Beneath a Steel Sky/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Crowning Music of Awesome: There are several definite Earworms which you'll undoubtedly start humming along to, but the very best music is found on the CD32 version, where the titlescreen (also "LINCspace") music with its synthesised horn section is so catchy you might not want to start the game until it's looped a few dozen times.
  • Cult Classic
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Joey is considerably popular thanks to his Deadpan Snarker moments.
    • Gilbert Lamb.
  • Epileptic Trees: Played for laughs, usually. Rob's crackpot theories on the nature of the game world are priceless.
  • Freud Was Right: There's plenty of dialogue that doubles as innuendo.

Lamb: Pipes are the arteries of this mighty ERECTION, the VEINS through which its LIFEBLOOD pumps...

    • Also, the video tape "Pussies On Parade". While earlier Lamb was referring to his cat, it can bring some hilariously inappropriate connotations. Deliberate? Maybe.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Gallagher, without a doubt. He turns from a borderline nutjob spouting riddles and playing cards to a man with a deadly agenda.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Reich nuking Rob's entire tribe at the start of the game. Even when you see his fate, you can't feel for the guy.
  • Narm: Rob's reaction to the destruction of his family...

WHY YOU MURDEEEERRRRING!!!

  • Non Sequitur Scene: The courtroom scene, where justice takes the form of a gameshow, with Rob defending Hobbins. Seriously, where the hell did that come from (it's also entirely skippable and no bearing on the plot)?
  • Porting Disaster: The CD32 version, which includes the slow loading times due to slow CD drive, buggy save files, and a tendency to freeze the game. The only single redeeming aspect is the music, and that's it.
  • "Seinfeld" Is Unfunny: The game's engine allowed for multiple NPCs onscreen at once, but also allowed them to continue doing their usual routine while the player was having a conversation with them or interacting with the environment. It's hard to believe that this was actually very impressive for the time this game was made in, though nowadays, it's hard to see just why this was so impressive, since only a handful of screens even have NPCs walk around while you converse with another character.
  • Squick: The more you know about LINC, the more you'll be grossed out by it. Even Rob is disgusted by many of the things he sees, and doesn't mind telling you about it.
  • This Is Your Premise on Drugs: Take one internet, mix it with equal parts virtual reality and acid flashbacks then serve. Then you'll be close to what LINCspace is, what with the giant sentry eyeballs and coloured ying yang pieces which act as passwords. And some other stuff that is even more batshit insane.
  • What an Idiot!: Rob won't put his hands anywhere near a huge pneumatic press, but a live socket? Sure! Why not?
  • What the Hell, Casting Agency? : Very possibly done deliberately, but in the updated version, there is precisely ONE person with an Australian accent in a game set twenty minutes into the future... in Australia. Almost all the other accents are British/Irish regional accents, with the exception of a French doorman and the protagonist... who sounds American. What. The. Fuck?
  • The Woobie: Rob has had so much bad luck that it's hard not to feel sorry for him.
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