There is no way on earth that Revolution could recapture those circumstances – so wisely, they haven’t tried. How can it ever measure up to my rosy childhood memories, memories that have only become more blurred and more rosy over time? I’m playing this game through the eyes of a cynical 40-year-old, whereas I viewed the original through the wide-eyed gaze of an excited teenager playing what was then the pinnacle of the point-and-click genre, a sumptuous game that arrived on an astonishing 15 floppy disks. Of course, this heaps a ridiculous amount of expectation onto Beyond a Steel Sky. And then there are the throngs of ancient Amiga owners like me, who are goggle-eyed at the chance to finally revisit Union City after a lifetime of waiting. I spoke to Charles the other week for a forthcoming feature, and he said that the release of BASS as freeware back in 2003 did a lot to raise awareness of the game, along with the iOS release a few years later. Naturally, Revolution has been focusing on updates to its most popular series, Broken Sword, but clearly they think there’s now enough pent-up demand for a sequel to Beneath a Steel Sky to make it worthwhile. Revolution head Charles Cecil has been teasing a sequel to Beneath a Steel Sky for ages – as far back as 2004 in fact – but it’s taken years for the stars to align in its favour. Many people cite Broken Sword as Revolution’s magnum opus, but I’d argue that Beneath a Steel Sky is far better, thanks in part to the beautiful cyberpunk landscapes drawn by 2000AD‘s Dave Gibbons and the enduring, heartwarming bromance between the protagonist Foster and his sarcastic robot Joey. It was one of my favourite games on the Amiga, and number 11 on my list of 101 Video Games That Made My Life Slightly Better. Whatever the mystical reason for these ancient games suddenly rising from the grave 26 years on, I’m supremely pleased that we’ve finally got a sequel to Beneath a Steel Sky. I’m already looking through the games released in 1994 to see what surprise sequels and re-releases we can expect in the latter half of 2020.
It’s like the years 19 have some special resonance in history, some arcane connection. And now Revolution has brought out Beyond a Steel Sky, a sequel to the much-loved Beneath a Steel Sky from 26 years earlier.
BENEATH A STEEL SKY DREAMCAST PS4
Last month saw the release of Ultracore on PS4 and Switch, 26 years after the game was due to debut on the Megadrive. April brought with it the release of the excellent Streets of Rage 4, some 26 years after the previous entry in the formally mothballed series. It’s also a weirdly significant metric in this bizarre year of 2020. Twenty-six years is a long time to wait for a sequel to one of your favourite games.
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