Beneath A Steel Sky is, for me, all about the story. It’s a cyberpunk tale about an abducted man struggling to find answers in a futuristic and typically dystopian city. B.A.S.S. is a graphic adventure and despite being a relatively mature and sombre title taking place in a dark and fantastically envisioned setting, it is still a comedy at heart and is brim full of subtle humour, taking it’s cues from such luminaries as Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett. Like other graphic adventures, it’s also loaded with pop-culture references; everything from Mad Max to Doctor Who, William Gibson to Friedrich Nietzsche.

You play the protagonist, Robert Foster (so called because he was “fostered” by aborigines who also stumbled on the label from a Fosters beer bottle - it makes sense) who finds himself in Union City along with this robotic pal Joey and not much else. It’s fairly standard cyberpunk thriller fare - people mistake him for someone else, there’s an all knowing AI that runs the city and may or may not have Fosters best interests at heart and there’s a nightclub scene - de rigeur for all cyberpunk ventures. If the game were to take itself seriously, it would probably have been quite poor but it doesn’t and it isn’t.

The graphics in the game are fantastic but that’s no surprise as the backgrounds were illustrated by Dave Gibbons, an old 2000AD alumni who also illustrated Frank Miller’s “Give Me Liberty” and a little-known graphic novel called “Watchmen” written by some bloke called Alan Moore who, apparently, really does know the score.¹ Gibbons also wrote a brief comic strip for the game included in the packaging that fills in some of the backstory (like the Fosters beer episode). But the graphics are just icing on a delicious and amazingly most cake of accessible gameplay, challenging puzzles and, above all, a terrific story. The setting of Union City is fully fleshed out and Foster’s adventure leads him into all sorts of situations and to meet all kinds of weird and wonderful characters, even finding himself perambulating down the digital roads of cyberspace (after the appropriate implant has been installed, naturally).

If you are or ever have been a fan of 2000AD or it’s kind, I heartily recommend Steel Sky to you. It will have dated - it’s nearly 15 years old - but the game is available as totally legal freeware now and can be downloaded and played on the ScummVM system (which means you can also play it on Linux or Mac OS too). I still have a copy on CD-ROM somewhere (although I originally played it on the Amiga). If you ever do get around to playing it, I would suggest turning the voice over off as it’s particularly annoying and doesn’t add anything to the experience.

It occurs to me now that I’ve never considered whether or not Steel Sky would make a good film. It’s got all the right elements required and far more than adapating something like, say, Doom, it comes pre-assembled with characters, conflict and narrative drive. With the original creator of the game having already mentioned a long overdue sequel to the game, perhaps it’s appropriate timing to think about it.

¹Full marks if you correctly identified this popular music reference. Must try harder if you didn’t.