It's clever stuff, even if the game becomes a little overfond of using the device throughout, while it's more classic teasers are varied and satisfying. Early on Foster receives a hacking device that can access MINOS, the underlying system that connects all of Union's technology, allowing you to swap protocols to cause havoc or bend the location to your whim. It runs the gamut of finding item A to use at gate B to technological and social espionage. Despite Beyond A Steel Sky's modern third-person adventure appearance, this is every inch the classic point-and-click, constructing roadblocks with often tenuously linked environmental puzzling.įor some, this rather old-fashioned approach to progress may prove off-putting, but there's no doubt that Broken Sword-creator Revolution's hand at crafting complex, often witty brain-teasers has never been stronger. Of course, to extricate himself involves delightfully eccentric logic puzzles that may or may not involve pre-packed sausages or interference into the pompous poet laureate's musical tastes. Hot in pursuit, Foster becomes embroiled in a case of stolen identity and conspiracy at the heart of Union's apparently idyllic construct. A 'Gaplander' used to living in the more rugged outback in the city's peripheries, Foster is forced back to Union City after one of his village's children is whisked away by a clanking robotic kidnapper. To decipher this world, the stoic Foster returns. It is not vastly dissimilar to China's existing 'social credit' system, while Union's use of deity, technological trinkets and garish fizzy pop to keep its citizens docile hits rather close to home. Miss a day at work and your Qdos level might drop, barring you access to some of the city's more lavish entertainments.
While Union is blessed with plenty -there is no apparent poverty or crime- citizens are encouraged to boost their 'Qdos' level by working hard at their assigned jobs and performing good deeds. A forest of gold-tinged buildings, neon signage and digital advertisements bawling at its residents to aspire and consume. Under the stewardship of Foster's robotic pal Joey, it has become a gleaming utopia. One of the most fascinating things about this long-awaited sequel is that Beyond A Steel Sky nails its 2020 relevance by flipping Union City on its head.
Forged in a post Cold War world, Robert Foster's journey was -for all its light-hearted humour- a reflection of socio-economic peril. Revolution's classic 1994 point-and-click adventure Beneath A Steel Sky saw you trawling the underbelly of a dystopian sci-fi city to uncover its grand conspiracy.
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