Beneath a Steel Sky
| Beneath a Steel Sky | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | Revolution software | ||
| Publisher | Virgin Interactive , Revolution Software | ||
| Senior Developer | Charles Cecil , Tony Warriner, Daniel Marchant, Dave Gibbons | ||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
March 1994 | ||
| platform |
Amiga , CD³² , MS-DOS iOS (2009) , macOS (2011) |
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| Game engine | Virtual theater | ||
| genre | Adventure | ||
| Subject | Dystopia | ||
| Game mode | Single player | ||
| control | Mouse , touchscreen | ||
| medium | Floppy disk , CD-ROM , download | ||
| language | English (texts / subtitles also in German, French, Italian and Spanish) | ||
| Current version | iOS: 1.8 (October 28, 2015) other: 1.0 |
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| Age rating |
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Beneath a Steel Sky (German about "Under a steely sky") is an Adventure - computer game , which in 1993 by the British company Revolution Software was developed. The game counts above all by the genre-typical drawings by Dave Gibbons for cyberpunk . Revolution Software has been offering a revised "Remastered Edition" of the game since October 2009.
action
The prehistory, which is told through drawn individual images, transports the player into a hostile, dystopian future in Australia . The country is dominated by six city-states that are controlled by companies. The hostile wasteland between the city-states is called "The Gap". The protagonist Robert Foster, the only survivor of a helicopter crash as a young boy, is taken in by a group of native Australians. These teach him how to survive in the gap, but also how to use technology professionally. With the help of the knowledge he has acquired in this way, he constructs "Joey", his talking robot friend. Before the start of the actual game action, Foster's new home is attacked by a military command and razed to the ground; Foster himself is abducted to the city of Union City, which is controlled by the Union Group and is located under a gigantic protective dome that keeps away the contaminated air of the gap.
A malfunction of the helicopter and the crash that immediately followed, which Foster was the only one to survive again, gave him the freedom of action needed to work his way through the game from the top level of the city with its huge industrial complexes down and into freedom. On his way he also succeeds in discovering the secret of "LINC", the artificial intelligence that controls everything in Union City , and his own origins.
Game principle and technology
Beneath a Steel Sky is a 2D adventure. Characters that were created as sprites move in front of hand-drawn, partially animated 2D backdrops. The player can use the mouse to move his character through the locations and use the mouse buttons to initiate actions that allow the character to interact with his environment. Foster can find objects, apply them to the environment or other objects and communicate with NPCs . As the story progresses, more locations will be unlocked.
Production notes
The script for Beneath a Steel Sky was written by Revolution founders Charles Cecil and Tony Warriner, producer Daniel Marchant and graphic artist Dave Gibbons. The virtual theater developed for Lure of the Temptress was used as the game engine . For Steve Ince it was the first game he worked on, back then as a background and animation artist. The game was first published in 1994 by Virgin Interactive Entertainment for the Amiga , and shortly afterwards it was ported to IBM PC-compatible computers with the MS-DOS operating system .
After the original version had not been distributed for several years, the development team of ScummVM Revolution Software asked for the source code of the game, which was also handed over in July 2003. Revolution also released the MS-DOS version of Beneath a Steel Sky as freeware under an individual license.
In October 2009 Revolution Software released a revised version of the game as a paid app for iPhone and iPod Touch , which was mainly adapted for control via the touchscreen of the devices. Furthermore, the opening and closing credits have been replaced by new versions, which were again designed in collaboration with Dave Gibbons. The audio playback has been modernized and some of the more abstract puzzles in the game have been simplified. In an interview with the computer and video game portal videogamer.com , Charles Cecil, one of the co-founders of Revolution, stated that the new edition of the game may also be released for the PC and could be financed through donations. Towards the end of 2011, a port for macOS appeared , which is now available free of charge.
During its campaign to finance a new and fifth game in the series Baphomets Fluch ( Broken Sword - the Serpent's Curse Adventure ) via the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter.com , Revolution Software promised a successor to Beneath a Steel in September 2012 Developing Sky should raise more than a million dollars. The corresponding stretch goal was no longer achieved, but the company still announced that after work on Baphomet's Curse would begin with Beneath a Steel Sky 2 .
In Baphomet's Curse 2 , Revolution built a hidden reference ( Easteregg ) into the game. In one scene, the protagonist Nico Collard is able to meet Robert Foster just before he is seized by a monster that is hiding in a tunnel. It is an allusion to a possible death sequence in Beneath a Steel Sky .
reception
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From three aggregated ratings, Beneath a Steel Sky achieved a rating of 77% on the GameRankings review database . The iOS version from 2009 achieved a score of 82 on Metacritic with five aggregated ratings.
Beneath a Steel Sky has been well received by contemporary journals and has also won several awards. It won the "Best Dialogue" award in the US PC gamer magazine and the "Best Adventure" award at the 1995 Golden Joystick Awards . It was also a commercial success, including topping the UK sales charts, according to Gallup .
In a retrospective review of the specialist magazine AdventureGamers , the combination of a dark story and the humor typical of Revolution Software was praised, which has given the game a cult following. The magazine also positively highlighted the “unobtrusive” interface and the game world, which appears lively thanks to the virtual theater engine. The "inappropriate" soundtrack and a repeated mini-game were criticized.
successor
In March 2019 Revolution Software announced the successor Beyond A Steel Sky . As in the first part, Charles Cecil and Dave Gibbons worked on this game again. In contrast to its predecessor, the game was implemented in a 3D environment. The content of the game is based on typical dystopia issues such as social control and privacy. The game was released in July 2020.
Web links
- Manufacturer's product page
- Beneath a Steel Sky at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Review at homeoftheunderdogs.com
- ^ Beneath-A-Steel-Sky-License. In: classicdosgames.com . Retrieved March 31, 2012 .
- ↑ Videogamer.com: Beneath A Steel Sky - Remastered Preview ( Memento November 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Beneath a Steel Sky 2: Successor to the cyberpunk adventure is now officially announced. In: PC Games . September 24, 2012, accessed March 27, 2014 .
- ↑ Adventure-Treff .de: Eastereggs - Baphomets Fluch 2 ( Memento from November 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b AdventureGamers.com: Beneath a Steel Sky. Retrieved March 14, 2019 .
- ↑ a b GameRankings.com: Beneath a Steel Sky. Retrieved February 1, 2017 .
- ↑ a b MetaCritic.com: Beneath a Steel Sky. Retrieved February 1, 2017 .
- ↑ Beyond a Steel Sky - Release Update. In: revolution.co.uk. Retrieved March 10, 2020 .