Beyond a Steel Sky - sequel to Beneath a Steel Sky from Revolution Software

[AndyS]

Well, I played it. I don't think it's bad, but I certainly prefer the first one. It commits one of my pet peeves in sequels, which is that it springs from the idea that the heroes' success in the original was false and it even justifies this by retconning elements of the original. Bad form, I say. There's also some really tonedeaf characterization going on.

Spoiler

Foster and his allies just erased the established government in Union City and it's quite likely that many people are going to suffer in the anarchy. Foster responds to this by...going home. Which is exactly how Union City got into its most recent predicament, because Foster left when Ken (he was Ken in my game) needed his guidance and seemingly never intended to even come back for a visit (not sure what happened to Hobbins, especially as he's like the only guy from the original who wasn't even mentioned...).

 

[AngryKobold]

It gets worse when you consider details from BASF. It was established Joey has already a sarcastic personality and some intellect. After being embedded in body of a biodroid, obvious expectation is he could only develop further. In the ending it's also clear he is going to have a permanent company of maintenance crew, as he became a part of critical infrastructure. What we got instead is Joey- Ken turned into autistic retard trying to implement an utopian idea in literal way- and failing at it, like a sad parody of HAL 9000. Now that was unexpected and disappointing.

That's why I say the plot of BASF2 *could* work if it was distanced from BASF. Say: different city being governed by other, obviously more limited AI. Or: it's still Union City, but with a reasonable rationalization why things gone wrong. Given how little we know about the Union City, there is a lot of room to maneuver. Maybe there is a new oligarchy implementing their own ideas while Joey- Ken is being feed with false reports- or even isolated to point where all he can do is switching traffic lights. Maybe the war and relocations were, for some unknown reasons, immoral but inevitable. Anything can go as long there is a good writing. But there was no good writing. Lame execution and wasted potential, that's Revolution Software in 2020.