Beyond a Steel Sky

One of the great '90s adventures reimagined

- IAN EVENDEN

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.

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.