The game's endlessly witty script and fixation with folks absorbed in their own worlds set it apart from the crowd. The game takes place in a beautifully animated 2D world in which you interact with various objects and talk to different characters to uncover clues and gather information. Beneath a Steel Sky has lost none of its charm over the years, managing to combine step-by-step puzzle solving with a sense of humor not often seen in newer games. Like in many adventure games, there's a mystery or two afoot in this one.

At the start of the game, Foster has returned to the city and is on the run from the authorities. The game takes place in a bleak future version of our world oppressed by fascist corporations, and you play as Robert Foster, a man who has grown up away from the city, in the wilderness (known in the game as 'the Gap'). In some ways, Beneath a Steel Sky seems just as relevant now as it did in 1994. This classic adventure game is set in a futuristic version of Australia. Beneath a Steel Sky fits the iPhone perfectly-its point-and-click gameplay merges seamlessly with touch-screen controls for adventuring on the go. This updated edition features both remastered audio and a comic-book-style introduction lifted straight from the original game's manual. Here, we have a game that's 15 years old but is set in the future, featured on a device that wouldn't look at all out of place in its own sci-fi setting. break reminds me that it was also released for the Amiga 1200 (in tasty AGA-o-vision) and the short lived cd32.The appearance of Beneath a Steel Sky on the iPhone is something of a paradox. The game was released in floppy and CD talkie versions for MS-DOS, and is certainly worth a look if you ever find it on an Abandonware site. It's not a Lucasarts style can't-go-wrong game, as there are various deadly hazards, but it's not stupidly easy to die as in most Sierra titles. While there is a humourous element to the game, most of it is very dark, and the overall plot is very serious. The plot involves Robert's forgotten past, AI systems, the superiority of machines over man, and the class structure of the city, where the poor live in the highest buildings and the rich live at ground level. Rather neatly, Joey's personality is stored on a circuit-board which can be plugged into a variety of different robot shells for different functions. Accompanying you on your journey is your (rather sarcastic) robot, Joey, who can take commands from you and carry out actions autonomously. You control Robert Foster, an orphan from the city raised by an Aboriginal tribe in the bush, attempting to escape the city after your abduction by government agents.

Dialogue is conducted with the usual SCUMM style options list, and notably uses COMIC style EMPHASIS to stress certain words, which somehow doesn't get annoying. This meant that during normal play, the screen was totally uncluttered, displaying Gibbons' excellent artwork.

If you moved to the top of the screen, a drop-down inventory appeared containing your items. Left click to look at something, right click to interact with it. The interface was a masterwork, a highly revised version of the Virtual Theatre engine first used in Lure of the Temptress. This artwork was backed up by a solid sci-fi plot (which owes a lot to Bladerunner), and a well realised game universe, with plenty of background detail. Set in Australia in a dystopic post-war future, characters and backgrounds were all created and drawn by Dave Gibbons, the illustrator of Watchmen, who also created a short graphic novel bundled with the game that acted as an intro sequence. The first notable thing about the game was the design. Notable, pioneering, but largely ignored point-and-click adventure from developers Revolution, before they hit the big time with the Broken Sword titles.

Beneath a steel sky background