I adored how relevant the whole approach to utopia was in this game. I say lower, because in Union City, the uppermost levels are reserved for the poorest members of society. They trust in the Council to look after their needs and are endlessly chasing “Qdos” – a sort of social credit system that allows citizens access to lower and lower levels of the city. The tutorial section introduces you to the key mechanics very organically, from talking with NPC’s and being able to question them on a number of topics, to using the items in your inventory to solve environmental puzzles.Īs you progress deeper into the city, you become involved in something far more sinister, whereby the general populace feel as though civilization has reached its telos and things couldn’t get any better. Foster follows the trail to Union City, which is where the adventure truly begins. However, the routine trip turns tragic when Milo is kidnapped and bundled off in a strange, quadrupedal armored vehicle. One day, he takes a young child from his village, Milo, fishing. Having made a Gapland village his home (“Gapland” being the term for settlements outside of the cyberpunk utopia of Union City), things are peaceful. Whilst the gameplay is mechanically simple, Revolution’s approach to layering complex puzzle solutions with NPC interrogation reveal a narrative that is replete with engrossing characters, dry humor, and a utopia where all is not as it seems…īeyond a Steel Sky takes place around 10 years after its predecessor and you assume control of Robert Foster. Heralded as a “cyberpunk science fiction adventure game”, Beyond a Steel Sky ’s aesthetics definitely tick the boxes there. Initially released in June 2020 on PC, Beyond a Steel Sky has been ported to consoles, including a lovely physical edition on Switch that includes a sleeve. Charles Cecil, the lead writer of both the Steel Sky and Broken Sword series, is a fantastic writer and Revolution have a way of presenting a gripping, often poignant story through relatively simple mechanics. Having spent a great deal of my formative gaming years bending my head around the multilayered puzzles of the Broken Sword series (also developed by Revolution), I was looking forward to experiencing how such a game would look and feel in 2021. Revolution Software are known for their visionary approach to the puzzle adventure genre and with Beyond a Steel Sky (a spiritual successor to 1994’s Beneath a Steel Sky ), they have coated a classic formula in a new sheen of paint.
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