Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

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

Origin

Augur
Joined
Dec 4, 2011
Messages
339

This article is completely misleading. Union city is extremely small area. There is nothing impressive about the scope and realization except it has nice background of a giant metropolis. I like the look and the feel of the "city", but let's not lie. Whole playable world can fit into random Quake3 map. Also, verticality is not explored at all except where you use elevator to go to your apartment and one or two other occasions.
 
Last edited:

WallaceChambers

Learned
Joined
Jul 29, 2019
Messages
311
It's a good game. A solid 7 and I could see someone giving it an 8 if they enjoyed it especially/had that nostalgia stroked. It's got some rough edges here and there but it also tries some new things which are mostly fun. Some of the cityscapes look great, too. Despite the levels themselves being relatively small. Joey and Foster have some cool banter.

It's not a masterpiece, or a revelation, or something that pushes the entire genre forward but Beyond is thoroughly likable and takes more risks than your average adventure game.

If you're on the fence about it I'd wait a few months (to a year) and pick it up on sale. It'll be even better once they patch some things up.
 

Lacrymas

Arcane
Joined
Sep 23, 2015
Messages
17,948
Pathfinder: Wrath
I just now realized this a) exists, and b) has been out for months. I liked Beneath a Steel Sky a lot. Like a loooot. One of my favorite adventure games, maybe games in general. What I liked about it was the great setting, the way Union City is organized (sandwiched between the rusty ghettos of the D-LINCs, and the gory mass of LINC underground), the social commentary of the middle and higher classes being totally oblivious to reality, the relationship between Joey and Robert, Joey's character arc, etc. Does Beyond a Steel Sky come even close to the prequel? Not gonna lie, it doesn't look like it does. Maybe I should just watch a let's play?
 

Longes

Augur
Joined
Jan 13, 2013
Messages
388
I just now realized this a) exists, and b) has been out for months. I liked Beneath a Steel Sky a lot. Like a loooot. One of my favorite adventure games, maybe games in general. What I liked about it was the great setting, the way Union City is organized (sandwiched between the rusty ghettos of the D-LINCs, and the gory mass of LINC underground), the social commentary of the middle and higher classes being totally oblivious to reality, the relationship between Joey and Robert, Joey's character arc, etc. Does Beyond a Steel Sky come even close to the prequel? Not gonna lie, it doesn't look like it does. Maybe I should just watch a let's play?
It's worth buying. It's a decent game, and I'm sure the developers need all the support they can get.
 

AdamReith

Magister
Patron
Joined
Oct 21, 2019
Messages
2,109
Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is.
Part of me really wants to buy this but was so burned by Broken Sword 5 part 2 I think I'll leave it.
 

Wizfall

Cipher
Joined
Oct 3, 2012
Messages
816
Part of me really wants to buy this but was so burned by Broken Sword 5 part 2 I think I'll leave it.
Understandable, i'm big fan of both Broken Sword series (3 and 4 included) and the original Beneath a Steel Sky.
BS 5 despite a welcome return to 2D graphics was very disappointing, can't say it was awful but it had none of the "atmosphere/magic" of the others.

I found Beneath 2 a much better sequel though.
Still far from great but it's a competent and enjoyable adventure game
Revolution Software is not totally hopeless after all...
 
Unwanted

Kalin

Unwanted
Dumbfuck Zionist Agent
Joined
Sep 29, 2010
Messages
1,868,264
Location
Al Scandiya
Just looking at the retards praising this garbage is making me feel sick.

"Good game" "looks great" "can't wait" "worth buying"

What the hell is wrong with you people!?

Sick! SICK! SICK!!!

q3cQdTi.png
 

IHaveHugeNick

Arcane
Joined
Apr 5, 2015
Messages
1,870,123
I just now realized this a) exists, and b) has been out for months. I liked Beneath a Steel Sky a lot. Like a loooot. One of my favorite adventure games, maybe games in general. What I liked about it was the great setting, the way Union City is organized (sandwiched between the rusty ghettos of the D-LINCs, and the gory mass of LINC underground), the social commentary of the middle and higher classes being totally oblivious to reality, the relationship between Joey and Robert, Joey's character arc, etc. Does Beyond a Steel Sky come even close to the prequel? Not gonna lie, it doesn't look like it does. Maybe I should just watch a let's play?
It's worth buying. It's a decent game, and I'm sure the developers need all the support they can get.

Seconded. I'm terribly burned out on sequels, but this one was decent and worth playing.
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
Just found out this isn't on GOG.
:what:

Beneath a Steel Sky was one of their original games, they even gave it out for free for a really long time.
 

Lacrymas

Arcane
Joined
Sep 23, 2015
Messages
17,948
Pathfinder: Wrath
It's still free on GOG. But yeah, the sequel not being on it is a travesty.
 

Raghar

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
Jul 16, 2009
Messages
22,499
Just found out this isn't on GOG.
:what:

Beneath a Steel Sky was one of their original games, they even gave it out for free for a really long time.
I found it on el-amigos release. Another release is Ali. But yea, not placing it on GOG is bad idea. I understand about protection period of original author, but c'mon be nice to low income/pensioners. It's nearly year later 6 month protection period is over.
 

Duraframe300

Arcane
Joined
Dec 21, 2010
Messages
6,395
Finally played it. Enjoyed the beginning up to after mid-point with a few caveats. Disappointed afterwards. Ending was predictable and not in a good way (as much as it ties back to Beneath it felt like a boring obvious cliche of a conclusion for the setting rather than a natural way of continuing the actual charachters personalities) and what was there wasn't executed well.

7/10

As such it went from a harmless sequel to one where I still prefer to think of the original story as a standalone.
Better than quite a few other attempts at bringing old games back still.
 

Dexter

Arcane
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
15,655
Got this cheap during recent Sale and it was... Okay. It doesn't feel like a cheap cash-in to a franchise some might be nostalgic towards, doesn't go out of its way to shit on "the past" and kind of manages to stand on its own with a few new ideas, but it's not super-amazing either.

Technically I had a bunch of Unreal Engine-related "Fatal Error" Crashes every 2 hours or so with the intensity seemingly increasing as I got further into the game. It even managed to hard-reboot me a few times. Then I read about people having had issues with VSync turned Off and after I enabled it quite a bit in I didn't really have any technical issues anymore for the remainder of the game. Could be some spazzing out of the physics systems or something at uncapped framerates (since I noticed the man-purse doing some weird things once shortly before a crash), or it could be purely coincidence. Was also stuck in a Cutscene once or twice and had to reload.

Other than that some annoying bits were characters that would have been fine as one-offs for a Quest or two getting an unmerited outsized role later in the game. To be more specific mainly Orana, who would have been fine if you only dealt with her in front of Grahams apartment block and maybe met again at the Piazza, absolutely didn't need to be elevated to protagonist sidekick replacing Joey near the end. Ember was fine as a gap kid with some technical knowledge scrounging to survive and didn't need to come back as super hacker, especially since you actually meet such a person in the city who's more credible and likeable. Mrs Piermont as fat lady comedy relief character too fond of her dog in the first game, that happened to know Fosters parents was fine and was good for a cameo as a hologram in the museum, and maybe even as a gala attendant to info-dump the player in the sequel. But she absolutely didn't need to be in charge of some sort of revolutionary effort climbing scaffolds in a spandex suit. Some other characters like Alonso and Songbird and maybe Fake Leet on the other hand fell short of their potential and felt underused.

At some point about two thirds into the game it railroads you, where you can't even change the area anymore and basically just have to walk forward in 3D space and watch Cutscenes or have short conversations, with only very simplistic puzzles in-between leading to an overall rather disappointing finale.
 
Last edited:

Duraframe300

Arcane
Joined
Dec 21, 2010
Messages
6,395
Got this cheap during recent Sale and it was... Okay. It doesn't feel like a cheap cash-in to a franchise some might be nostalgic towards, doesn't go out of its way to shit on "the past" and kind of manages to stand on its own with a few new ideas, but it's not super-amazing either.

Technically I had a bunch of Unreal Engine-related "Fatal Error" Crashes every 2 hours or so with the intensity seemingly increasing as I got further into the game. It even managed to hard-reboot me a few times. Then I read about people having had issues with VSync turned Off and after I enabled it quite a bit in I didn't really have any technical issues anymore for the remainder of the game. Could be some spazzing out of the physics systems or something at uncapped framerates (since I noticed the man-purse doing some weird things once shortly before a crash), or it could be purely coincidence. Was also stuck in a Cutscene once or twice and had to reload.

Other than that some annoying bits were characters that would have been fine as one-offs for a Quest or two getting an unmerited outsized role later in the game. To be more specific mainly Orana, who would have been fine if you only dealt with her in front of Grahams apartment block and maybe met again at the Piazza, absolutely didn't need to be elevated to protagonist sidekick replacing Joey near the end. Ember was fine as a gap kid with some technical knowledge scrounging to survive and didn't need to come back as super hacker, especially since you actually meet such a person in the city who's more credible and likeable. Mrs Piermont as fat lady comedy relief character too fond of her dog in the first game, that happened to know Fosters parents was fine and was good for a cameo as a hologram in the museum, and maybe even as a gala attendant to info-dump the player in the sequel. But she absolutely didn't need to be in charge of some sort of revolutionary effort climbing scaffolds in a spandex suit. Some other characters like Alonso and Songbird and maybe Fake Leet on the other hand fell short of their potential and felt underused.

At some point about two thirds into the game it railroads you, where you can't even change the area anymore and basically just have to walk forward in 3D space and watch Cutscenes or have short conversations, with only very simplistic puzzles in-between leading to an overall rather disappointing finale.
There were puzzles after a certain point? Honestly had bigger problems with variety than simplicity.

The hacking completely takes over soon after its introduced. Which admittingly does have some very nice constructed moments to figure out (and also a very dumb one with Joey's death reaching peak retardation considering you fucking INTERACT with the guns in the previous hacking sequence, but nope everyone just forgets about those for a *heroic* death), but it's the same thing over and over.

It's not a masterpiece, but in terms of variety the first area where you are trying to get into the city blows the rest of the game out of the water. The more it moves on from there, the worse it gets.
 

AngryKobold

Arcane
Joined
Aug 12, 2012
Messages
534
There was only one fun thing about this game: pointing out how absurdly broken was the first released version.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom