Beneath a Steel Sky is a 1994 point-and-click cyberpunk dystopia game. The backstory of protagonist Robert Foster is exposited via comic. Foster, having lost his mother in a helicopter crash, is adopted and raised by a local tribe in “the Gap” until security soldiers from the city abduct him and annihilate his tribe. The smooth linework and dramatic expression of a comic book are then replaced by the pixelated visuals of the gameplay, where Foster finds himself fleeing the pursuit of security soldiers. As we progress through the game, we learn that the game’s post-disaster world is populated by cities that double as corporations and human life is commodified. Foster was originally from Union City but was raised by a tribe outside of the civilization that corporations offered. He searches for a way to escape the city, discovering along the way the reason that he was brought back.
An Example in Cyberpunk?
The term “cyberpunk,” coined by Bruce Bethke, generally refers to a speculative fiction genre where an oppressive government rules with the help of awesome technological power. Beneath a Steel Sky is without question representative of the cyberpunk genre. Backgrounds are rendered to convey the overwhelming amount of technology that Union City is comprised of, and the player can never quite shake the insidiousness of the ubiquitous presence of LINC, the supercomputer that runs the entire city. Many characters are thoroughly indoctrinated into the anti-human establishment of the city, but Foster quickly discovers the resistance and joins forces with them. However, these are textbook criteria for the cyberpunk genre: the technological authoritarian government, the presence of a resistance, the indoctrination of society at large. What does Beneath a Steel Sky do differently?
From what I could tell, not much. On paper, the idea of a comic book opening a videogame about resisting an authoritarian capitalist regime sounds exciting. In practice, it falls a bit flat. Our all-American hero narrates the comic, which progresses without necessitating the player’s interaction. His tribe, made of mostly people of color, are quickly removed from the narrative through an act of significant violence. Robert Foster remains distinct from the characters throughout the game, in his mundanity if nothing else. He is the only one with his particular American accent—most of the characters are have accents typical of various non-American English-speaking countries around the world. He is also the only one who shows any vehemence toward the existence of the city because of his upbringing in the tribe. In this, the plot felt especially formulaic and indistinct from not only other cyberpunk stories but also the broader speculative fiction, action and adventure genres.
Where Does It Go Wrong?
This phenomenon, however, cannot be blamed on the game. Beneath a Steel Sky was released to positive reviews. It contains witty dialogue, complex puzzles, and an imaginative world. It successfully adapts the formula it was a given, and thus we should critique the formula.
It’s no secret that both the videogame and comic industries have not been welcome to most audiences who are not white and male. This can be said of most media, particularly the science and speculative fiction genre. Beneath a Steel Sky ambles into many of the common pitfalls that these genres face as a result. Women that appear in the narrative are attractive or motherly, sacrificial and/or useful, and always plot convenient. People of color never formally appear in the narrative but are used as character development. The protagonist is white and male with just enough character to reach the minimum for likability while the target demographic can project upon him. The resistant subculture is the main culture reflected into the position of the hero.
Despite this, I do not believe that all of Beneath a Steel Sky was trite. The visuals, while often distracting my ability to engage in the gameplay, were stunning and well-rendered. The cluttered images and monochromatic color palettes reflected the inundation of visual redundancy in late stage capitalism. The brainwashed characters and the objectification of human life was eerie and effective. At the end of the game, Foster faces his father, who has surrendered his humanity and fused with his creation, LINC. His father dies pitifully, unable to stop LINC from continuing to subjugate humanity. Foster is able to stop LINC with an invention of his own, the AI Joey, and turn Union City into a utopia. A remarkable level of humanity shines through the overwhelming technological environment, which is the essence of cyberpunk.
