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[Vampire On Titus]

Beyond a Steel Sky Is a Return to Cyberpunk Dystopia 25 Years in the Making (IGN Preview)

New video that goes into some of the new gameplay mechanics Revolution is working on for the BaSS sequel. "Virtual Theater" which seems to mean more in depth A.I responses from certain NPCs that factor in to puzzle solving. The goal seems to make an adventure game with more dynamic puzzles, which sounds cool, but obviously we'll have to wait and see how dynamic they truly are. I think overall it looks good but there are some noticeably clunky animations. The animations in the trailer itself look more polished, and even seem to be further worked on over the apple arcade reveal. Robert raising his head at the start of the trailer is less robotic than it was initially. Hopefully that's something they're tidying up. I've endured similar clunkiness in 3D adventures like Life Is Strange but it'd be nice to do those Dave Gibbons designs justice.

Here's hoping they pull off a worthy successor to a classic game.

 

[Shifty]

BaSS is getting a sequel?! And it's third-person?

That's unexpected and kind of rad.

 

[halfHedge]

Alright. I'm in!

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Just wanted to mention that this "presentation video" embedded in their preview confirms that the current footage is using some early animation and placeholder assets. IGN probably should have included that disclaimer in their YT vid but in any case it's good that the final game will be less stiff.

This video also explains the Virtual Theater stuff a bit more clearly.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

 

[NeilH1982]

Yes please

 

[Slings and Arrows]

I really enjoyed BaSS as a kid. I never knew it was created by revolution games though. These are the same heroes that did Broken Sword

 

[sephiroth7x]

Genuinely looking forward to this. I am not expecting a critical darling by any means but a solid 7/10 that earns cult status will do the series and previous game justice.

Just hope the story is as good as the original!

 

[SAiLO]

Played the demo at EGX 2019 and I am looking forward to it being released now. It was an early build and needs polishing, but overall my experience was a positive one.

 

[existensmaximum]

Whoah.. This has got to be the definition of "unexpected". How cool is this? Really looking forward to it!

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Played the demo at EGX 2019 and I am looking forward to it being released now. It was an early build and needs polishing, but overall my experience was a positive one.

They've been steadily polishing things up, noticeably, with each new public showing. Things were fairly rough around that initial apple arcade trailer but now it's looking pretty damn good.

Do you know if the build you played is close to their latest one? Because supposedly they're on track for a winter 2019 release but Charles has also said he would delay it to early 2020 if they need more time.

 

[Fuz]

Loved BasS. But if they don't give me the option to center that camera I'm out.

 

[SAiLO]

They've been steadily polishing things up, noticeably, with each new public showing. Things were fairly rough around that initial apple arcade trailer but now it's looking pretty damn good.

Do you know if the build you played is close to their latest one? Because supposedly they're on track for a winter 2019 release but Charles has also said he would delay it to early 2020 if they need more time.

There was no build info. All secretive.

 

[Shifty]

Two months later and I still can't believe this is a thing

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Bunch of new previews for Beyond coming out lately and they've got me hyped.

This one from PCInvasion is probably the best that I've read. It goes in depth on the virtual theater and linc hacking aspects of the gameplay:

“This is an unabashed adventure game,” Cecil said while demonstrating the game.

There’s a lot of backstory involved with the first puzzle, which actually consists of several puzzles. In short, you need to catch a ride with a trucker to get past the front gates of Union City, but the trucker burned out his battery while waiting out a passing dust storm. The trucker passed the hard-to-replace battery on to a technician to repair, but you discover that the technician is actually a fraud who utterly destroyed it instead of fixing it. So, in the typical adventure game fashion, you have to get creative in finding him a replacement.

This includes manipulating scavenger birds called gang-gangs, particularly the “thieving gang-gang” to get a needed tool back. By solving a different puzzle earlier, players know that gang-gangs are greedy for food, aggressive, but can be scared off by loud noises. Armed with that knowledge, players have multiple solutions to this problem.

Approaching the bird directly causes it to fly away with the tool. So, Cecil had Foster pull some food from his bag, which caused the gang-gang to give up his ill-gotten loot and follow him around. It also ended up attracting a gaggle of gang-gangs, which followed him around as though he were the Pied Piper.

After picking up the tool, he explained that other solutions included throwing the sausage onto a cliffside, then summoning a hologram to scare it away. Yet another way solution includes throwing the food at an electrified fence. Suffice it to say, things don’t end well for the bird when this happens, but the player still gets the tool.

The point is, players aren’t forced into a solution that might feel nonsensical. They discover the rules that govern each NPC’s behavior and can employ multiple solutions to exploit them. As a result, solutions feel organic and somewhat open-ended.

The way the game is handling puzzle solving sounds super ambitious. Having various different ways of subverting NPC motivation to the point where it can feel a lot more dynamic then other adventures. It'd also be cool if the different puzzle solutions tied into narrative branches. Like someone getting upset with you for the electrified fence solution, for instance.

This preview from PC Gamer is pretty good, also. It gives a more general overview but also suggests that Beyond is inkeeping with that same mix of dystopian fiction & comedy that made the original game as memorable as it was:

Revolution also says that LINC hacking won’t just be used for solving puzzles, but causing mischief too.

You’ll be able to use it to mess with characters and otherwise screw up the simulation, which should result in some amusing moments. Again, like the original, Beyond has that slightly strange mix of grim dystopian fiction and goofball humour, which is, honestly, exactly what I wanted to see from a Steel Sky sequel. I just hope there are as many northern accents in this one, because very few dystopias feature as many Brummies and Geordies as Beneath a Steel Sky did.

A sense of humour has always been at the heart of Revolution’s games, and I’m glad to see it back in full force in Beyond, which could have easily leaned into the grimdark stuff that’s so popular in cyberpunk-style games at the moment. The characters are also not what you would expect from a setting like this.

Fun little non plot critical content like that can give games a lot of charm. It's easy to imagine a lot of different gags you could sneak in via hacking machinery. The more I read about Beyond a Steel Sky the better it seems. I think Revolution might have their first super good one in a while with this.

 

[ROMhack]

Looking forward to this. Thanks for sharing Vampire On Titus

 

[Slings and Arrows]

Revolution are second-to-none in the adventure game sphere.

 

[Thanati]

Interesting. I loved Beneath A Steel Sky on the Amiga. Great adventure game!

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Some behind the scenes mini docs just came out for Beyond a Steel Sky:



The first one gives a general overview of the concept and the second goes in depth in regards to the Virtual Theater system and LINC hacking mechanic. It is still showing early footage. I noticed that it's actually earlier than the gameplay Charles showed at his EGX and Adventure X talks. In any case the insights are interesting and this is probably the best look at the game so far. It covers a lot of ground in a very short time.

Charles delivers some bold words at the end of episode 1: "We've been writing adventure games at Revolution for 30 years. Beyond a Steel Sky is the culmination of all of these ideas. It's out most ambitious adventure to date and we hope it will be seen to redefine the adventure genre."

lol Who knows about all that but I'm certainly excited to play the game.

 

[Slings and Arrows]

Revolution should be worth billions and it's a shame they aren't, they frigging deserve it.

My concern is that 3d puzzle/action games, are less mentally challenging than their 2d counter-parts. BS 3+4 were a cakewalk compared to BS 1 + 2. Though BS1 did have the goat

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Revolution should be worth billions and it's a shame they aren't, they frigging deserve it.

My concern is that 3d puzzle/action games, are less mentally challenging than their 2d counter-parts. BS 3+4 were a cakewalk compared to BS 1 + 2. Though BS1 did have the goat

Well, I couldn't even finish Broken Sword 4 but that wasn't due to its difficulty...

Beyond a Steel Sky does seem to be playing with a lot of different intertwined mechanics (VT, Hacking, OG Adv Mechanics) and it's not hard to imagine how you could layer the complexity as the game went on by combining all of them. I am curious to see how all the various solutions will impact the challenge. I wouldn't want moments where I'm solving thing accidentally without knowing why because so many options "work."

 

[Slings and Arrows]

Well, I couldn't even finish Broken Sword 4 but that wasn't due to its difficulty...

Beyond a Steel Sky does seem to be playing with a lot of different intertwined mechanics (VT, Hacking, OG Adv Mechanics) and it's not hard to imagine how you could layer the complexity as the game went on by combining all of them. I am curious to see how all the various solutions will impact the challenge. I wouldn't want moments where I'm solving thing accidentally without knowing why because so many options "work."

Good post, though i do need to do a quick back-peddle on the 3d games' level of challenge; I played Operencia last month on Gamepass and that had some of the most frustratingly-fun old-school puzzles I have seen since the days of BS, Monkey Island, et al.

I'll buy this game to support Revolution. I bought a Vita just so I could play Broken sword 5.

It will be cool to see how it turns out.

 

[drganon]

Never played the first one but I did enjoy broken sword 1 and 2, so I'll probably check this out.

 

[Bullet Club]

 

[ROMhack]

Yeahhh my hopes aren't too high for it.

Think they should have just gone point and click - the adjustment to 3D never works well in the genre unless you're creating a story-centric title like The Telltale game. I mean it's something Revolutionary already learned when they went back to 2D for Broken Sword 5 (after the frankly crap fourth game).

Anyway, it might be good. Who knows.