The first golden age of the point-and-click adventure was brief. Just moments after Lucasfilm Games graduated from the kindergarten clunk of Maniac Mansion, The Dig was in its Spielberg-endorsed grave. That was 1987 to 1995. Everyone agrees the early '90s were where it was at – even those who wrongly preferred Sierra Online. (See you in the comments!)
Sierra-philes and Lucas-fans alike are united in sorrow by the words “cat hair moustache”, the eternally-echoing death knell of the genre's golden age which came gonging out from Gabriel Knight 3’s infamous doppelgänger sequence. But Beyond a Steel Sky invites you to pretend that never happened. It’s a straight follow-on from Revolution Software’s 1994 critical darling Beneath a Steel Sky, recreating its charm and depth for 21st century gamers.
The scenario is Douglas Adams meets Phillip K. Dick: Everyperson’s trifling concerns play out right under the nose of world-sized, reality-challenging nefariousness, but it’s all only semi-serious. In some far-off future, life is a scattering of megacities on a wasteland known as the Gap. Cushy city-dwellers must comply with the extreme social codes of the megacorps that own them, while Gaplanders must fend for themselves in self-sufficient tribes. The story is kicked off with a kidnapping and your Gaplander character Foster’s resulting efforts to infiltrate Union City. It’s a great set-up, and the comic book presentation inherited from the 1994 prequel bursts with energy.
While it’s hard not to see Beyond a Steel Sky as a point-and-click, there’s no pointing or clicking. It’s standard two-stick third-person controls, with a leisurely pace for exploring. However, the core concepts of interactive hotspots, verb choices and inventory are all here. The puzzles are, in the best possible way, like something from 1994. There’s the good old tease of discovering a new scene and knowing what to do but not how to do it, and the insider satisfaction of twigging the secret that finally gets you in with an NPC.
It doesn’t all match the rose tint, however. In the 2D days, the game world was unveiled one screen at a time and puzzles had quite clear bounds. Here, gated areas do a similar job, but some are fairly large, so re-walking past every last nook – the 3D equivalent of mouse-hovering every pixel – can be hard going. This is exacerbated on occasion by pop-in: even if your eyes tell you a space is empty, it may not be once you arrive – so get walking.
Dialogue can be equally patience-testing, something true to the game’s roots. Too frequently, dialogue trees we assumed to be exhausted were actually hiding the last comment needed to get a new item or trigger the next event. This led to many, many repeated lines. The dialogue is good, but not good enough to withstand that level of overuse.
Nonetheless, Beyond a Steel Sky magically brings its 1994 ancestor back to life. The style, the humour, the chirpy dystopia are all revived. However, a lot has happened since that first golden age of adventures, and if you want a creative addition to the indie-fuelled inventiveness of the modern genre then you should look elsewhere. This is a game that remembers exactly how great things were in 1994, but isn’t much interested in how great they were last week.
Comments 25
Do we really need to remember how great things were last week, though.
Can we have all broken sword be re-released for the switch with updated graphics and controls?
@cool_guy_2021 Dammit no. I can’t buy it again. I own too many versions of those games 😂
I played through Beneath a Steel Sky recently as its free on PC. Good fun. Will check this one out too at some point, although probably on PC.
I loved pointing and clicking back in the day. Secret of Monkey Island, Monkey Island 2, Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max Hit the Road, Simon the Sorcerer, Broken Sword, Discworld (although the puzzles in that one drove me mad), Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis... Even enjoyed Normality, an early attempt at moving the genre into 3D. Good times.
@BionicDodo I would also like the 5 chapters of monkey island enhanced for the switch please?
@cool_guy_2021 @Medic_Alert @BionicDodo At some point I’ll be getting the Limited Run Games Monkey Island collection boxset. One of my all time favourite series. Remember playing the first 2 on the Amiga back in the day. Amazing times.
"...those who wrongly preferred Sierra Online" HA. The good thing about PC gaming is that you can still play and enjoy both, so my friends and I got to enjoy both LucasArts and Sierra games back in the day. LucasArts was great for generally logical puzzles and not being mean and killing the player constantly, and Sierra was great for their UI (both classic text and mouse) and continuing series.
Those were the days!
One of those who “wrongly” preferred Sierra here 🤗 The Quest for Glories series is one of my all time favorites, and GKII is another winner.
Honestly though, I never thought there was an equivalent of the console wars between Lucas and Sierra fans. I loved games from both, including the Monkey Island games and Fate of Atlantis. And I’m the first to admit Sierra had some misses; I always found the KQ games way too obtuse to be enjoyable.
I’ve never really gotten to try a proper point and click adventure as I was born after their hay day, so this seems like an ok place to start.
@Beaucine nope.
Is this a sequel? a remake? Not clear. Wish you could also play the original on the same game or something. Very surprising, will check it out.
I love Adventure Games (refuse to call it "point and click") - both Sierra and LucasArts were amazing in their own rights. Sierra with Quests and LucasArts of course with Monkey Islands, Loom, Maniac Mansion 2... Gabriel Knight was the best adventure game but there were so many. This one was special too.
While I understand the critic for GK3 doppelganger scene, it is still one of the very best of the genre and one of the very best game overall. If you ask me this genre should have not ever "died" and it truly ever did. But it is a shame that there is no appreciation for the genre that it deserves.
Still have too many point and clicks on my phone I never finished, so not for me.
@dumedum this is a straight-up sequel – but it completely works for new players too
@Discokuningas the whole cat hair moustache was just the go-to dig at graphic adventures for a while. As much as I will always love Monkey Island 1&2 (and no others!), the real golden age of the genre is probably now, with so much variety out there – especially indies: Rusty Lake series, Milo and the Magpies, latest Poirot, Myst reboot, escape rooms like Agent A, Kentucky Route Zero, FAR: Lone Sails… not to mention the accessibility of just about every great game from back in the day.
Really liked this one.
Look behind you, a three-headed monkey!
I have never been able to get into point & click games. Oh well, i don't have time for all the games I want to play as it is, so it's probably best i don't have more genres in my backlog.
@BionicDodo Loved all of those... including Normality!
"See you in the comments" indeed! As a genuine (and looongtime) fan of adventure games, I loved LucasArts and Sierra both, but Sierra will always be nearest to my heart. The release of every new installment of King's Quest was a major event in our household. Premium games with state of the art graphics and sound (for the time) that somehow delivered a whimsical warmth and sense of discovery and adventure. Monkey Island was special and had a huge impact on me, but King's Quest 6 is possibly my favorite game of all time (tied with Faxanadu) and my take for greatest adventure game.
I miss the rubber chicken with a pulley on it, more games should have those
@cool_guy_2021 and why would they do that?
@dumedum it is a direct sequel and the game is better than the original one IMHO
@Medic_Alert I dunno, he did miss out Toonstruck…
Really weird review. Reads like this is a remake, rather than a sequel (which it is). Maybe reviewer didn’t know?
The main character Robert Forster is so handsome. I think it works on PC much better but that might be me.
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