possible Hall of Fame-entry. Upon release, it shook my world with its dystopian setting, depicting a totalitarian metropolis structured into a vertically inverted class hierarchy.

In this universe, the wealthy elite live on the clean ground level, while the poor have to live and work on the higher planes, elevated much closer to the polluted skies above. Such class awareness in games was unique back then. And at the time, in 1994, the setting and story made it feel serious, like a revolution for storytelling in video games.

But that's just it - just about everything good about Beneath a Steel Sky comes with that caveat: "At the time..." Replaying it all these years later reminds me that it's not very serious at all. In all sincerity, it could probably be compared to Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge for all the shits 'n giggles. At the time it was a great representative of an enthralling point and click adventure game, and the story was as good as any we had ever seen in games.

But that doesn't mean a lot. Back then, few games were story-driven at all, and the ones that were rarely had great stories to tell. These days, Beneath a Steel Sky qualifies as an evergood game that is too formulaic to be considered evergreat. It didn't break much new ground, and although the story and setting were serious, the same cannot be said about the characters, dialogue and soundtrack, all of which lean heavily into lighthearted comedy and satire. This causes quite a bit of tonal dissonance. It's as if Revolution Software couldn't settle for a general direction, and ended up exploiting the fantastic setting and politics to appeal to the masses.

It begins in an unspecified future. Your alter ego, Robert Foster, gets apprehended by security forces from Union City, a bustling metropolis of skyscrapers, factories and smoking chimneys. They force him to leave his wasteland home to return to the city he left with his mother as an infant.

But as they reach the city, the helicopter malfunctions and crash lands on one of the walkways high in the sky. Robert survives the crash and sees his chance to flee. He eludes the guards and hides in a nearby factory. In order to escape the city and get back home, he needs to work his way down to ground level, with security forces and camera surveillance constantly on his heels.

That's the backstory I grew up with, as I originally played this on the Amiga back in 1994. Not until I played the CD talkie version for DOS, which I am now reviewing, did I become aware of the accompanying comic by Dave Gibbons (who illustrated the classic Watchmen). A digitized version of the comic constitutes the opening narration of the game, and it's a good read. It further details the circumstances regarding Robert's mysterious birth and upbringing in "The Gap", as his wasteland region is called.

Apart from that, I might actually prefer the Amiga version's lack of in-game music and spoken dialogue. The often upbeat music simply ruins the oppressive mood, squandering the potential of the setting. And the stereotypical voice performances turn the game into a sitcom.

Both Monkey Island-games (1 and 2) of the same era handled comedy in a more graceful manner, without sacrificing the great atmosphere. You can turn off the voices and the music, but the latter starts playing again as soon as you enter an area with a different tune.

But I don't want to come across as too negative. Beneath a Steel Sky made a lot of refinements to the genre, primarily in its interface, without sacrificing much of the challenge. It relies in equal measure on inventory puzzles, timing puzzles, dialogue-as-investigation and story exploration. The point-and-click interface only involves the two mouse buttons, removing the need for different verbs to interact with things. Left-clicking inspects them, and right-clicking is for interacting.

You have a robot sidekick, called Joey, who tags along throughout most of the game. He's essentially a small chip, which you can transfer into different robot shells as you see fit, which is a necessity for solving a few puzzles. And the fun part is seeing his personality change instantly with his appearance. I know I complained about the effect of comedy on the atmosphere, but Beneath a Steel Sky can, at times, be really funny - especially in the banter between Robert and Joey, and the latter's commentary on the absurd things going on in Union City.

Ever so slowly, or quickly - depending on your progress - the pair of you work your way down to street level, and beyond, to solve Union City's big problems. The story is clever, with a few surprising twists along the way. And the dialogue is very effective, short and to the point. Apart from quickly defining character traits, I like the way it can reveal hints, disguised as humour, without being obvious about it. But you have to pay close attention, because once spoken, the characters won't repeat what they said. If you don't focus, you might feel at a loss of what to do next.

The puzzles are fairly logical, and the streamlined interface kills a lot of trial-and-error. I also like that your inventory never gets cluttered by random items - it's often limited to just a handful of objects. And most of the time, the game keeps the rooms available to a minimum. Even at times of feeling stumped, the player never has very far to go to get back on track.

On the other hand, some essential items involve pixel-hunting. The worst puzzle of the game requires you to notice a piece of explosive putty that's just a couple of grey pixels in a slighly less grey environment. And you don't even know you need it. It's only when you equip it that you might figure out a use for it - if you're lucky - but it's hidden in a room where the focus is on other objects, and you already solved a tricky, multi-step puzzle just to get in there.

And in your first playthrough, the three short segments taking place in Linc-space (an in-game virutal reality world) will probably confuse your socks off. It is far from self-explanatory, and the game does very little to assist you with its innate logics. The manual gives you no hints, either, but the interface remains the same as the game proper, and the scarcity of interactable objects within the setting should shorten your time there.

Death is a possibility in a few instances, but you can save (manually) anywhere, and in order to die you almost have to be stupid or intentionally reckless (not counting the surprise death close to the end). Hey, how about opening the door to a nuclear reactor without any sort of protection? Or how about breaking and entering into a security office while the guards are watching?

And a great big plus is that you cannot lock yourself into an unwinnable state, which was an annoyance in many Sierra On-line adventure games of the era. I got worried when I lost a few inventory items, but they turned out to be duds; trinkets completely non-essential to future progress.

Beneath a Steel Sky utilizes Revolution Software's own Virtual Theater system, first implemented in their debut game Lure of the Temptress. In the Virtual Theater, some residents of Union City don't stay rooted to one place, but move around according to a schedule. It was supposed to create a more living, flexible world, where side characters interact with each other. It was fun to witness some of those conversations in Lure of the Temptress, but here, there's not much left of it. I didn't notice a single scene like that, and only a few characters moved around at all.

Apart from that, the pixelated visuals, with its expressive background art, establishes the scene and frames the story nicely. Revolution Software balances the amount of hotspots on the screen well, so that they give the world great flavor, without hiding all the important stuff behind visual clutter. Even tiny things are usually relatively easy to notice, thanks to good use of pattern irregularities and contrasting colors.

Upon release, in 1994, Beneath a Steel Sky received accolades for its marvellous visuals. This is obviously no longer the case, but it's an example of where the competence has provided the game with a retro charm that many nostalgic point-and-click fans want to relive. If you were there, at the time, it still looks beautiful. If you weren't, probably not so much, but who am I to say?

The world nevertheless remains appealing in its satirical depiction of societal services available to no-one but the exclusive elite: Travel agencies, insurance companies and cosmetic surgery clinics with years-long waiting lines. A nightclub so exclusive that barely anyone gets inside. A court where the judge believes himself to be the host of a televised game show (this segment was cut from the Amiga release). An empty cathedral guarded by a security guard, barring everyone from entering.

Beneath a Steel Sky still holds great promise, and remains entertaining on a superficial level. It's garnered a well-deserved cult classic status over the years. But the core concept had potential to become something even more timeless - groundbreaking even - if it would've dared to create a futuristic drama out of its well-defined setting.

I get that it would've been a big financial risk, because that would probably have been unprecedented at the time. Maybe gamers weren't ready for it? In 1994, the crowd wanted the comedic LucasArts and Sierra On-line adventure games. But I nevertheless must lament the fact that Revolution never took the chance with this neat idea.

And you don't even need to make a drama - or a thriller for that matter - completely sober and devoid of high spirits to connect. In fact, throwing in a raunchy joke and some outgoing characters makes the drama even more relatable. But the comedy doesn't have to permeate every single beat of the narrative. Here, it feels like a cop-out, and it feels forced and predictable. So it pains me to admit to myself that Beneath a Steel Sky, in spite of all the good things going for it, doesn't qualify for my personal "Hall of Fame". It's simply not great enough.