The name Revolution Software is a name that many adventure gamers are familiar with. Revolution has brought us the excellent Broken Sword series, brilliant detective stories that adventurers hold in high regard. Along with Sierra and Lucasarts' lineups, BS is a household name for the adventure community. However, if you were to ask Joe Average about the other games that Revolution put out, they would probably say "What other games?"

However, Revolution has, in fact, released other games. In fact their very first game was Lure of the Temptress, a somewhat obscure adventure. This game came out six years before the first Broken Sword and featured an impressive amount of technical aspects. It was one of the first games to feature VGA graphics and boasted something called Virtual Theater. This system created by Revolution themselves, programs a unique personal agenda for NPCs in the game. Instead of them just standing around for the entire game, the characters were able to go through town and do whatever they pleased. It was a great idea and a valiant first effort, but Virtual Theater was far from perfected in Lure of the Temptress. The characters' movement seemed very random and players often faced the chore of hunting down a character who was wondering around the city.

And finally we reach the damn point to all this. Four years after Lure of the Temptress, Revolution released Beneath a Steel Sky. BASS was to feature advanced graphics, a brilliant storyline and an improved Virtual Theater that would make the game feel alive. The game has developed a cult following over the years and is a favorite to many adventure gamers due to its fantastic story. It did not sell well in North America, however, and was unfortunately ignored in the west. But those that did stumble upon the game fell in love with it. It's no wonder to see why.

In a not-too-impossible future, where the world’s population is packed into concrete jungles and industrial metropolises, Union City is a melting pot with all man’s social problems coming to a boil. A paranoid population run by power hungry corporations and a Big Brother government is at the breaking point, and under the claustrophobic lid of a steel sky, is ready to blow at any minute. Run by the mysterious computer known as LINC, this hellish city is in the vice-like grip of this mainframe and controls every aspect of human life within Union City. LINC is always watching and has ultimate power over anyone and anything. Those who rebel against LINC’s order are either sentenced to death or downgraded to D-LINC status, stripped of any freedom or civil liberties. The area outside the cities is a desolate wasteland known as the Gap. Robert Foster, stranded here at childhood, has been raised by a tribe of outcasts and taught how to survive in the wilderness. He has built a wisecracking robot companion out of scrap metal named Joey and has adjusted to life in the Gap. However, now in adulthood, Robert’s tribe is attacked by Union City Police and takes him captive, but not before Robert’s home is blown up. However, upon arrival, the transport copter mysteriously crashes and Robert escapes. After a series of strange events, Robert now knows he must escape Union City and uncover the mystery of LINC once and for all.

You can see that BASS was inspired heavily by George Orwell’s 1984 and is equally as brilliant. The story only starts to uncover at the end and keeps you gripped to it until the end. Very slowly, the story becomes more and more compelling and is coupled with unexpected plot twists and development. BASS also succeeds in maintaining a dark subject matter, yet at the same time blends in Revolution’s brand of trademark lighthearted humor. Robert’s sidekick Joey, rivaling Max of Sam & Max fame, adds a lot to this with his sarcastic, dry remarks and jibes at his creator. BASS also features some witty commentary, such as the insane plastic surgeon that harvests and sells organs of patients in exchange for an operation. This not only gives the game some comic relief, but also adds to the pre-apocalyptic future theme.

BASS features some impressive graphics as well, with its detailed backgrounds and amazing comic-like introduction both done by artist Dave Gibbons (Watchmen). Thanks to Gibbons, the visuals compliment the setting perfectly. Using bleak colors to show a bleak future, Gibbons paints the picture masterfully. The mute industrialism of the top level of the city is complimented by dull gray colors, while ground level is presented as a bright and luxurious part of town. The graphics, at least the backgrounds and introduction, have held up somewhat well and remain pretty impressive.



While the graphics do a great job of complimenting the story, the music, however, falls flat. No matter where you are, the music is always quite light-hearted and out of place. The voice acting, however, is actually quite good. Each character, even the minor ones, has distinct and unique voices. It is a wonder; however, where Robert got his American accent since every other character speaks in an English accent.

BASS’s interface is very simple; left click on something to examine it, right click to interact with it. Inventory is viewed from a drop-down panel at the top of the screen. All puzzles are very logical and don’t present many problems at all. This might be due to the unfortunately short length of the game. I played through the game in a weekend without a hitch. Because of this, the game suffers from minor pacing problems. It is a bit of a shame considering how great the story is and it could have been that much better with a couple more hours. BASS features a unique style of puzzles revolving around your robot pal Joey. Joey exists only on a circuit board that you must install into a number of shells. The function of the shell enables Joey to perform whatever action the shell is programmed to do. Another unique aspect is the LINC-Space sequences. In order to crack the case, Robert must go into LINC’s mainframe a number of times and retrieve a file or something else from the database. It’s an interesting idea and is amusing; however they are very abstract and can be a little disorientating. Of course, there is the occasional death scenario. However, they don’t occur very often (almost only at the end) and potential danger is easy to spot and avoid.

BASS features the very same Virtual Theater scripting program that was pioneered in Lure of the Temptress. However, the program is much more robust this time around. Instead of the NPCs hopelessly random agendas, wondering around blindfolded through town, the characters in BASS follow a logical schedule. For instance, Gilbert Lamb walks from the pipe factory to his home at certain times rather than pacing about everywhere. Unfortunately, the program is underused. In fact, I think I only saw two characters that actually followed a scripted agenda. Everyone else stayed in one place.

Overall, Beneath a Steel Sky is an intelligent, provocative adventure that will make you think about the future of our society. However, because of its short length, minor pacing problems and easy difficulty, it falls just a bit short. Still, don’t let these things cloud your judgment. This is a superb game. And the fact that it’s now freeware gives you little excuse not to play the game.

8.9/10

[the gnome]

Great review of an amazing game. Make that a free game...

[Ninth]

I've always had the feeling that BASS had everything to be a classic, but in this end, as you (SamNMax) said, fell short. It was partly due to, as the review puts it, "short length, minor pacing problems and easy difficulty", but probably also because of the lack of coherence of the atmosphere. The game goes from paranoid to quiet to stressful to sad to joyful (etc) too quickly, and it left me behind, kind of uncaring.

Totally agree. I really didn't feel the vibe that the game wanted to give off until near the end. Plus the ending was a bit unsuccessful, I thought, and was very out of place.

Spoiler:

I mean, you'd think Union City blowing up or something would have been fitting. But no. It gets cleaned up and turned into happy town.

[Ninth]

Which makes me think: Have you played Noctropolis, Sam? It has a great "dark comic" feel, and would probably be one of my favorite game if it weren't for the atrocious interface.

For BASS, well, I blame the writing. It tries very hard to emulate Brazil (with a Blade Runner-ian look), but not everyone can be Terry Gilliam and make Funny and Gritty get along well together..

Haven't played Noctropolis, but was eyeing it for a while.

[Ninth]

Go for it, then, it's awesome.

Be warned, though, I have tried running my copy on XP (with and without DosBox) recently, but I never managed to run it smoothly. I haven't tried that hard, granted, but be prepared to have to fiddle a bit to get it working.

Oh, and as I said, the interface is not really good. You can only move to some predefined places on-screen (thanks to the FMV), and there's a huge interface that pops up when you right-click, with a bunch of mixed up action/disk options/map buttons.
I had some trouble getting used to handling this game, but after a while it felt ok, and all that was left was a great atmospheric game with a classic but solid story and a bunch of colourful evil and good characters. I bought this on a whim, and haven't regretted it.

[RLacey]

I once played a demo of Noctropolis, and have vaguely considered buying it ever since...

Difficult to find, though.

[Tom Bombadil]

Originally Posted by the gnome

Great review of an amazing game. Make that a free game...

In August 2003, BASS was made available for free download and is now classed as freeware. The sources and resource files are available from
http://www.scummvm.org