Beneath a Steel Sky |
Beneath a Steel Sky is a science fiction, more specifically cyberpunk, point and click adventure game with comedy elements, created by Revolution Software published by Virgin Interactive Entertainment, and initially released in 1994 for DOS and Amiga. Beyond The Abyss was its working title.
The game is made using Revolution Softwares Virtual Theatre engine and is the second game to be made using it, with the first being Lure of the Temptress .
The game s backgrounds and introduction sequence were designed by Dave Gibbons. The introduction sequence was also included as a separate promotional comic book in some releases of the game.
=Story=
The game takes place at an unknown point in the future in an Australia where the Earth has been damaged significantly, presumably been devastated by pollution or nuclear fallout. The game s backstory is introduced via a comic book, drawn by well-known comic artist Dave Gibbons, that tells the story of a young boy called Robert who is the sole survivor of a plane crash in the Gap (the name applied to the Australian Outback at the time of the game). Too young to fend for himself, Robert is adopted by a local group of Indigenous Australians, who teach him the skills he needs to survive in this harsh new enviroment; they name him Robert Foster, due to his being fostered by the and the discovery of an empty can of Fosters, the Australian beer near him at the crash site.
After Foster has reached adulthood, he is kidnapped and his tribe annihilated by storm-troopers sent from Union City by its all-powerful computer LINC. Interestingly, Union City mentions major streets found in Australia s largest city, Sydney, leading some to speculate that Union City was once Sydney.
Foster manages to escape from his captors as the helicopter transporting him back to Union City crashes just after entering the dome, leaving him and his robot friend, Joey, to find out why they were brought there and where to go next.
Joey s personality is stored on a small circuit board, which can easily be inserted and removed from many types of robot bodies. This allows Joey to change bodies as the situation requires, provided his circuit board isn t damaged. Joey, however, is not always happy about Foster s choice of body for him.
= Background =
In the future world of Beneath a Steel Sky , each of the seven states of Australia have been consumed by their capital city and are described as a City State .
Union City is the second largest of the six remaining City States after the acquisition of Asio-City. Notably Australian Security Intelligence Organisation is Australias national security service.
After the Euro-American War all participants agreed upon a set of ideals described as the neo democratic principles which removes all labour representation and social benefits. Ironically those that subscribe to these principles are called Unions contrasting the real world definition of what a Trade union pushes for. Those that oppose the Unions ideals are called Corporations .
All of the City States are described as either being Corporations or Unions.
The back-story involves a conflict between Union City and Hobart Corporation fighting over market dominance by the use of sabotage which is used as a common theme throughout the story. Hobart is the capital city of the Australian state Tasmania.
= Critical acclaim =
The games initial release in the UK was met with critical acclaim, reaching the number one place in the Gallup poll charts and receiving;
The release in the USA was met with almost equal success with;
In May 1995 Beneath a Steel Sky was also awarded the prestigious Golden Joystick Award for The Best Adventure .
= Credits =
Assistant Producers
Programming
Computer Graphics & Animation
Voices
=Trivia=
*Another dystopian movie influence for Beneath a Steel Sky is Fritz Lang s Metropolis (1927 film) . The setting is similar to that of Beneath a Steel Sky .
=Legal situation=
In August 2003, the game was released as freeware and support for it was added to ScummVM, allowing it to be played on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Windows CE and other compatible operating systems. The data files for both the disk and CD version are available from the ScummVM website. Both versions available are the altered versions that have the Fosters beer logo removed.
=Sequel=
Company boss Charles Cecil has said in 2004 Beneath A Steel Sky 2 is a project Revolution Software has been considering for a while, and has started to move forward on, but we are unable to comment beyond this. On 4th March 2004 Revolution purchased the URL http://www.steel-sky2.com.
It is predicted the game if released will be in 3D computer graphics like Revolution Softwares latest release Broken Sword .
Revolution announced in August 2005 Broken Sword 4 though, so the sequel wont be published soon. In September 2005 Tony Warriner stated in Revolutions forum that the game wasnt cancelled, but that he would not lose hope that there would be a Steel Sky 2 one day in the future.
= References =
= External links =
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