Beneath a Steel Sky (1994)

Brilliant storytelling combined with imaginative sci-fi settings in the classic adventure game format. Beneath a Steel Sky is arguably still one of the best games that brings to life the cyberpunk genre. There's a real 80's noir feel to the game as the graphics taps into that late 80's/early 90's industrial and societal cyberpunk imagery. It's hard to believe a game like this was made in a era when CPU clock speeds were under 100 Mhz and the memory requirements for the game was 1 Mb! Just goes to show that great games and great storytelling does not rely on system resources but truly creative thinking.

Bought this in the mid-90s and, with no walkthrough, spent many hours clicking on every bit of screen. This time, I'm hoping to make it further. For gamers of today, I'd recommend it for the story, setting, and visuals, but you need to keep in mind that the solutions to puzzles back then didn't always make obvious sense.

A nice little point-and-click adventure featuring the typical humor of its era and the obligatory, somewhat quirky puzzles. Just use a walkthrough if you feel you’ve given it a fair shot on your own—then you’ll have a lot of fun with this game.

I liked this game. But I think I did myself a disservice by playing on a large screen. I had to look up a walk through for half the game just because I literally couldn’t see the things I needed to interact with. I’m not new to point and click adventures. I love Syberia and sanatorium. This was just very dated . And it’s hard to see. The music is incredibly repetitive. It is an old game though. Optimized ok. Played on SteamDeck LCD. 3/5 rating .

i liked the cats

Replaying Beneath a Steel Sky almost 30 years after I first played it was a bit like opening a time capsule and discovering that most of the contents still work. Sure, it's impossible to judge a 1994 adventure game by modern standards, but what surprised me most is how well the story holds up. For a game that's over three decades old, the writing, world-building, and characters remain sufficently engaging. The gameplay naturally shows its age, but that's part of the charm. More importantly, if you're planning to play Beyond a Steel Sky, I'd strongly recommend starting here. The sequel benefits enormously from knowing the original story, characters, and setting, and several moments simply land better if you've taken the journey from the beginning. A classic that has aged far better than many games half its age.