
#Beyond a steel sky ps5 review full
The game is full of references and nods to Beneath A Steel Sky, and while some of them may seem superfluous, the direction that this new story goes in makes most of them valid. In many ways, Beyond A Steel Sky feels more like an encore for the first game, a greatest hits call back if you will. The second is a visual/collision bug that let NPC’s walk through me and other NPC’s during conversations, with at least one instance where I walked through Joey as well while solving a problem. It’s not an action game so I don’t expect him to hit mach 5 but at times, in the larger areas, it could be frustrating. First is that Forster moves too slowly, both while walking and running. The sense of scale for Union City is rather presented through the city backdrops, often leaving me wishing that there was more to explore. Beyond A Steel Sky’s environments are rather small, however.

The game’s opening cinema is told through comic book panels courtesy of Watchmen artist, Dave Gibbons, who also worked on the original game. The cel-shaded visuals do look nice as do most of the environments which feel very much like a retro-futuristic 1950’s/1960’s vision of what a utopia may look like. Visually, Beyond A Steel Sky is aiming for a comic book aesthetic to its design. However, if they do prove to be too much for you, there’s a handy hint system in the games inventory and menu section to help you out (not that I used it. If anything, the game’s puzzles are a little on the easy side and I never found myself really stuck or without a clue.
#Beyond a steel sky ps5 review how to
So while you may spend some time working out the order of things, you won’t be worried about trying to figure out how to open a crankshaft with a lollipop and two pieces of macaroni, for instance. All of the game’s puzzles are logic-based. And if your fancy little piece of tech can’t do it, Forsters trusty crowbar will take care of everything else. With Forsters trusty hacking device, you can change a robots protocols, manipulate signs or open gates. The bulk of the puzzles are hacking related. The bulk of what’s here is mainly set dressing so that when you find something that is intractable, chances are you’re going to have to manipulate it in some way. There’s no Mass Effect level of dialogue trees and options, what’s here is designed to give the depth of the characters and provide you with the information you need about the world around you or what you need to do next.Īs with all adventure games, scouring the environment for clues and pieces to solve your puzzles is the order of the day, though I did find Beyond A Steel Sky’s environments less dense with objects than most adventure games. The game has some well-written dialogue, a particular highlight being the conversations that flesh out Forsters relationship with Joey. You’ll be spending all of your playtime talking to people, exploring environments and solving puzzles. Mostly gone is the 2D artwork and sprites of its original 1994 incarnation, replaced with cel-shaded visuals in Unreal Engine 4 for a full 3D experience where you explore the environment and can interact with people and the world with the press of a button when you’re close to them. The tracks, of course, lead back to Union City and yet again to Forsters past.īeyond A Steel Sky is a point and click adventure through and through, though told through the lens of modern technology. Another attack on Forsters tribe ends with the kidnapping of a boy, Milo, by androids and Forster starts off after them. Alas, the past isn’t done with Forster and before you can say tragedy strikes again, well, it does. pal Joey in charge of the city before heading back to the Gap and the world LINC had so cruelly taken from him. When we left Union City back in 1994, Forster had vanquished the evil A.I. So the question becomes, has Beyond A Steel Sky justified its own existence beyond mere nostalgia pulling? Is the story it’s telling worth your time and the world worth revisiting? Beneath A Steel Sky, the cult classic cyberpunk adventure from Revolution Software, came out way back in 1994, making the return of Robert Foster some twenty-seven years in the making.Īs always, the questions as to how you follow up a revered game or hit of any kind, especially when so many years have passed, will always linger.


While only ten years have passed in the world of Beyond A Steel Sky, in reality, it’s been much, much longer. The decrepit, decadent world you left behind all those years ago has flourished into a bright, neon lined utopia where everyone’s dreams can be attained and no one has to want for anything.
