Beneath A Steel Sky
Thread: Beneath A Steel Sky
3rd September 2008, 22:19 #1
Superstar VIP
I thought I would let you all know how UTTERLY DISAPPOINTED I was with this one.
I finally got around to playing it a few years ago when the CD talkie version became freely available for ScummVM.
The graphics and style were good, but it was way short, has stoopid Yorkshire accents (the thing was set in futuristic Australia, and everyone in charge is from Leeds!), had puzzles that were trivial to the plot (messing about at the Travel Agents and the Plastic Surgeon's), and had bizarre unexplained bits like your coworker Anita appearing dead in a locker near the end.
It had great potential - the idea of LINK, being in cyberspace and interacting with concepts to gain access deeper into the system was great but there were only about 4 screens. There were only about 4 levels to the tower you were in, and the sense of the mystery was forgotten for most of it. It was clever working your way down, but finding a fat rich woman in a pink gymsuit at the bottom stroking her dog ruined the atmosphere it was trying to create. It didn't do too well on atmosphere, the locations were fairly sparse of people and it was a confined space, you didn't get to see life outside of the tower which really would have helped.
It was okay, but it didn't take long to complete and they didn't really explore the potential enough for me.
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4th September 2008, 08:19 #2
Demon Cleaner
C64 addict Staff Moderator
I never completed it due to an error on one of the floppy disks. I guess I played half through then, if you say it is really short. But that is already some time ago, and I can't remember if I was pleased with the game or not. Will have to give it another try, but definitely in Scumm.
I am Legion for we are many. Staff Member
Staffordshire Moorlands
I have to disagree. BASS is one of the best looking adventure games for an OCS/ECS amiga (The CD32 version only added speech, nothing was done to the graphics.). The fat woman in a pink tracksuit stoking her dog was because no matter what happens to the world there will always be a fat women in a tracksuit with a stupid little dog. It's part of Einsteins unpublished laws of Space/time.
You should look here to read some of the problems that the design gteam had with BASS. It might make you appreciate it more.
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It doesn't. In fact, it makes me appreciate it less. And it's not 4 times bigger than Lure of the Temptress.
Angry Dutchman
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Okay, tastes differ, I liked BASS.
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And every time they are ready to pronounce a winner, a new contender appears on the scene.[/I]
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Puni/Void
ELITE Staff Moderator
I think Beneath a Steel Sky is a fine adventure game. It's not my favourite, but I've enjoyed playing it. I never got around to completing it though, but after seeing this thread, I think I might give it another shot.
Retro Addict Administrator
I also really liked BASS. OK, it wasn't the longest adventure game, but it still contained a lot of great content, conversations and story.
You are actually the first person I've heard say they were disappointed in BASS. I do agree that it would have been great to have been able to explore the futuristic world it was set in much further, especially by going outside, and yes the areas of the game were a bit sparse of npc characters, but nothing is perfect. For game characters Lure of the Temptress was way ahead of it with its character day cycle system, and even Future Wars felt more like you were visiting populated areas. But a game has to have some restrictions or the developers would never complete it and get it released.
I also thought that the adventure game Universe had a very similar feel to it and kind of felt like the outside world that you might have encountered had you been able to explore outside in BASS.
I never got to play the talkie version of BASS so only played it through at the time via the ECS version on my A600. I remember really enjoying it at the time though.
The voices sucked. Voice Acting does not mean "get one bloke to do as many regional accents as possible, and get the receptionist to voice the girls".
Things are on the whole better these days with the bigger budgets the games companies have, but back in the early CD days games developers just didn't have the budgets so had to use their own voices, and those from with the company to make up the vocals.
5th September 2008, 22:39 #10
taunusanden
Harmless Inactive Member
I liked playing the game, but I remember something about a lot of disks
Maybe I should find the CD32 version...
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