ANYONE WHO’S BEEN playing PC games for 26 years will have come across Beneath a Steel Sky, the cyberpunk adventure from 1994 that set the scene for so much that came after it. At the peak of mid-’90s puzzling, Beneath had a wise-cracking robot, a totalitarian regime, and much to say about divisions in society.
Return to Union City to take down the fake Utopia.
That a sequel should come along after so much time had passed is unexpected, but certainly not unwelcome. It’s come with some upgrades too-an Unreal 4 makeover that allows Dave Gibbons’s comic book art to really shine, and the change from point-n-click to WASD controls is the right decision, but what’s really surprising is how fresh and relevant this return to Union City is.
Robert Foster is from the Gap, the red Australian desert outside the few remaining super cities. Earth has undergone an unspecified disaster, and all those not inside a city are looked upon as savages. In reality, they might be the sensible people, because Union City, although ostensibly run by the benign Council, is a nest of problems.
First of all there’s its structure: The city’s towers are divided by social class, with industry and recycling banished to the tops of the towers while the lower levels are the domain of day spas, aspiration parties, and bars that serve only the local soda, called "Spankles." People wander around with fixed grins on their faces, which is no wonder, as they’re constantly being monitored. A system known as "Qdos" assigns value to their actions, such as turning up for work and taking part in daily voting, and their social standing is calculated from the results.