I don’t know if it is too obvious but I always thought that the name Ken was referring to Barbies ”boyfriend”. Joey does turn into a sexless plastic man but there might be a hidden slur there.
Yeah, actually my pop up blurb before the one you see now IS about how some people might thought it be about the Ken doll, but then someone who has spoken to Cecil informed me that it's actually about a colleague of his. I think the character, Robert, probably thinks the name is appropriate due to being rubbery and plastic and is likely the reason for it, but the following lines themselves? I think those are a lil too pointed to *just* be about the Ken doll, it's very much a personal dig.
the reason games in the 90s used blank buttons that only showed their content when you hovered over them is two fold. 1, it looked cool for the times. 2. since the button area was usually graphical it was easier to make them blank then create a text file that attached to the button. then the text file could be changed for different languages. Much easier then remaking the graphics buttons for each language. online games like 'world of Warcraft' still do the same thing.
Fun trivia: Ken (and I believe Joey although a little hard to tell with the processing applied to the voice) is voiced by Jason Isaacs best known to many as Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films.
I remember how surprised I felt when I found out Jasper and Horace from the Glenn Close 101 Dalmatians movie were actually Dr. House and Arthur Weasley respectively.
This is definitely one of my favorite point-and-click games, I'm very glad its free on GOG. I honestly love the game's generally goofy feel, sometimes its good to have a dystopian setting that dosen't take itself 100% seriously.
I really enjoyed Beneath a Steel Sky. The interaction between Foster and Joey was quite amusing. Then again I'm also British and some of the humour was a bit on the obscure side. Funny you say about Sierra as I always found their humour not great and very forced. They tried to have moments that very rarely made me smile.
As a Brit I absolutely adore this game. At time I really didn't know of many games that featured such a wide variety of voiced English accents and I found it to be extremely charming. In that sense I'm kinda thankful that the game took on such a weird, satirical tone, and many of the lines spoken by the British actors had me in stitches XD
I also enjoy the quirky dialogue, the humor, and the voice acting, even though it does sort of clash with the game's darker narrative themes. It's flawed in a number of ways but I think it pushed the point-and-click genre forward a bit and remains one of my personal favorites.
I love the clash of darkness and stupidity this game has. When the guard gets blasted in half at the start of the game it shocked me as a kid, because up until that point the game was so casually sardonic and silly.
I liked the wacky tone partially because it is unsettling on more subliminal level. It's obvious that something seriously wrong is happening in Union City, but all the people you meet are just going about living their lives and no one is seeing anything out of ordinary. The workers are simply absorbed by their jobs, and the upper (or should I say lower) class are generally nice, if a little out of touch, people. The game basically shows that you may not be aware that you live in a dystopia.
I played this game just a few months ago for the first time. At frist I was a bit sceptic, but then I was just blown away. The Puzzles may not be as threedimensional like in DotT (three time-periods. Got it?) but are hard as f**k when you are not used to it. Concerning the voice acting and the text: I loved it. I'm German, perhaps because of this I am more into British humor than American. Those different accents used, the overall tone of it, it just fit. THe humor doesn't always fit the setting, but it did for me. Joey boots up after being installed into a welder bot: "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE". Robert: "And cut this one out". Comedy gold for me.
I loved this game so much that I endured endless disk swapping on the Amiga (15 disks!) and I was stuck on it for MONTHS because I didn't notice that the red cable in the background of the factory area is interactable. I had to write in to Amiga Power to figure that out! Great review Roses!
Yeah it was even more obnoxious than it sounds when it involved swapping back and forth between two disks four or five times between levels. Going down the elevator meant: insert disk 7, insert disk 8, insert disk 7, insert disk 8, insert disk 7... not even kidding.
This totally is a cult classic, glad that phrase was used in the description. I've been playing this game about once per year since the 90s and I love it. The dialogue, the clever puzzles, and best of all the dark and thought-provoking cyber-punk future. I muse on the game's themes a lot.
I love this game. The dialogue is so punchy and funny. The capitalization in the dialogue is meant to inflect tone for sure. You also glossed over the entire LINC interface and puzzles.
If You Really looking into a great post-Apokalypse game, I would definitly recommend „Primordia“. The atmosphere is top notch, it has great voice acting and the puzzles are fair. It even has a funny side-kick robot who gives you tiny hints if you are stuck in the game but only if you ask him.
Primordia obviously took a lot of inspiration from Beneath a Steel Sky. I think there's even a direct reference or two, like Leo saying that he's selling a crowbar at inflated price because it has a "great sentimental value" to him. It also has a darker and more serious tone while still finding place for a lot of humor. And the music is just awesome, especially the Gospel of Man.
@George Corbul Goliath almost looks like a Beksiński painting. I felt the same about the ending. Maybe they should have focussed on single ending instead of making multiple ones. At least they're fine as far as wrapping up the story, they just lack some oomph.
Rob's father - what was left of him - made the helicopter crash because he didn't want Rob to be forced to replace him as the embodiment of LINC. It wasn't just a deus ex machina plot point about unreliable choppers.
I have Beneath a Steel Sky downloaded, but have not played much yet. I love Broken Sword though. I played both the first and second one, and they are favorites of mine! Love the art so much!
I have both the floppy and CD versions of this game. Loved it so much I bought it twice. :) It's also the reason that I went on to play the Broken Sword series (which I also loved, though not as much). And yeah, the random CAPITALISATION is intended to mimic the BOLD text from COMIC books. Which I assume is some sort of emphasis-highlight summary thing, and is hinted by the inclusion of the comic book intro in the box. Though TBF I never really did get why comics did it.
I agree. And yes, I know I'm a slow reader (I've sort of adopted an ent attitude to reading, if it's worth reading, it's worth reading slowly). Another factor is of course that we read it for the first time while simultaneously trying to listen to what you say for the first time, which probably means that we have to re-read parts of the sentences several times as the human brain is really bad at doing two things at once (our brains don't really multitask as much as use a time-sharing system). Add to that that, at least, part of your viewers are non-native English speakers, and the time needed to read and comprehend that little pop-up note multiplies quickly. Sure, it's UA-cam so people like me who might need a bit more time to read can always just pause the video, but that can get a bit choppy.
I played this first time when I got into trying GOG and for whatever reason, game felt strangely nostalgic despite that I never had played this one. Something about it all just clicked right for me and still liking this more or less weird and occasionally horrifying dystopian future setting. Well, it sort of is horrifying when seeing strange organic growth spreading out in science fiction always.
Its a ScummVM game like most of the classics. They all have that similar resolution, color, text font, and scripting behavior. Most people in the 90s played a ScummVM game at some point so playing another will feel similar
@@drowningin I wasn't alive back then and I still feel a strong sense of nostalgia with a few parts of this game in particular. I asked my dad about it once and he said "that was your game (when I was 2 or something) wasn't it?"
back in the 90s i used to play a broken(?) / demo version of beneath a steel sky, the game basically exited after the scene were reich got fried just when i got off the lift and tried to move at the cat walk (just outside the police station).. kinda sucked.. i thought the story ended there back then. was shocked to know that the story went on (thanks to gamefaqs haha). good thing i got a complete version from the internet some time in the 2010s. i miss point and click games like these, thanks for putting up commentaries like this! :)
My first exposure to B.A.S.S. was playing it on my Dreamcast using a much older build of ScummVM back in 2005/2006. Naturally, I didn't have the keyboard or the mouse so I had to use the analog stick for the entire game, but it was strangely addicting. It might have been my first point-and-click adventure experience.
Never have I disagreed more with a review than with this. I find the music TOTALY compliments the tone of the game and world in which it is set. The music, the voice acting and the artwork and the writing together is what makes this one of the most special games ever made. Change just one thing and it’s not Beneath a Steel Sky.
This was the first talkie adventure game I had, on the Amiga CD32. It didn't include the comic, but I was astounded when I first heard the dialogue! Although not as good as other adventures like Monkey Island, I liked the control system that didn't require fiddling with a dozen verbs or icons, but rather you just left-clicked to examine something, or right-clicked to attempt an action. I was about 13 at the time, possibly too young for the adult humour and references!
I loved this game as a kid, was especially funny accidentally killing yourself Sierra-style with the putty and the wrong door... The version I had lacked the initial intro/comic so it just started at the crash site. I always thought the world was pretty cool and would've been a nice setting for a movie.
I have warm memories of how interesting and entertaining this game was, though I was young and that could be because I had no problems with the dialogue in the game. Will take and play this again and see how I see it today. Thank you for a good video.
One of my favourite point and click adventure games of all time. Mixing Sci-fi, sdytopia our UK humour and lingo and post apocalypse. I love the focus on social class and Joey is a fun witty companion. I will say that the music is too loud and annoying and everything you enter a new area it comes back on.
I'm currently binge watching all your videos so I don't know it yet but have you ever tried some of the adventure games from the german game developer "Daedalic Entertaniment"? They revived the genre in Germany with their excellent games :) I think you could like their Harvey games and "the Whispered World" because they have a wonderful humour but also very deep stories about mental illnesses, traumatas, loss etc. And their Deponia series is just phenomenal in terms of wacky humour and strange world building. :D
I bought Whispered World on special for about $5. I didn't like the puzzles, but the story was pretty good. I think there's a bit of Neverending Story in the game. Neverending Story was originally a German book by Michael Ende, Die Unendliche Geschichte(The Unending Story).
Yeah I didn't like the puzzles either, there are better ones out there. In other Daedalic games too. But as you said the story was nice and I loved the hand drawn backgrounds and some of the characters.
Be forewarned, Roses, Daedalic games can be kinda...nihilistic. And mean-spirited. And sexist. And crass. But it is nice to see more adventure games out there!
I myself found Whispered World a bit flawed as a game, but there were some beautiful moments in it here and there. Also, I'm glad they patched away the squeaky walking sounds. I found it incredibly hard to relate with the angsty protagonist, it also didn't help that his voice reminded me of Cartman from South Park. Deponia was much better in my opinion, but still only around average. Once again, the protagonist was really unrelatable, a complete douche this time around, but I guess they wanted to go for the Han Solo vibe lol. But actually it worked, thanks to how others related to his presence in the game, which made some humorous dialogue. Also, the world building was much more solid here, when compared to Whispered World, where you kind of just drifted from one place to another and there wasn't much of consistency between the places. Night of the Rabbit is a completely different thing however, a hidden gem if you ask me. It's so multilayered - just when you think that you've figured the game out, it throws another positive surprise at you. Also, the graphics here were simply beautiful! I felt like I was reading one of those classic childhood story books. Yes, perhaps the protagonist reminds a bit too much of Christopher Robin from Winnie the Pooh, but the world, the different places and characters are just so immersive and well designed that I really got sucked into the game. What a great experience this was and it saddens me that there hasn't been a sequel.
I really love Daedelic but the problem is the translation. I played through the Deponia Trilogy + the fourth game in German and English and I must admit that the translation ruins a lot of the game.. They did a great job in translating it, but somethings cannot be translated perfectly.
I played through this game first time this week and the voice acting was the best bit for me. Love the flippant tone, love the variety of British accents. Also I don't feel a requirement for every dystopian future story to make meaningful social commentary. Just want a couple chuckles, some tough puzzles and pretty art to look at, was quite satisfied with this one!
I've always wondered if this game was at all influenced by the tabletop RPG Paranoia, which also takes place in a huge, stratified, dystopian city complex and involves a crazy, sentient central computer, Friend Computer. That game was also humorous cyberpunk and has similar aesthetics.
I personally really like the tone tension, it worked for me quite well, including the dorky music contrasting the industrial/cyberpunk scenery. Also I liked that the game scratched on the surfaces of various social and political topics, without going very deep into it, so it was more like a "Hey, that's something to think about. Form an opinion about it!" instead of a lecture. (eventhough I also like games with "lectures", too.) Oh and like a ton of other people, I thought the Ken joke is about Barbies Ken.
I enjoyed me some Technobabylon to the max....though I never completed it cause I think my copy was bugged, as I could not make a certain puzzle register to save my life, even though I saw another player on youtube complete the puzzle the way I was TRYING to, with no problems. Rather disparaging, getting a bugged DIGITAL copy of a game. Beautiful look at the future otherwise though, and seemed to handle its dialog the way you wish Beneath a Steel Sky had, and still manages to have a fun enough (though dry) sense of humor to warrant me revisiting it.
I agree with The Hawk's Eye, definitely look into Daedalic games - especially The Night of the Rabbit. It's one of the best point and click games I've played in a while - and let me tell you, I kind of hate rabbits but I still ended up loving this game, so.. Yeah. I don't want to spoil much about it, but the game ended up completely surprising me. At times it's childish while being classy at the same time (think of Wind in the Willows), at times it's surprisingly mature with its social commentary (Think of Orwell's Animal Farm), and at times it's... Is this REALLY a kids game?! Just go and play it, I promise you will most likely like it.
I remember this. As a Kid I couldn't possibly manage to finish an adventure game that I didn't even understand Its language. I was fascinated by the weird helicopter.
Nice review! This is one of my favourite adventure games, even though I only managed to beat it, or even play more or less meaningfully, for that matter, about ten year after I played it the first time - I didn't know English when I was a kid so I could even get past the very beginning of the game. Anyway, I love the graphics and the atmosphere, and pretty much everything about this game. I didn't recognise some of the moments you've shown in this video, so I now I have a good excuse to replay it :)
Oh a new Pur video. I'm so happy when this happens. It's 11 pm here, just got home from grappling training, tired as hell, sitting down with a hot bowl of soup and watching this. My idea of a wonderful end to a great day.
Wow, stumbling across this review made me a subscriber. It was completely unexpected to me. Coming right on the heels of your great Clue review, all I can say is 'keep up the great work'!!
I think I’ve had this on GoG for a long time but I’ve never gotten around to playing it. The world looks really cool and I love games that don’t take themselves too seriously.
I played this game when it came oit. And something happens in it which I thought was very scary. There is something the lurks unseen in the sewers. You to tackle this unseen creature in order to finish the fame..
Fascinating choice for a video, PuR. Would love to see you do some more lesser-known Point-and-Clicks from across the webberverse. Really appreciate the nourishing and thought-provoking nature of your videos, dude.
I like the cheesiness of the voices mixed with the seriousness of the story. I actually think it makes it more fun. The juxtaposition helps me. If it were too serious, I think it would be less fun, and possibly seem unintentionally hokey over time.
This is one of my favourite adventure games... I only played it for the first time a couple of years ago - I had been avoiding it because I thought it was going to be so serious and dour, but I was pleasanlty surprised with how funny it was, so for me that was a positive.
Oh man, one of my favorite Point and Clicks. I haven't played this one for quite some time. I actually own a CD hard copy of this that I picked up from a second-hand store something like 20+ years ago. Great memories. Before I go, have you ever heard of another point and click called Noctropolis? I enjoyed it as well, although it may be even less polished that BaSS.
I loved this game! I actually found the tonal shift between the dialogue, some of the sillier puzzles, and the serious nature of the game itself to be part of the fun.
Very nice review. I stumbled upon your channel, while watching LGR and since I love adventure games too, I decided to watch many of your videos. Thanks tor that! Concerning BaSK, I never played the voiced version, but I really loved that game and still hope, that it will get a follow up one day. Revolution mentioned that while kickstarting the last Broken Sword, so maybe there's hope.
Crazy how I've never heard of this game until today when Jim Sterling passively mentions it in his new video, then PUR makes a new video discussing it in the same day, weird but cool.
I only discovered this game a few years ago when it was offered free on GOG. It's interesting. If a game is good, do you charge a lot of money for it BECAUSE it's good or do you offer it free BECAUSE it's good? Anyway, this is, at the very least, in my top 10 '90s games. I liked the jokes and the British and Australian accents. Hobbins is great :) "Symbol my bum!!!", "I was thinking of renovating my office.....but I couldn't be arsed!!!". I also found that the puzzles were quite "solvable". As a matter of fact there were only a couple of solutions I looked up. There were some toughies, but I managed to solve them without too much farting about.
I gotta admit Joey is my fave. I mean he has all the best lines, he gets the most use I believe of any old game sidekick; girl you just made my day!!! If I were straight I’d be in love with you.
9:16 I know what you said before about LetsPlays but I hope you do a lets play on this game Roses. It was fun hearing you (and LGR who doesn't have to be involved here) do the different voices on the Laura Bow games! (And sorry I just saw this vid only just now. I have been going through a phase on this month where I haven't been watching the youtubers I usually watch all the time just bits and pieces of them and vids of random stuff too. I'm going to get back to what I did before now!)
The Good Old Games version is actually free if you make an account with them. Don't bother fucking around with ScummVM; just get an account on GOG and you're away. Great video Roses, really enjoyed it. Originally played it on the Amiga myself, took me ages to work out you could slide out of the starting area using the lift shaft pillar. Keep it up!
Did you play Beyond a steel sky? that was a great game and a great addition to the Series. it also has Great Music! and the story works great even though it falls flat at the end
I enjoyed your review, it's nice that this game gets some attention. I played this when I was a kid, back when point and click adventure games where really big. I agree with your statements, although it isn't the best, and doesn't have the best dialogue I still have a soft spot for this game. Reminds me when I first played it on my first PC I got, haha, good memories
This game SCARED me as a kid. The scary clone robot villain, the veiny organic technolair of Link, and the DEATH scenes... I replayed this recently and wow... I have to agree how disappointed I was by the tone being all over the place. I couldn't take the plot as seriously as I did back when I was a kid... It's still a classic, but a flawed one.
I LOVE your videos so much!! I'm a fairly new subscriber so I'm unsure if you take requests but I would love to see you review the Legend of Kyrandia games!!
How serendipitous! Jim Sterling actually mentioned this very game _today_ in his latest Jimquisition! (Here's the mention: ua-cam.com/video/DsEDhuDssZw/v-deo.htmlm25s ) They say that in a world/universe as big as the one we live in coincidences happen all of the time. But, it's still fun when you experience one! Thank you for a wonderful look at this classic game, PUR! :)
I love this game, but after my mom died in August 2019, I can't listen to the Union City Recycling Plant track for long without getting really emotional. The game has a great soundtrack, but I wish they had the speech with Roland music; it either wasn't available yet, or not in the budget (maybe?)
Loved this from the moment I got the demo on an Amiga Format magazine (that also gave away a copy of the comic!), though I didn't enjoy switching between the 14+ floppy disks that it came on and I only had the 1 floppy drive! Have you checked out any of the adventure games by Delphine Interactive? they made 3, Future wars, operation stealth and my favourite Cruise for a corpse.
Watched a longplay of this game and thoroughly enjoyed it. VA and all. I really liked the chemistry between Joey and Robert. They're like a married couple. The animation and sprite work are really good for a 25 year old game. I also really like the artworks of Union City.
Great review, I actually *just* played this game 2 weeks ago and agree wholeheartedly on your "opinions". The shift between serious and silly was driving me nuts, and the voice acting was so bad it seemed intentional. All in all it's a nice game, but it doesn't stand out for me in the row of 90s adventure game classics, and can't figure out why it received so much acclaim. Thanks again PUR ! Love your channel!
I played this game for free on gog, and did it without anyone's opinion, I love this game, its the only one I discovered by myself. The wacky nature and music was fantastic.
With reveal of the suddenly dead character you mentioned I thought I must have done something wrong because of the lack of weight and impact. I was like "omg, how? Why?" Zero reaction from what's his name and the robot... I'm just glad I wasn't the only person who realized how odd that was. Like it just came and WENT and any normal person would at LEAST be a bit...I don't know....MOVED??? lololol And where I'm from I think it's quite possible that I'm the ONLY person in this entire country who played this game so there was also that.
I don’t know if it is too obvious but I always thought that the name Ken was referring to Barbies ”boyfriend”. Joey does turn into a sexless plastic man but there might be a hidden slur there.
Yeah, actually my pop up blurb before the one you see now IS about how some people might thought it be about the Ken doll, but then someone who has spoken to Cecil informed me that it's actually about a colleague of his. I think the character, Robert, probably thinks the name is appropriate due to being rubbery and plastic and is likely the reason for it, but the following lines themselves? I think those are a lil too pointed to *just* be about the Ken doll, it's very much a personal dig.
I think I thought of that too. "Rubber Man". But I definitely thought the joke was on Ken Williams, being from a rival adventure game company.
ditto
Note: That "fountain" I fling the dog into may in fact be a pool.
PushingUpRoses PUR give me a heart!
it wasnt a dog...it was *a DOGE* common mistake
PushingUpRoses That makes it all right then
PushingUpRoses a pool is just an undercover fountain
That fountain IS a pool (emphasis not random).
the reason games in the 90s used blank buttons that only showed their content when you hovered over them is two fold. 1, it looked cool for the times. 2. since the button area was usually graphical it was easier to make them blank then create a text file that attached to the button. then the text file could be changed for different languages. Much easier then remaking the graphics buttons for each language. online games like 'world of Warcraft' still do the same thing.
Fun trivia: Ken (and I believe Joey although a little hard to tell with the processing applied to the voice) is voiced by Jason Isaacs best known to many as Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films.
I remember how surprised I felt when I found out Jasper and Horace from the Glenn Close 101 Dalmatians movie were actually Dr. House and Arthur Weasley respectively.
This is definitely one of my favorite point-and-click games, I'm very glad its free on GOG. I honestly love the game's generally goofy feel, sometimes its good to have a dystopian setting that dosen't take itself 100% seriously.
I really enjoyed Beneath a Steel Sky. The interaction between Foster and Joey was quite amusing. Then again I'm also British and some of the humour was a bit on the obscure side. Funny you say about Sierra as I always found their humour not great and very forced. They tried to have moments that very rarely made me smile.
I'm American and I've often felt the same about Sierra's humor. So your not alone.
And now, 25 years later, the sequel is announced: Beyond a Steel Sky. Woot!
Holy guacamole! How did I never hear about that? Thanks for the info!
@armanddarke ah 3D Adventures Games, only Popular.....like....never
It’s a pretty good game
It's actually pretty good. It also sold well for an adventure game in the current years. Nothing wrong with 3d adventure games if it controls well.
the sequel is awesome!
As a Brit I absolutely adore this game. At time I really didn't know of many games that featured such a wide variety of voiced English accents and I found it to be extremely charming. In that sense I'm kinda thankful that the game took on such a weird, satirical tone, and many of the lines spoken by the British actors had me in stitches XD
I also enjoy the quirky dialogue, the humor, and the voice acting, even though it does sort of clash with the game's darker narrative themes. It's flawed in a number of ways but I think it pushed the point-and-click genre forward a bit and remains one of my personal favorites.
it's set in Aus isn't it? which I find really interesting
I love the clash of darkness and stupidity this game has. When the guard gets blasted in half at the start of the game it shocked me as a kid, because up until that point the game was so casually sardonic and silly.
I liked the wacky tone partially because it is unsettling on more subliminal level. It's obvious that something seriously wrong is happening in Union City, but all the people you meet are just going about living their lives and no one is seeing anything out of ordinary. The workers are simply absorbed by their jobs, and the upper (or should I say lower) class are generally nice, if a little out of touch, people. The game basically shows that you may not be aware that you live in a dystopia.
xxcrysad3000xx isn't that clash of dark and funny also a characteristic of Monkey Island? I like that combination.
I played this game just a few months ago for the first time. At frist I was a bit sceptic, but then I was just blown away. The Puzzles may not be as threedimensional like in DotT (three time-periods. Got it?) but are hard as f**k when you are not used to it.
Concerning the voice acting and the text: I loved it. I'm German, perhaps because of this I am more into British humor than American. Those different accents used, the overall tone of it, it just fit. THe humor doesn't always fit the setting, but it did for me.
Joey boots up after being installed into a welder bot: "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE". Robert: "And cut this one out".
Comedy gold for me.
100% I love the humour and voices in this game, just classic british quirky humour.
It must be a true Dystopia if Australians are actually drinking Foster's XD
The retro aesthetics with 90s nostalgia in a game is something else. Totally took me back to being a kid.
I loved this game so much that I endured endless disk swapping on the Amiga (15 disks!) and I was stuck on it for MONTHS because I didn't notice that the red cable in the background of the factory area is interactable. I had to write in to Amiga Power to figure that out! Great review Roses!
Greetings fellow old person. I am also old.
Also played it on the Amiga (+ later the CD32) ---
I found a bug in LINC Space and they sent me a full set of new disks.
15 disks??? Damn!
Yeah it was even more obnoxious than it sounds when it involved swapping back and forth between two disks four or five times between levels. Going down the elevator meant: insert disk 7, insert disk 8, insert disk 7, insert disk 8, insert disk 7... not even kidding.
JimPlaysGames I KNOOOOWWWWW. I played this much later and had to finally google to find out about that dang red POS lol
It's so strange that Fosters beer is marketed in America as an Australian beer, when nobody in Australia drinks it.
Yep its so bad we sell it overseas instead. Like you probably can't even find it in most stores here.
It tastes like licking a skunks aaas. No one can seriously drink that stuff
it's strange that anyone is stupid enough to drink any kind of alcohol
This totally is a cult classic, glad that phrase was used in the description. I've been playing this game about once per year since the 90s and I love it. The dialogue, the clever puzzles, and best of all the dark and thought-provoking cyber-punk future. I muse on the game's themes a lot.
Huh. For some reason, I have an urge to obey PushingUpRoses.
Dave Gibbons did a lot of work for 2000AD which was known for its SCI-FI stories. Mainly Judge Dredd.
I love this game. The dialogue is so punchy and funny. The capitalization in the dialogue is meant to inflect tone for sure. You also glossed over the entire LINC interface and puzzles.
OMG - Shadow of the Templars! I totally forgot that title! I remember enjoying it a lot.
If You Really looking into a great post-Apokalypse game, I would definitly recommend „Primordia“. The atmosphere is top notch, it has great voice acting and the puzzles are fair.
It even has a funny side-kick robot who gives you tiny hints if you are stuck in the game but only if you ask him.
Primordia obviously took a lot of inspiration from Beneath a Steel Sky. I think there's even a direct reference or two, like Leo saying that he's selling a crowbar at inflated price because it has a "great sentimental value" to him.
It also has a darker and more serious tone while still finding place for a lot of humor. And the music is just awesome, especially the Gospel of Man.
@George Corbul Goliath almost looks like a Beksiński painting.
I felt the same about the ending. Maybe they should have focussed on single ending instead of making multiple ones. At least they're fine as far as wrapping up the story, they just lack some oomph.
@@adenowirus huh, even has the same 320x200 background resolution
Rob's father - what was left of him - made the helicopter crash because he didn't want Rob to be forced to replace him as the embodiment of LINC. It wasn't just a deus ex machina plot point about unreliable choppers.
I have Beneath a Steel Sky downloaded, but have not played much yet. I love Broken Sword though. I played both the first and second one, and they are favorites of mine! Love the art so much!
I have both the floppy and CD versions of this game. Loved it so much I bought it twice. :) It's also the reason that I went on to play the Broken Sword series (which I also loved, though not as much).
And yeah, the random CAPITALISATION is intended to mimic the BOLD text from COMIC books. Which I assume is some sort of emphasis-highlight summary thing, and is hinted by the inclusion of the comic book intro in the box. Though TBF I never really did get why comics did it.
i like the popup info bubble tidbits! some where slightly too long to read before they disappeared again, but they're a really nice touch!
I think I might be a speedy reader, then, heh! I timed them based on how quickly I could get through them, I will extend them next time!
I agree. And yes, I know I'm a slow reader (I've sort of adopted an ent attitude to reading, if it's worth reading, it's worth reading slowly).
Another factor is of course that we read it for the first time while simultaneously trying to listen to what you say for the first time, which probably means that we have to re-read parts of the sentences several times as the human brain is really bad at doing two things at once (our brains don't really multitask as much as use a time-sharing system).
Add to that that, at least, part of your viewers are non-native English speakers, and the time needed to read and comprehend that little pop-up note multiplies quickly.
Sure, it's UA-cam so people like me who might need a bit more time to read can always just pause the video, but that can get a bit choppy.
pause button
I played this first time when I got into trying GOG and for whatever reason, game felt strangely nostalgic despite that I never had played this one. Something about it all just clicked right for me and still liking this more or less weird and occasionally horrifying dystopian future setting. Well, it sort of is horrifying when seeing strange organic growth spreading out in science fiction always.
Its a ScummVM game like most of the classics. They all have that similar resolution, color, text font, and scripting behavior. Most people in the 90s played a ScummVM game at some point so playing another will feel similar
@@drowningin I wasn't alive back then and I still feel a strong sense of nostalgia with a few parts of this game in particular. I asked my dad about it once and he said "that was your game (when I was 2 or something) wasn't it?"
back in the 90s i used to play a broken(?) / demo version of beneath a steel sky, the game basically exited after the scene were reich got fried just when i got off the lift and tried to move at the cat walk (just outside the police station).. kinda sucked.. i thought the story ended there back then. was shocked to know that the story went on (thanks to gamefaqs haha). good thing i got a complete version from the internet some time in the 2010s. i miss point and click games like these, thanks for putting up commentaries like this! :)
My first exposure to B.A.S.S. was playing it on my Dreamcast using a much older build of ScummVM back in 2005/2006. Naturally, I didn't have the keyboard or the mouse so I had to use the analog stick for the entire game, but it was strangely addicting. It might have been my first point-and-click adventure experience.
Never have I disagreed more with a review than with this. I find the music TOTALY compliments the tone of the game and world in which it is set. The music, the voice acting and the artwork and the writing together is what makes this one of the most special games ever made. Change just one thing and it’s not Beneath a Steel Sky.
Haven’t seen the video yet, but the thumbnail looks like a dream I had once and had forgotten about for ages. Thanks for that, PushingUpRoses!
Still diving into your old content and enjoying it so much!
This was the first talkie adventure game I had, on the Amiga CD32. It didn't include the comic, but I was astounded when I first heard the dialogue! Although not as good as other adventures like Monkey Island, I liked the control system that didn't require fiddling with a dozen verbs or icons, but rather you just left-clicked to examine something, or right-clicked to attempt an action.
I was about 13 at the time, possibly too young for the adult humour and references!
The game itself is open source and that helped it survive so many platforms, even though it is not one of the major classics
I loved this game as a kid, was especially funny accidentally killing yourself Sierra-style with the putty and the wrong door... The version I had lacked the initial intro/comic so it just started at the crash site. I always thought the world was pretty cool and would've been a nice setting for a movie.
GOG is amazing
I have warm memories of how interesting and entertaining this game was, though I was young and that could be because I had no problems with the dialogue in the game.
Will take and play this again and see how I see it today.
Thank you for a good video.
One of my favourite point and click adventure games of all time. Mixing Sci-fi, sdytopia our UK humour and lingo and post apocalypse. I love the focus on social class and Joey is a fun witty companion. I will say that the music is too loud and annoying and everything you enter a new area it comes back on.
I'm currently binge watching all your videos so I don't know it yet but have you ever tried some of the adventure games from the german game developer "Daedalic Entertaniment"? They revived the genre in Germany with their excellent games :) I think you could like their Harvey games and "the Whispered World" because they have a wonderful humour but also very deep stories about mental illnesses, traumatas, loss etc. And their Deponia series is just phenomenal in terms of wacky humour and strange world building. :D
I bought Whispered World on special for about $5. I didn't like the puzzles, but the story was pretty good. I think there's a bit of Neverending Story in the game. Neverending Story was originally a German book by Michael Ende, Die Unendliche Geschichte(The Unending Story).
Yeah I didn't like the puzzles either, there are better ones out there. In other Daedalic games too. But as you said the story was nice and I loved the hand drawn backgrounds and some of the characters.
Be forewarned, Roses, Daedalic games can be kinda...nihilistic. And mean-spirited. And sexist. And crass. But it is nice to see more adventure games out there!
I myself found Whispered World a bit flawed as a game, but there were some beautiful moments in it here and there. Also, I'm glad they patched away the squeaky walking sounds. I found it incredibly hard to relate with the angsty protagonist, it also didn't help that his voice reminded me of Cartman from South Park.
Deponia was much better in my opinion, but still only around average. Once again, the protagonist was really unrelatable, a complete douche this time around, but I guess they wanted to go for the Han Solo vibe lol. But actually it worked, thanks to how others related to his presence in the game, which made some humorous dialogue. Also, the world building was much more solid here, when compared to Whispered World, where you kind of just drifted from one place to another and there wasn't much of consistency between the places.
Night of the Rabbit is a completely different thing however, a hidden gem if you ask me. It's so multilayered - just when you think that you've figured the game out, it throws another positive surprise at you. Also, the graphics here were simply beautiful! I felt like I was reading one of those classic childhood story books. Yes, perhaps the protagonist reminds a bit too much of Christopher Robin from Winnie the Pooh, but the world, the different places and characters are just so immersive and well designed that I really got sucked into the game. What a great experience this was and it saddens me that there hasn't been a sequel.
I really love Daedelic but the problem is the translation. I played through the Deponia Trilogy + the fourth game in German and English and I must admit that the translation ruins a lot of the game.. They did a great job in translating it, but somethings cannot be translated perfectly.
I played through this game first time this week and the voice acting was the best bit for me. Love the flippant tone, love the variety of British accents. Also I don't feel a requirement for every dystopian future story to make meaningful social commentary. Just want a couple chuckles, some tough puzzles and pretty art to look at, was quite satisfied with this one!
I've always wondered if this game was at all influenced by the tabletop RPG Paranoia, which also takes place in a huge, stratified, dystopian city complex and involves a crazy, sentient central computer, Friend Computer. That game was also humorous cyberpunk and has similar aesthetics.
Oh man, the final game screen as the thumbnail? Glad i didn't look this up before playing!
I personally really like the tone tension, it worked for me quite well, including the dorky music contrasting the industrial/cyberpunk scenery.
Also I liked that the game scratched on the surfaces of various social and political topics, without going very deep into it, so it was more like a "Hey, that's something to think about. Form an opinion about it!" instead of a lecture. (eventhough I also like games with "lectures", too.)
Oh and like a ton of other people, I thought the Ken joke is about Barbies Ken.
Your reviews are always quick and accurate. I love it.
I enjoyed me some Technobabylon to the max....though I never completed it cause I think my copy was bugged, as I could not make a certain puzzle register to save my life, even though I saw another player on youtube complete the puzzle the way I was TRYING to, with no problems. Rather disparaging, getting a bugged DIGITAL copy of a game. Beautiful look at the future otherwise though, and seemed to handle its dialog the way you wish Beneath a Steel Sky had, and still manages to have a fun enough (though dry) sense of humor to warrant me revisiting it.
I agree with The Hawk's Eye, definitely look into Daedalic games - especially The Night of the Rabbit. It's one of the best point and click games I've played in a while - and let me tell you, I kind of hate rabbits but I still ended up loving this game, so.. Yeah. I don't want to spoil much about it, but the game ended up completely surprising me. At times it's childish while being classy at the same time (think of Wind in the Willows), at times it's surprisingly mature with its social commentary (Think of Orwell's Animal Farm), and at times it's... Is this REALLY a kids game?!
Just go and play it, I promise you will most likely like it.
I remember this. As a Kid I couldn't possibly manage to finish an adventure game that I didn't even understand Its language. I was fascinated by the weird helicopter.
Nice review! This is one of my favourite adventure games, even though I only managed to beat it, or even play more or less meaningfully, for that matter, about ten year after I played it the first time - I didn't know English when I was a kid so I could even get past the very beginning of the game. Anyway, I love the graphics and the atmosphere, and pretty much everything about this game. I didn't recognise some of the moments you've shown in this video, so I now I have a good excuse to replay it :)
Oh a new Pur video. I'm so happy when this happens. It's 11 pm here, just got home from grappling training, tired as hell, sitting down with a hot bowl of soup and watching this. My idea of a wonderful end to a great day.
I miss this old school storyboard art. Great find Roses!
Lovely game, had the Amiga version which came on 15 marvellous disks. Without a hard drive, much disk swapping. Still absolutely awesome!
Loved the video. This game had me running in circles for solutions back then. Still look on it with nostalgia. Thank you for bringing it up.
Wow! I recently finished Beyond A Steel Sky on PS4 and loved it, I had no idea this existed! But it makes total sense that what I played was a sequel.
I played this with my dad when I was really young. The only thing I really remembered is when the robot breaks. I thought that was very scary.
Thank you! I was wondering when you were going to do this one! Hope all is well with you!
Wow, stumbling across this review made me a subscriber. It was completely unexpected to me. Coming right on the heels of your great Clue review, all I can say is 'keep up the great work'!!
Happy to see a new Roses adventure game review! Your work has introduced me to many new games to love. Cheers!
The popups of the animated avatar are really neat in this video. I know I'm VERY late to this party but I've been enjoying your content. :)
I think I’ve had this on GoG for a long time but I’ve never gotten around to playing it. The world looks really cool and I love games that don’t take themselves too seriously.
I played this game when it came oit. And something happens in it which I thought was very scary. There is something the lurks unseen in the sewers. You to tackle this unseen creature in order to finish the fame..
Not the voices I remember ???
The Ken gag ? I just thought of Barbies boy friend.
Fascinating choice for a video, PuR. Would love to see you do some more lesser-known Point-and-Clicks from across the webberverse. Really appreciate the nourishing and thought-provoking nature of your videos, dude.
Some of the most beautiful art in a game, plus Dave Gibbons' involvement 😍 (i love Revolution too)
I have been waiting for you to make this video on Steel Sky for 3 years! :D Thanks!!!
I like the cheesiness of the voices mixed with the seriousness of the story. I actually think it makes it more fun. The juxtaposition helps me. If it were too serious, I think it would be less fun, and possibly seem unintentionally hokey over time.
This and the Ur-Quan Masters are two of my favorite pieces of 90's (now) freeware
It’s a Twofer day I just saw that you covered two of my old faves . Redownloading this right now.
How has it taken me this long to find a channel almost 100% devoted to point and click games?!
Plus it’s hosted by an absolute beauty!
Winning!
This is one of my favourite adventure games... I only played it for the first time a couple of years ago - I had been avoiding it because I thought it was going to be so serious and dour, but I was pleasanlty surprised with how funny it was, so for me that was a positive.
Oh man, one of my favorite Point and Clicks. I haven't played this one for quite some time. I actually own a CD hard copy of this that I picked up from a second-hand store something like 20+ years ago. Great memories.
Before I go, have you ever heard of another point and click called Noctropolis? I enjoyed it as well, although it may be even less polished that BaSS.
I'm yet to watch the video, but this game is one of my favourites. Thank you Roses!
I loved this game! I actually found the tonal shift between the dialogue, some of the sillier puzzles, and the serious nature of the game itself to be part of the fun.
Very nice review. I stumbled upon your channel, while watching LGR and since I love adventure games too, I decided to watch many of your videos. Thanks tor that!
Concerning BaSK, I never played the voiced version, but I really loved that game and still hope, that it will get a follow up one day. Revolution mentioned that while kickstarting the last Broken Sword, so maybe there's hope.
Crazy how I've never heard of this game until today when Jim Sterling passively mentions it in his new video, then PUR makes a new video discussing it in the same day, weird but cool.
I only discovered this game a few years ago when it was offered free on GOG. It's interesting. If a game is good, do you charge a lot of money for it BECAUSE it's good or do you offer it free BECAUSE it's good? Anyway, this is, at the very least, in my top 10 '90s games. I liked the jokes and the British and Australian accents. Hobbins is great :) "Symbol my bum!!!", "I was thinking of renovating my office.....but I couldn't be arsed!!!". I also found that the puzzles were quite "solvable". As a matter of fact there were only a couple of solutions I looked up. There were some toughies, but I managed to solve them without too much farting about.
I gotta admit Joey is my fave. I mean he has all the best lines, he gets the most use I believe of any old game sidekick; girl you just made my day!!! If I were straight I’d be in love with you.
Lure of the Temptress was such a 'get used to ScummVm' program game
9:16 I know what you said before about LetsPlays but I hope you do a lets play on this game Roses. It was fun hearing you (and LGR who doesn't have to be involved here) do the different voices on the Laura Bow games!
(And sorry I just saw this vid only just now. I have been going through a phase on this month where I haven't been watching the youtubers I usually watch all the time just bits and pieces of them and vids of random stuff too. I'm going to get back to what I did before now!)
The Good Old Games version is actually free if you make an account with them. Don't bother fucking around with ScummVM; just get an account on GOG and you're away.
Great video Roses, really enjoyed it. Originally played it on the Amiga myself, took me ages to work out you could slide out of the starting area using the lift shaft pillar.
Keep it up!
It's been Freeware with released source since 2003, no need to make a GoG account. Wherever you may find it it runs great on ScummVM.
"Effing around with ScummVM" meaning installing ScummVM and telling it where the game folder is.
Thx for bringing me awareness of the existence of this bladerunnerish game.
Did you play Beyond a steel sky? that was a great game and a great addition to the Series. it also has Great Music! and the story works great even though it falls flat at the end
I enjoyed your review, it's nice that this game gets some attention. I played this when I was a kid, back when point and click adventure games where really big. I agree with your statements, although it isn't the best, and doesn't have the best dialogue I still have a soft spot for this game. Reminds me when I first played it on my first PC I got, haha, good memories
This game SCARED me as a kid. The scary clone robot villain, the veiny organic technolair of Link, and the DEATH scenes... I replayed this recently and wow... I have to agree how disappointed I was by the tone being all over the place. I couldn't take the plot as seriously as I did back when I was a kid... It's still a classic, but a flawed one.
Hey, thank YOU for inviting me!
Silliness aside, this game has a bad ass name. Also, that little icon of yours is adorable!
I wonder if the randomly capitalized words is attempt to mimic that same trend in comics. Not that it makes much sense there either
Nolan McBride it makes sense in older comics when printing was shoddier, it was to make sure you could read the text.
Considering the involvement of Dave Gibbons... Yeah, it's probably a comic book thing.
I LOVE your videos so much!! I'm a fairly new subscriber so I'm unsure if you take requests but I would love to see you review the Legend of Kyrandia games!!
How serendipitous! Jim Sterling actually mentioned this very game _today_ in his latest Jimquisition! (Here's the mention: ua-cam.com/video/DsEDhuDssZw/v-deo.htmlm25s ) They say that in a world/universe as big as the one we live in coincidences happen all of the time. But, it's still fun when you experience one! Thank you for a wonderful look at this classic game, PUR! :)
I'm enjoying the Pop-up Roses segments!
I played through this again recently on the IPhone, remastered version. Such a great game.
I love your new sprite! It's cute but still very you.
always a treat to watch ur videos. I have never played this, but will have to check it out.
I love this game, but after my mom died in August 2019, I can't listen to the Union City Recycling Plant track for long without getting really emotional. The game has a great soundtrack, but I wish they had the speech with Roland music; it either wasn't available yet, or not in the budget (maybe?)
Loved this from the moment I got the demo on an Amiga Format magazine (that also gave away a copy of the comic!), though I didn't enjoy switching between the 14+ floppy disks that it came on and I only had the 1 floppy drive!
Have you checked out any of the adventure games by Delphine Interactive? they made 3, Future wars, operation stealth and my favourite Cruise for a corpse.
Heh you just uploaded this as Jim mentioned in the episode of the Jimquisition that went up today; good timing!
On a Pushing Up Roses marathon 🙂 Now I'm thinking about a Steam account to play retro games.
Watched a longplay of this game and thoroughly enjoyed it. VA and all.
I really liked the chemistry between Joey and Robert. They're like a married couple.
The animation and sprite work are really good for a 25 year old game. I also really like the artworks of Union City.
My personal favourite game! Great review!
Great review,
I actually *just* played this game 2 weeks ago and agree wholeheartedly on your "opinions". The shift between serious and silly was driving me nuts, and the voice acting was so bad it seemed intentional.
All in all it's a nice game, but it doesn't stand out for me in the row of 90s adventure game classics, and can't figure out why it received so much acclaim.
Thanks again PUR ! Love your channel!
I played this game for free on gog, and did it without anyone's opinion, I love this game, its the only one I discovered by myself. The wacky nature and music was fantastic.
With reveal of the suddenly dead character you mentioned I thought I must have done something wrong because of the lack of weight and impact.
I was like "omg, how? Why?"
Zero reaction from what's his name and the robot...
I'm just glad I wasn't the only person who realized how odd that was.
Like it just came and WENT and any normal person would at LEAST be a bit...I don't know....MOVED??? lololol
And where I'm from I think it's quite possible that I'm the ONLY person in this entire country who played this game so there was also that.
Between you and Jim Sterling talking about this game this week, it looks like I'm just gonna have to play this game.
BASS was a really good game, and now it's free. A good spiritual successor IMHO is primordia
Great review💗
hey
How YOU doin?