Adventure Gamers - Forums

You know after all the drama went down in the beyond a steel sky thread, I decided to actually play the game. I found it on Amazon for the PS4 for $9 which was strange bc it was a collector’s edition and the standard edition was actually more expensive at 12 bucks. I have played the original years ago and liked it well enough but was not really all that blown away by it.

Not to bury the lead but this was the most interesting game I have played in awhile, and what makes it odd is I think overall it’s a perfectly average game lol. Let me explain…

This game looks just like and from a control standpoint plays exactly like a Telltale Game except having some traditional puzzles in it, which was interesting to me, At least on the consoles. it plays like a Telltale game where you direct control your character in a Cell shaded graphic form, walking around with objects that light up with a white cursor as you get closer. There are some traditional inventory based puzzles but 90% are puzzles based around a hacking mini game that in theory is pretty brilliant but sadly in execution doesn’t reach its level of full potential. Later on in this thread I will describe one puzzle in very spoiler fashion to illustrate my point.

On to the story and characters which I do enjoy for the most part, for the record I have yet to complete the game. I probably got less than an hour left and plan on beating it tomorrow.  I do have some issues with the story, but first the positives. there is some choice in this game but it does not wear that tagline on its sleeve like a Telltale Game. I’m 95% sure one character has multiple endings based on a trophy that you can unlock if you replay the game. you can also just tell by the different ways you can interact with this one character throughout the story. So while the game story itself does not change, there is one character that has two or three different endings depending on player input. And the reason that works for me here is because Revolution did not draw attention to it or make a big deal out of a minor Choice mechanic like I feel Telltale does.

Now to the part of the story that does not work for me and this will contain a very minor spoiler. at one point you have to assume the identity of a dead man and you get interviewed by the Ministry of wellness in the Dead Man’s apartment and your having to pretend to be him. meanwhile there’s pictures of the real character all over the apartment and you look nothing like him; as the game itself describes, you are a foot taller and way skinnier than the actual character. Also some other neighbors in the apartment complex don’t recognize you as not the real character either, which I find unbelievable. I know this is supposed to be a society filled with Automation and people are kind of oblivious to what goes on around them, but still there has to be a through line of reality in my opinion.

Now to my biggest issue with the puzzles, like I said 90% of the game is hacking puzzles which in theory is a brilliant idea, because Union City now is basically a fully automated world and hacking different devices to go crazy is cool and in theory fun. but since the game also wants to have characters walk around constantly like in lure of the temptress, it becomes cumbersome, bc the pathing is not great. I’m about to spoil one of the better puzzles, but also one of the most infuriating ones too.

at one part you have to steal a poem from a guy by using the hacking mini game and you have to get the poem to move along a route. you do this first by hacking the VIP area to get in and talk to the guy. you learn he only likes classical music, so obviously then you have to go to the radio and hack it to play more aggressive rock music, so he’ll come out and complain to the manager. After that you have to hack the vip door to make an alarm go off, so the next time he tries to go back in vip, it calls a robot to give him a warning. When the robot comes you have to hack the tablet that the poem is on and put it on the flying robot. I figured I just would have to follow the robot around while he now recites the poem and listen but that’s not the end of it. this is the only time I had to use a walk through for this game. The robot on his pathing routine is supposed to go by a kiosk where then you could hack the poem off the robot and have it engraved on a broch, except in my game the robot never went by the kiosk because of a bug. After following him around for 30 minutes I looked up a guide and realized that was the case. I had to reset a save, after that the robot went back to his proper route

For the record there’s more than one of these type of puzzles in the game but all the other ones worked better than this one for me. Also not a bug but the other thing that happens alot is you and another character will be talking about a third character and because all the characters are constantly moving around the world, that 3rd character will come up behind you while you’re talking about them. almost like they’re Eaves dropping on the conversation, when really it is just the character’s walking routine.

In closing this is a lot longer review for me because I pretty much already beat the game instead of reviewing it as I went along. My opinion might go up slightly or down because I have one little area left to complete but I feel pretty confident in giving this game a 7 to a 7.5/10. It’s the type of game where somebody could tell me they thought it was a six and I would say I get it, and it would also be a game where some people might give it an eight and I would understand that as well.

I am very curious about the direction Revolution is going for their future titles, especially for Broken Sword 6 which as most people know is one of my favorite adventure game series. This game has left me somewhat optimistic and yet also somewhat pessimistic, especially with Charle’s comments about wanting to attract a younger audience.

Played it a while back and really enjoyed it. Had read some disappointed views on it but never delved too deep into the discussions since i wanted to go in fresh. I’d easily give it an 8/10. Nothing like the original in style of course, but a good example of a modern adventure game. And Revolution did the parts that follow the Telltale formula better than Telltale imo.

Veovis - 14 February 2024 04:11 PM

Played it a while back and really enjoyed it. Had read some disappointed views on it but never delved too deep into the discussions since i wanted to go in fresh. I’d easily give it an 8/10. Nothing like the original in style of course, but a good example of a modern adventure game. And Revolution did the parts that follow the Telltale formula better than Telltale imo.

I definitely think it was a step in the right direction from Modern more high-end adventure games. I just hope Revolution don’t take a step back with broken sword 6, trying to appeal to the masses. I don’t think they will be interested in it no matter what, unless they completely changes genres.

I do think beyond needed a couple more months to cook and really iron out the characters walking routines to make it less janky.

luckyloser - 14 February 2024 04:23 PM

Sure it’s better than TTG’s so-called adventures, but there is no comparison even, i didn’t see the TTG formula ay where, there are no dialogue choices of illusion, no stupid QTEs press (QWERTY) keys as fast as you can, and all the TTG bullshit.

I really liked this sequel more than the original, actually

While there’s no qte exactly there are several timed events in this game for example.

there is a point where you play as Joey and have to knock a guard off a platform. in another example you play as Foster and put your hand in a machine and you have a limited time to escape the machine, there’s even achievement or trophy tied to it while these are not hard by any means they are still timed and qte adjacent.

There’s also a dialogue choice with your wife in the game. like I said they just dont advertise it like telltale does, no she will remember what you said appears above her head. It is way more subtle and really well executed, but her ending is directly tied to the choices you make and how you treat her.

But when I brought up telltale, I was more relating it to the look and UI design. Beyond a steel sky looks way more like a Telltale Game than say Broken Sword 5 did when it came out. But it also plays more like a Telltale Game with how you walk and interact with the world. One more thing I didn’t like about The Walking animations, sometimes I’d be trying to hand an NPC an inventory item and they would be constantly walking away from me, that got a little old too.

Doom - 14 February 2024 06:05 PM

I should really play this game, been postponing it for far too long, and now that there’s BS6 on the horizon… I admit that graphics was one thing that didn’t make me immediately grab it. But I always liked writing in Revolution’s games, and from your and other reviews it sounds like it’s just as good.

I don’t think the writing is quite as good as broken sword but I do love the world building and what is there is still good, with a lot of humor that lands. You get use to the art style quickliy, at least i did. The games is adecent length as well probably going to end up clocking in around 8 to 10 hours for me.

I beat the game this morning and I think my score will go up a bit to about an eight. One thing I think revolution has always struggled with is endings and I really liked this ending. I think it was really a great ending to this series and I kind of hope they never make another sequel. The only story thing I didn’t like was after apologizing to Joey for leaving him and letting him try and run the City by himself. Making joey think Foster was mad at him and no longer wanted to be his friend, foster apologizes and said he should have never left the city, but then immediately leaves the city again lol. but at least it leads to a throw away line of dialogue that he might be back this time. other than that story beat itself, the ending was really well done and made me think about everything that’s going on in the world today, including the kind of craziness of The Message Board the last two weeks. Some of the same themes run throughout.

Now for my negative, the last two puzzles were pretty simple and I wish were more involved, and that’s what worries me about the future of adventure games. The story itself is building to a great climax but the last puzzle is literally just rotating blocks, that takes about 2 seconds to figure out, and that makes me worry about gameplay design in the future.

Overall though i was satisfied with the story, even though the build up of how we got to the ending point; I think was not fully fleshed out, the way it should have been. Going back to my earlier points, I also wish we got to see more of the other Ministries at work. A small spoiler, There are five Ministries that run Union City and you really only deal with two of them until the final confrontation and I think it would have been great storytelling to see how the rest truly operated within the city and had puzzles with them.

But overall I really enjoyed my time with this game and would recommend it. Like I said your experience may vary but I doubt anybody will really hate the game and I doubt anybody would say it’s a classic either, but it is a nice mid ground between what Telltale does and a real adventure game and that’s what made it interesting to me. I didn’t keep an exact time but I really think I spent about 10 to 11 hours in game, but 30 minutes of that was on a bug that I encountered, so let’s just say 10 hours.

Overall score
8/10

Played it last year, was totally thrilled to get a follow up to one of my favorite adventure puzzle titles! I concur with the over reliance on hacking puzzles was a small disappointment, not that I didn’t enjoy them, I would have preferred a little more variety in the puzzles.

I had a couple of issues with the plot too, I always felt after playing the first game that Joey and Ken were considered too different to be acknowledged as the same person. Hence why foster renames him Ken as his rude and angry vacuum cleaner droid is now a mild mannered android. Ken even remarks he likes his new name, but when you return to Union City its all Joey Joey Joey! Maybe its a nitpick but idk, it bothered me slightly. Also, was mentor Alonso also Joey? I’m confused on that detail. And if he was, how did we kill him? Maybe I need a second playthrough, perhaps there was something I missed…

Despite these nitpicks, I still loved it! Great to have a sequel that wasn’t just member berries and actually tried something cool a new. Controversially I actually liked the switch the 3D, being able to explore Union City in three dimensions was a treat!  I also liked that the plot was not a retread and the majority of what happens in the game feels new. I was very sad when Joey died. When I was younger I always wanted a rude robot just like Joey. Bold step to kill him off.

One final point is that I would not recommend the Nintendo Switch version. It ran very badly and had a lot of texture pop when entering new areas.

Im pretty sure Alonzo was human, he also was not perceptive at all. I agree with the rest of your takes. Although I noticed Foster took Joey’s fried circuit board so that could be a sequel bait, but like I said I hope we don’t get one. this ended pretty perfectly.

PS I agree with you about member berries. I overall enjoyed broken 5, but gosh it was so much do you remember this. I hope they don’t do that with broken sword 6, but I have my suspicions

Jdawg445 - 23 February 2024 06:33 AM

Im pretty sure Alonzo was human, he also was not perceptive at all. I agree with the rest of your takes. Although I noticed Foster took Joey’s fried circuit board so that could be a sequel bait, but like I said I hope we don’t get one. this ended pretty perfectly.

PS I agree with you about member berries. I overall enjoyed broken 5, but gosh it was so much do you remember this. I hope they don’t do that with broken sword 6, but I have my suspicions

Thanks for the clarification!

I feel like I’d be open to a new one in another two decades, maybe a final one with Foster as a much older person… idk. I’d rather they not bother at all unless there is a solid idea there, and clearly I don’t have it

Broken Sword is something I’ve yet to try! I hear nothing but good things overall though, so I should probably get on with it.