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CD32 review - This game isnt even listed in the CD32 list - its awesome though, with extras"

My reviews do one thing, tell the truth from a gamers point of view, I have loved and played games for over 15 years and I want to share my passion with you guys!! Onto the review…….


I've always felt the CD32 was underappreciated, but at the time it was a console ahead of its years, full of new technology and a nifty joypad. As a big Amiga fan I was always going to love it, but spending (at the time) £499.00 on one made me an instant fanboy!!

When I received Beneath a steel sky for a christmas present I was a slender 15 years old, old enough to have one of the best games ever made imprinted on my memory, a journey of sci fi and fantastic storytelling (this game made long leather jackets cool well before the matrix), a classic.

Graphics

All hand drawn/painted backgrounds are great, beautiful artwork all round, from the little architecture sculpting in the travel agent lobby to the vast cityscape view above (even got moving traffic), wonderful stuff that even stands up today.

9/10

Sound

Not bad for the time, not many tunes mind, but the sound effects are spot on. Voiceovers…. Hit and miss, Joeys is awesome, you just want to hate him but you cant!! But overall it's pretty good and doesn't distract from the atmosphere of this game.

7/10

Gameplay

Point and click, that may make readers run a million miles or it might make you read on, a niche genre to put it kindly, I love point and clicks by the way, the way you have all the tools at your disposal, but do you use it, wear it, look at it, combine it……. If you know what I'm saying you will love this, by today's standards its oldhat but if your reading this then you're a retro fan anyway. (god bless you).

Longevity

Well, tough one, ive played this classic through 3 times, but that's over 12 years. No replay from a gamers point of view, i.e no side quests, but if you want to acquire this game then you will want to hang onto it, its well worth a second play through, even if it's a year or two down the line.

Overall

A classic on the Amiga, a slightly enhanced classic on the CD32, second to only Guybrush Threepwood's shenanigans, if you love point and click adventures, even modern day ones (I'm looking at you broken sword/so blonde), you will get a real kick out of this, but a warning!!!!! There is no handholding in this, just a solid, well told adventure, enjoy.

10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 01/26/09

Game Release: Beneath a Steel Sky (EU, 1994)

Title Beneath A Steel Sky
Game Type Adventure
Players 1
HD Installable Yes
Compatibility All Amigas
Submission Isaac Abraham

Review
Coming on twelve disks, you would be an absolute idiot to buy this game
without having a hard drive. I tried playing this at a friends house, we
spent more time swapping disks then playing the actual game, for gods sake.
Thankfully this probably accounts for less than 5% of Amiga owners nowadays,
and if this is being read off the CUCD, you almost certainly have a HD. So
you may as well forget this paragraph.
BASS (as it shall be known from here onwards) tells the tale of a boy who
moves outside the city to live in the wilderness with a group of mutants.
One day, a chopper from the city arrives, kidnaps him, and kill the rest of
them. After an inevitable escape (shown via an excellent intro sequence),
you take control, and it`s up to you to find out why you were kidnapped, how
you can get back to the wilderness, and so on and so forth.
The game proper takes place as a point and click graphic adventure. Unlike
most games like this that have umpteen buttons, like "Talk" "Argue"
"Disagree" "Speak" "Converse", which merely serve to confuse the issue, BASS
has cleverly concentrated on the actual problem solving. You see, you only
have two buttons - the left and right mouse buttons. Left button is for
examine, right is for use. You can also USE one object in your inventory
with another. The first puzzle in the game is right at the start. You are on
a ledge, with a security guard who will shoot you if you walk downstairs. A
door is to your right, but it is locked. So you find a piece metal of metal
and right-click on it. Your character pulls it out of the wall. Now, by
USING the "crowbar" on the door, you can wedge it open. A quick animated
sequence later, and you can now go down the stairs because the security
guard investigates the door which you opened and thinks that you have died
from falling off a ledge (Trust me, it makes sense in the game!). And the
animated sequences are like your reward for solving a puzzle, and they egg
you on to solve the next one. Only rarely is there any pointless searching
every pixel on the screen for an object, and thankfully there are no stupid
subgames that interrupt the flow of the game.
And the game is huge. There must be over a hundred screens, and probably
there are near to a hundred puzzles, maybe more. Whenever you complete one,
it`s always through logical deduction (well, mostly!), and this also helps
things bounce along. The only thing perhaps that goes against this game is
the fact that it is so massive - at one point in the game, you have access
to near on 50 screens, and if you get stuck, it can seem very daunting. But
in its favour, BASS looks great, it`s easy to get into, and it plays a great
game. Although the game pretty much is linear in that there is only one way
to complete the game, that path is never clear to see. The addition of real
time puzzles (doing one task whilst another one is occuring) also improves
the game.
The CD32 version also has speech for the characters, so get that one if you
can. But even without the sound, BASS is one of the best adventure games
I`ve ever played. Buy it.