Dystopic pointer-clickerer Beneath A Steel Sky may be very a lot within the 90s PC pantheon, even when it’s not essentially the primary identify individuals attain for when turning all misty-eyed about utilizing x on y. With a artistic crew that included Broken Sword’s Charles Cecil and Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons, whereas its puzzles don’t precisely stake a declare to immortality, its oppressive imaginative and prescient of tomorrow actually left an impression in an age when so lots of its friends had been all zombie pirates and frontier psychiatrists.
A sure classic of PC varieties have been baying for a sequel since 1994, and hey, whaddaya know? It’s lastly taking place – as revealed by Apple, of all megacorps.
There’s a quick glimpse of Beyond A Steel Sky, because the sequel is understood, in the beginning of this video selling Apple’s new gaming subscription service (which is midway a rival to Google’s Stadia streaming thinger), and midway a rival to the download-based likes of Xbox Game Pass and EA’s Origin Access):
As you possibly can see, it’s transferring from 2D to threeds, and whereas clearly that stuff’s for advertising and marketing functions, it doesn’t seem as if being made with Apple-funded cellular in thoughts goes to undermine how sharp it appears to be like. PC and console variations are due out in some unspecified time in the future this yr, along with the iThing model.
Variety has a reasonably prolonged Cecil interview up, through which he expands on the suggestion that isn’t a trad. level’n’click on (which can be why they’re not calling it BASS 2). He additionally namechecks the likes of Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture as an inspiration, when it comes to this being about wandering by means of and admiring fascinating locations moderately than purely utilizing rubber chickens on pulleys. I’m down for that, in principle.
He additionally suggests continuity isn’t the primary precedence for this sequel, which is a aid – I develop weary of the chokehold of canon round popular culture’s neck. Cecil additionally goes into the degrees of political commentary within the game and its plot, and cites Terry Gilliam’s seminal Brazil as a significant inspiration.
Hard to get a way of the way it’ll play, actually – are we speaking level’n’click on, strolling sim+plot or one thing within the Telltale vein? I’m glad it’s taking place, as if BASS was and is a little bit of a bear to play, it was all the time a theme and aesthetic deserving of extra exploration. I simply hope it doesn’t lean on too many drained 1984 tropes.
No platforms or launch dates but, however hopefully our ever-watching digital eyes will reveal extra to us quickly. If you wish to get all caught up within the meantime, the unique Beneath A Steel Sky has lengthy been obtainable at no cost on GOG.
