Beneath a Steel Sky (1994)

Superb, still playable in 2026.

Point and click essential

Thank you for letting it free Be Vigilant !!

total rubbish

It's a 90 classic for sure. But clearly not the best of that time, do it if you are a purist to say you did it, but Harvester, Sanitarium or I Have no Mouth are MUCH more inspired and deep.

I still remember the first impression I and a few friends had in front of the opening scenes of this game. [b]Beneath a Steel Sky[/b] features what I have no hesitation in calling some of the best 2D graphics ever made at the time, and they still impress today for the level of detail in the backgrounds, the fine quality of the pixel art characters, and the even finer animations. VGA at its best. Having comic book legend Dave Gibbons on the team paid off, including a nice introductory comic, which this CD version smartly turns into a motion comic that opens the game. With some fiddling, it is also possible to play the floppy intro with its iconic music, which I still hum from time to time even nowadays. Under such a sumptuous “vest”, the adventure is rock solid, save for a few instances of pixel hunting. It is not the longest or most difficult in the genre, but it has quite a few good puzzles to offer, and they are mostly pretty logical—or rather, logical within the world it is set in, as you will need to enter cyberspace several times. They are integrated into brilliant world-building and writing; of note are the dialogues of Joey, one of the best (and sassiest) robotic partners ever seen in a game. My only notable issue is with the tone, which is not always consistent. It is supposed to be a fairly bleak dystopian cyberpunk setting, but it often gets quite light-hearted, even if some of the dark humour is appreciated. Apparently there was some conflict during development about what direction to give the writing, and that clearly reflects in the final product. To be fair, though, it also gives [b]BASS[/b] its own unique flavour. While some audio tracks set the appropriate mood (like the very first one you hear when you start controlling Foster), others are too “happy”; it is better to keep the music volume down. No doubt an adventure classic, which put Revolution on the map (and unlike LucasArts, they are still around), and it has also been free since 2003. There is literally no excuse for not playing it.

Muy buen juego. Vale la pena jugarlo, a mi me costó porque tengo cerebro de maní.