The sequel to the 90’s point-and-click classic arrives…
You are Robert Foster. A child has been abducted in a brutal attack. You have vowed to bring him home. The trail has led you to Union City, one of the last remaining mega-cities in a world ravaged by shattering wars, and political meltdown. Union City is a utopia, its people loving life…
Making a sequel to a game 27 years after the release of the original is no small task, especially when the original was made by the legendary Charles Cecil and even had the influence of comic-book artist Dave Gibbons to work with. The Revolution Software studio that made the original and other games like the Broken Sword series still stands, but can a modern point-and-click game be any good?
Instead of literally being a point and click, Beyond a Steel Sky has you move Robert Foster around freely and interact with objects instead. Much like the more modern Telltale games in that respect, but the solutions aren’t as simple as that, so much so that there’s even an old-school Hint system that you can use, but it will void an Achievement if you do use it, so be wary if you want to get that full 1000 Gamerscore.
The game has the assumption that you have played the 1994 original, which I had not…but it did give a quick recap via comic-book form, so it’s not the end of the world if you missed out on it back in the day. The original got a Remastered version on iOS in 2019, but sadly there’s no console port coming as far as I know. Still, the story itself is pretty impressive and proof that Cecil still has what it takes in delivering a solid narrative. Voice-acting is also fairly impressive, while the soundtrack isn’t too bad either.
The visuals are cell-shaded but look more like Borderlands than Wind Waker in this regard, which fits well with the comic-book nature of the original entry. The game runs at a solid framerate and load times were small. I didn’t encounter any bugs either and was overly impressed with the presentation, especially Union City itself.
The Verdict
Beyond a Steel Sky is a decent follow-up to a 90s classic and feels like a breath of fresh air in the point-and-click genre. Now if we can only get the original game to consoles as well…