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 What is this? Beyond A Steel Sky is a third-person sci-fi adventure game that was developed by Revolution Software. It is the sequel to the 1994 point-and-click adventure game, Beneath A Steel Sky. Set ten years after the events of the first game, Robert Foster returns to Union City to track down a boy that has been abducted from his home in The Gap. This game explores social control, AI and total surveillance. I can't tell you much more than this as the game was released on Steam today (July 16th 2020). It was originally released on the Apple store on the 26th of June. Do you need to have played Beneath A Steel Sky beforehand? Not at all. The intro video recaps the events of the first game while it also sets up the plot for this game.  Shameless plug alert If you do want a proper catch up before going into this, I recently LP'd Beneath A Steel Sky and it's now on the archive here: https://lparchive.org/Beneath-A-Steel-Sky/Let's Play details This is going to be semi-blind as this is a new release, the only footage of this game that I have seen is the trailer. I will be playing a portion of the game before recording so when it comes to making a video, I have a semblance of knowing what I'm doing. This is going to be a video LP and I will be commentating as I play. I will be uploading at least one video a week and it will happen as and when I have the time to do so. No spoilers! Let's Play: Beyond A Steel Sky                   Bonus Videos Union City Factfile (Unabridged Audiovisual) Additional Scenes & Dialogue (Part 1) Additional Scenes & Dialogue (Part 2) Museum Exhibits Museum Exhibits (Remixes) Additional Scenes & Dialogue (Part 3) Additional Scenes & Dialogue (Part 4) Additional Scenes & Dialogue (Part 5) Additional Scenes & Dialogue (Part 6) Death Scenes Rocket Baby Dolls fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Oct 2, 2020 |
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Jul 16, 2020 22:39
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| # ? Apr 20, 2024 03:03 |
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Thumbnail link doesn't work 
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Jul 16, 2020 23:02
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Jobbo_Fett posted:Thumbnail link doesn't work Thank you for letting me know. This LP is off to a good start already! Edit: I've amended it.
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Jul 16, 2020 23:17
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In this video, Foster explores the rest of the area outside of Union City and makes even more new friends. He also loses a fight with a bird, gets an interesting offer regarding a sausage and finally gets the chip implant. The next episode will feature some puzzle solving and hopefully, we will get inside of Union City. In this episode, I decided to exhaust the dialogue options again and once again they repeat with little variation in dialogue. In future, I'll make sure to note any time this happens so it doesn't get annoying.
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Jul 19, 2020 21:51
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This feels a lot more boring then the old one. I suppose Joey gave the old game a nice dynamic, where clicking on everything gave you two responses instead of the solo act.
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Jul 20, 2020 19:22
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VictualSquid posted:This feels a lot more boring then the old one. The first game started out with a helicopter crash, escape from armed security and a mystery to solve. So far, this game has started out with strolling around and having casual chats with people. The banner seems to imply that we will have a robot companion again, right now I don't know whether it's going to be Joey or a new character. I've played through the next segment and I'm going to push towards getting inside of Union City when I record the next video. It's going to be more interesting now most of the greetings are out of the way. The focus on the next video is solving the puzzles in the first area, learning a new game mechanic and getting inside. There's also one more character who I will greet and speak to, this person has some more information regarding Joey.
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Jul 20, 2020 22:40
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MINOS is a very effectively evocative name for the new LINC - after all, the infamous king of the same name was notorious for kidnapping kids and for having an impregnable labyrinth - in this case, a bureaucracy.
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Jul 21, 2020 06:01
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Not a fan of the dialog mechanics being lazily done, the responses should gray out once you've heard everything worth hearing, not after the characters repeat themselves. It'd probably be less grating once the game has gotten past the hand holding stage, but in the intro area it feels like being beaten over the head with a crowbar for the crime of trusting the dialog tree to always be sensibly pruned like the original one was.
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Jul 21, 2020 07:38
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In this episode, Foster gets hold of a stinky sausage, steals a sandwich and assaults an innocent robot. I pushed through this recording to get everything done in the first area so we could leave it. The next episode will start inside Union City! There are a few cuts during this video. A couple were to trim the time down a little, another was because I missed the trigger for a puzzle entirely and another one was because of a game-breaking bug. For some reason, I was unable to speak to Hobbsworth at all so I had to reload the game. There is another bug involving Hobbsworth that I kept in because it was amusing and not game-breaking. I've tried to maintain a balance between graphics and performance but I've noticed various moments of slowdown during playback of the last few videos. I'm trying not to make the game look like total rear end but I may have to turn it down a notch or two for the next video, it depends on how things are in the next area. Everything runs fine until I hit the record button and the systems resources take an extra hit, which is the issue I'm facing at the moment. I'll see how things go with the next recording session. Rocket Baby Dolls fucked around with this message at 22:08 on Jul 22, 2020 |
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Jul 22, 2020 22:04
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So, if that greeter Droid did something good for you, would one say 'Nice, 2CU', or '2CU, nice'?
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Jul 23, 2020 10:07
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Can't wait to meet a friendly owl.
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Jul 23, 2020 14:33
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Samovar posted:So, if that greeter Droid did something good for you, would one say 'Nice, 2CU', or '2CU, nice'?  Jobbo_Fett posted:Can't wait to meet a friendly owl. A friendly owl?
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Jul 23, 2020 19:43
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I was going to comment on the apparent parallels between us using Graham Grundy's identity to get into Union City and using Reich's ID card to get around Union City in the first game, but then you killed a poor innocent robot. Related to that: I have to say that I really like the voice acting in this game so far. Taking a droid's power cell probably wouldn't inspire many feelings if he didn't sound like a tired but proud old man. An old man who's dead now. Because of us.
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Jul 24, 2020 01:48
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Rocket Baby Dolls posted:
he is there to warn you of poisonous snakes and be generally useless.
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Jul 24, 2020 02:38
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Rocket Baby Dolls posted:A friendly owl? GRAHAM!
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Jul 24, 2020 16:07
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Jobbo_Fett posted:GRAHAM! It took a while but it's finally clicked! 
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Jul 24, 2020 17:53
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mateo360 posted:he is there to warn you of poisonous snakes and be generally useless. I thought the Owl was there to let your sister get murdered and tell you how to start a rebellion against Marley. It'd be ridiculous to name your son after an owl who only warned you about poisonous snakes.
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Jul 25, 2020 04:39
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I'm not sure when I will be recording again as I'm currently suffering from a sinus infection. I decided to play the next part of the game and I'm pretty impressed with what I've seen so far. Granted, I've only seen a couple of locations but they've put a lot of effort into the design of the city. I've also found a very good spot to end the next recording session.
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Jul 25, 2020 22:03
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In this episode, Foster is firmly inside Union City and he finally upgrades his firmware. I was initially intending to end this recording at a later plot point but things don't always work out during the actual recording. In the test run, I missed a conversation with two characters. One of them was my fault as I've been suffering from sinusitis and it was down to a lack of awareness but the other was down to a glitch, for some reason when I tried to speak to this character originally they turned around and decided to walk into a wall. We do get to speak to more personalities in this video and we open up the game world even further. I've turned down the graphics a couple of more notches so hopefully, this will ease any further slowdown. I should have uploaded information about the council along with the last video but the events of the past week have been a little unexpected (They'll be in the OP too): The Council      Messages (Old)                       
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Jul 29, 2020 23:17
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Well, this Council seems on the up and up. I'm sure nothing's suspect about them at all.
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Jul 30, 2020 13:08
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Samovar posted:Well, this Council seems on the up and up. I'm sure nothing's suspect about them at all. Of course not, they collected Milo in a customised limo as he had won the lottery and a free makeover. We will pick him up in a couple of episodes and everyone will wonder why such a fuss was made over a slight misunderstanding.
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Jul 30, 2020 23:15
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In this episode, Graham returns home, makes some new friends and meets a member of his family. This part of the game was quite delightful to play, our aim was to find out more about Graham and that's pretty much all that we do in this video. Unfortunately, the apartment was another area that suffered from slow down as soon as I hit the record button, I may have to turn the graphics down even further going ahead. There's also a couple of audio glitches in this video, I'm thinking about putting together something for the developers are still actively working on updates for the game.
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Aug 3, 2020 22:52
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Who the heck was that Doreen Green-looking chapita? And how does she know of Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared?
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Aug 4, 2020 05:59
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Having played the game some after seeing your lp, it reminds me more of Broken Sword than Beneath A Steel Sky. Not that I entirely mind, but I do wish it had retained some more of that game's darker humor and writing style. Some are apparently making comparisons to telltale games and I can certainly see the resemblance. There's an upcoming character that I absolutely adore (and won't spoil).
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Aug 4, 2020 08:00
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In this episode, Foster is finally able to speak to Songbird at length and he uncovers more about Graham's mysterious lifestyle. This video contains a lot of dialogue as well as some puzzle-solving, we also meet a new friend after leaving the party and encounter a bit of drama... I've turned the graphics down some more, it's starting to get into TellTale territory but hopefully, it will help with the slow down. Samovar posted:Who the heck was that Doreen Green-looking chapita? And how does she know of Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared? We will probably find out more in the next video as she makes quite the return in this one. evilmiera posted:Having played the game some after seeing your lp, it reminds me more of Broken Sword than Beneath A Steel Sky. Not that I entirely mind, but I do wish it had retained some more of that game's darker humor and writing style. Some are apparently making comparisons to telltale games and I can certainly see the resemblance. I'm itching to play more and having to hold myself back. This is quite a strange one as Broken Sword 3 & 4 were 3D but also relied on action-adventure kind of puzzles too. Broken Sword 5 went back to the traditional point and click. But Beyond is very much a 3D adventure game reminiscent of Grim Fandango, the TellTale Sam & Max games and the like. There's always going to be comparisons to TellTale when it comes to 3D adventure games. I'm not going to open any cans of worms regarding TellTale as I don't want to derail the thread. One of the things that I loved about the original game was the humour, but a lot of that was down to our robot companion who is currently missing in the game so far.
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Aug 5, 2020 21:10
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Samovar posted:Who the heck was that Doreen Green-looking chapita? And how does she know of Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared? Doreen Green would never get stuck like that, but at least we now know who! I was expecting the gem to be something that you plug into the holoprojector and then put the right holo plinth image on it.
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Aug 6, 2020 00:45
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I take it the main colour of the graffiti changes depending on what colour you came up with earlier?
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Aug 6, 2020 06:16
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In this video, Foster finds a way to help Raquel and then decides to visit the museum to unwind. I was racking my brains trying to work out the hacking in the first segment but finally cracked it, when it came to recording I was expecting to end this at the museum doors but I decided to enable some short conversations before entering and then explored the museum a little after I got there. There is a bug at the 15:15 mark where you can continue the conversation after Orana and Raquel have left and it plays hell with the camera. Edit: Can you guess who greets us as we enter the museum? Anticheese posted:Doreen Green would never get stuck like that, but at least we now know who! Samovar posted:I take it the main colour of the graffiti changes depending on what colour you came up with earlier? I have some rare free time this afternoon and evening. I've recorded this episode and have put some work into an update for another LP. I'm tempted to start a new game and try some different things out to record some bonus footage.
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Aug 9, 2020 15:50
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Bonus Videos Union City Factfile (Unabridged Audiovisual) - These are the facts that we can learn in the area outside of Union City. I've started to record more footage and I've started from the beginning of the game. I've found a different way of getting the deet's away from Big Steve, I may have broken the Mini-K van puzzle too but I'll have to go back and review the footage once I'm done recording.
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Aug 9, 2020 17:24
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Bonus Videos - I spent a couple of hours recording additional scenes and dialogue. I believe that I have caught most of the things of interest before the scene involving Raquel's awakening. I probably should have pushed it until after the cutscene as I had already replayed the interview segment three times just to capture about ten seconds of footage that came after it. I replayed the interview a fourth time so I could have a save file for a potential bad route. I originally had two videos planned but after a rest, I'm thinking about going back in and recording more footage of the rescue scenario. This may end up becoming three videos as there's still a lot of footage to edit without adding more. Either way, I'll upload the second set of extras along with the next update. Additional Scenes & Dialogue (Part 1) This first video involves extra scenes and dialogue from outside the walls and along the piazza. Timestamps are in the video description. Vending machine vandalisation, Qdos from Hobbsworth, Voxel's monster, Fun with firecrackers, Trial and error with the van, Offerings for Greta, Luring Bad Steve (Two bad options and an alternative solution), Scanner talk with Hobbsworth and offering him some items, Sandwich talk with Ember, First "death" scenario, Hacking 5HO-UT (Speaker-bot) & Asking B4R-1 about HO-LO.
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Aug 9, 2020 21:24
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I like the videos, looking forward to finding out if Joey really left Union City
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Aug 9, 2020 23:11
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In this video, Foster breaks a man's heart, breaks open an old fridge and breaks out a chip off the old block. The exclusive part of the museum holds a lot of relics to the past and we get to reminisce about Beneath A Steel Sky. Unfortunately, everything is collecting dust and most of it appears to be inactive. Captain Aardvark posted:I like the videos, looking forward to finding out if Joey really left Union City Thank you! Also, your wait is over! Bonus Videos Additional Scenes & Dialogue (Part 2) This video covers everything surrounding the apartment complex, timestamps are in the video description. Colourful opinions, Apologies to Songbird, Failing the interview, More apologies to Songbird, Offerings for Songbird, Offerings for Chipworth, Offerings for Tarquin, Joey Defaced, Swapping the hololens, Making it up to Songbird, Alternative paint can scene, Onara isn't interested in any offerings, The view from the window and Offering for the cleaning droid. I decided to only include one alternative colour of the paint can as you get the gist of it, I probably should have extended it to graffiti but again, I think you get the gist of it too.
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Aug 13, 2020 22:07
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Rocket Baby Dolls posted:
Yay! The boys are back! Oh, in case anyone is wondering why the Fridge has 'Smug' on it, there's a brand of kitchen appliances called 'Smeg'. Yes, really.
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Aug 14, 2020 18:11
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Samovar posted:Yay! The boys are back! Smeg is a popular brand in Europe, damned expensive though! When you press the hand scanner for the fridge, the droid displays a picture of Overmann's apartment while it gives you more information.
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Aug 14, 2020 21:56
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Man, these ministry names have a perfectly Orwellian charm to them. XD
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Aug 15, 2020 08:33
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And there we are. Joey is as great as ever, and he really makes the game as a whole better.
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Aug 15, 2020 13:58
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In this video, Foster and Joey make a daring escape from the dangerous mouse infested room, we find out that Joey is a little horn-bot and then we meet our neighbour for the first time. Gideon020 posted:Man, these ministry names have a perfectly Orwellian charm to them. XD Make sure that you keep smiling! evilmiera posted:And there we are. Joey is as great as ever, and he really makes the game as a whole better. He really does, it's starting to feel more like the old days now that his snarky sense of humour is back. Rocket Baby Dolls fucked around with this message at 23:13 on Aug 15, 2020 |
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Aug 15, 2020 19:30
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Hasn't been explicitly said but it's implied that Joey is the original circuit board that was copied into the 'Ken' android body in the original game. That circuit board was left in the cabinet and I guess was later moved into the museum to be the exhibit. I was confused but then when Joey spoke about "the other me compensating" it clicked. So fate of the Ken-Joey is still unknown?
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Aug 15, 2020 20:43
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Mighty Steed posted:Hasn't been explicitly said but it's implied that Joey is the original circuit board that was copied into the 'Ken' android body in the original game. I had forgotten that the chip was originally placed in the cabinet. What you're saying is starting to make more sense of some things. We don't know the full story at the moment but when the council disposed of Joey, they probably only disposed of the Ken doll and not the Joey chip. Maybe when they cleared out the old Union City and found the Joey chip they probably didn't realise it was actually Joey himself, when the chip is plugged in we heard Joey's computerised voice and not the one of "Ken". They could have easily crushed the chip and no one would have been any of the wiser as everyone believes that Joey is in better pastures. But they didn't destroy, even though it was under surveillance they still allowed him to speak to people. Either the council didn't realise what the chip was or they were keeping him as a sideshow piece for a reason. To everyone, Joey is the iconic "Ken" figure, nobody seems to recognise him in his new form.
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Aug 15, 2020 21:06
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this links back to Ep 8 fyi
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Aug 15, 2020 23:07
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