Beneath a Steel Sky

The Good
Beneath a Steel Sky is, in a nutshell, both an excellent point-and-click adventure, and a work of art. The background graphics are all hand-drawn and look excellent, with lots of attention to detail. The game itself is very detailed and well made. Good plot, memorable characters, lots of objects to interact with, multiple scenes/events that take place during the game and extend the plot, and the puzzles bring a good challenge from start to finish. The game length is reasonable as well; not too long or too short. Dialogue is extensive, and often witty and humorous, while also crucial to solving some of the puzzles.

The Bad
The voice acting from the CD version could be described as somewhat cheap and boring, creating more of a budget feel. I personally thought that some of it was just flat out horrendous. Although the music isn't bad, it can get stale and repetitive if you're in a certain area for a long period of time. Some parts of the game may require a walkthrough, and/or a dozen saves.

The Bottom Line
Like I said in the review title, Beneath a Steel Sky is a point-and-click adventure you shouldn't miss if you're in to the genre, especially since it's freeware now. It has its flaws, but whatever, I'm willing to forgive and forget. Go and download it now, either from Classic DOS Games or GOG.com, or if you're a Linux user, look for it in the package repository for your distribution. You won't be disappointed. One word of advice, though: you might want to look for the walkthrough on the Internet, if you find yourself stuck on a ridiculously hard puzzle. Also, don't forget to save often.

That said, you're in for a uniquely good experience if you're playing this for the first time. Highly recommended.

The Good
I liked pretty much everything, and the voice acting was superb for its time. BASS was made by Revolution Software, and that was not a very well known company back then, and to say that BASS could be compared to Lucasarts adventures is to say that they are pretty damn good at what they do!!!

The Bad
My copy of the game had a bug in it (which was probably why I bought it for $10), every 5 mins or so the game would come up with a blue screen of death and quit, so I had to save every 2 mins or so. Other than that it was fine.

The Bottom Line
If you like Lucasarts, then get this!!! This is very much like Lucasarts games.

The Good
Everything. Really. This is my all time favorite game for a good reason. It has a brilliant atmosphere, terrific graphics, great humour, beautiful locations, tricky yet not too obscure puzzles and a great plot twist. This is THE game that got me into PC gaming with a punch that would make Mike Tyson blush.

The Bad
Nothing really. Maybe the game was a tad too short but then again, better to keep it short and go for quality than drag it out and lose the plot!

The Bottom Line
Beneath A Steel Sky takes elements from all kinds of movies and books ranging from Star Wars to Blade Runner to Asimov's Robot series. This really is one of the most underrated adventures ever and best of all: it's 100% free.

If you like the idea of a sci-fi thriller with murder mysteries and a great plot twist near the end, this is the game for you. Laced with black humour, great characters and wonderfully drawn backdrops (courtesy of Dave Gibbons) this is really the "crème de la crème" of point 'n click adventures.