Human beings are fascinating, we always try to create things that make our daily tasks easier, entertain us or even machines that do everything for us while we sit down to watch social media or any other application. We can say that we are settling in little by little. However, as we take giant strides forward in developing new technology, we also do so in controlling ourselves and becoming addicted to the compliments and likes of others to make us feel better about ourselves. It can make us wonder if we are really heading towards a better future or the opposite.
Basically, these are the subjects that addresses Beyond a Steel Sky, a graphic adventure developed by Revolution Software and which was initially launched in 2020 on PC, a year later it landed on consoles with a version that was adapted to them. If you’re a fan of the genre and have been in this world for more years than Methuselah (note the irony), you are surely familiar with Beneath a Steel Sky, a story ahead of its time in terms of history. Well, the game I’m going to analyze today is a direct sequel which, while retaining the original essence, decides to make the leap to 3D and with a not very different perspective of today’s society that we know.
Technical section
Today’s graphic adventures tend to stand out for their impressive artistic, graphic and visual section, characteristics that can boast of being better than in larger ones outside the genre. Part of this is because the player is usually much more limited, they can’t explore a world like The Witcher 3 or do whatever they want wherever they go. Beyond a Steel Sky consistently keeps the level with an artistic drawing design similar to that of the Borderlands saga. In addition, its arrival on consoles is accompanied by a special version for Xbox Series X | S; leave us thus favoring performance or quality. I played it most of the time in quality mode, because being a game with little interaction and without needing Keanu Reeves’ reflections in the Matrix, it’s best to see it as best you can. Its version of the Xbox Series is more or less polished, although it does have several technical issues, nothing particularly noticeable, but so annoying at such times. These errors may end up being corrected in future updates.
The game is translated into Spanish, but not dubbed. Also, I guess due to your low budget, some English actors are repeated in various characters with a somewhat different but remarkable record. The captions are generally in a nice, easy-to-read position, however when they tell us bits and pieces of the story in comic book mode, they don't always fit well and it's a bit of a hassle. Finally, highlight its noise level, a soundtrack that has nothing to envy to major productions and it will be a good companion for adventures.
Gameplay
In the first bars of the title they will explain the basic mechanisms, which are not numerous, and they will give us one of the main objects: the MINOS Hacker. With this wonderful gadget, we can solve puzzles, hack doors, machines and pretty much anything that contains technology in Union City. The puzzles are very similar to each other, intuitive, but somewhat tedious several times and repetitive in the final part. Most of them are to change the behavior of a certain machine so that we can keep moving forward or fix the problem in question. simplifying a lot, involves moving small pieces from one place to another like a traditional puzzle. Its system of clues or suggestions is concise, three thousand colored arrows will not be activated if the game detects that you are not progressing, but instead encourages you to continue exploring the scenarios to find an ingenious way forward. The scenarios are rare, but varied, about ten. What to tell us their story without being repetitive and without getting tired of them.
Yet everything has been said so far these are simple ornaments of the plot, one that will encourage us to keep going, no matter how tired we are of its puzzles and the thousands of obstacles along the way. As I said at the start of this analysis, it deals with current issues, making meaningful social and political criticism. A paternalistic and overprotective dictatorship, the oppression of certain media and companies, point applications that decide your social status, and so on with a long list of issues present in many countries today. Beyond a Steel Sky shows us the aftermath of a dehumanized society in a simple yet elegant way, allowing the player to create their own ideas about what happened and respond to everything in the end.
Unlike the current trend, it doesn't have a dialogue system that changes the course of the story, eliminating the possibility of experimenting with new ways to uncover additional endings. The story is closed from start to finish, with a few gaps and inconsistent actions, but generally well narrated. By the gaps I mean badly done arguments or characters who suddenly reach "x" social or ideological position without very well explaining why.
Duration
In my case, it took me about 9 hours to complete the Beyond a Steel Sky story, but it could be perfectly lengthened. up to 10/12 hours Natural way. As always in these types of juice, it depends on your ability to find the solution to the different puzzles that are put to us at every moment and to find all the information necessary to keep moving forward.
Being a closed story from start to finish with a single ending, it doesn't have that replayability factor; I therefore recommend that you take the necessary time to play it and do not rush without discovering absolutely nothing.
conclusion
Beyond a Steel Sky is the perfect sequel to its predecessor, a journey that takes you from start to finish through an interesting story that manages to connect with us due to its similarity to real life. A story that treats us through a filmic and meticulous artistic conception, putting the icing on the cake with its magnificent soundtrack. However, like everything in life, it has its big shadows, mostly technical errors that can be resolved in future fixes, although others like its artificial intelligence are much more complicated.
I would recommend playing it just for the story, because it's the main focus of everything. The puzzles and subplots are just additions to this one. Sometimes they make us tedious, but we never give up for the sake of uncovering more of the secrets of Union City.
