Beyond A Steel Sky

Along the way he meets a large cast of characters and investigates the AI that runs MINOS, the software that organizes every part of society inside the city walls. He also attempts to track down Joey, his companion from the first game. Joey disappeared from the public eye five years earlier when a democratically elected council was installed to manage the city instead of him. The city council consists of five ministries that cover aspiration, comfort, plenty, safety and wellbeing. In addition to the dark cyberpunk themes such as a tiered society based on social credit (QDOS) and permanent surveillance, the game has many humorous elements.

Foster can move freely inside the 3D environment using direct controls. Whenever characters or objects that he can interact with are close enough, they are highlighted with a reticule. When the player centres the reticule to focus on it, various options appear in a small menu to start a conversation, examine or use an object from the inventory. While talking to characters there are always multiple dialogue options. Foster can also run and early on acquires a scanner that allows him to hack certain devices. Hacking itself is a logic puzzle where different blocks can be swapped to alter the function of machines or devices.

All characters are voiced. There is a separate screen to keep track of objective and to view the inventory in more detail. There is an in-game hint system tied to the objectives. When stuck the player can unlock a general hint about the objective, which is then repeated with more detailed instructions revealing exactly what to do next. However, there is a cooldown of 30 seconds between hints so the player is discouraged from having everything revealed straight away. It is not possible to die in the game.