So, we have a classic haunted house theme, but the entire game is very well developed over it, you'll quickly forget this detail. The plot, articulated through the five days of the title, develops greatly; a lot of reading is required to know more of the mansion and its former occupants. Atmosphere is one of the game's strongest points. Gore is very scarce, there are more fear and terror than visual horror. What I liked the most, are the cutscenes involving events where you can't tell when reality ends and nightmare starts, or vice versa: this made me, the first time I played, genuinely SCARED. Later in the game, you could be afraid of going on, in fear of witnessing more bad events. Really a great work on this side.

Graphics are nothing to scream about. They just do their work more than decently, reminding me of Sierra adventures of the late '80s, early '90s. I must point out, however, that good efforts were put into animations, you'll get to see some noticeable ones in action. Music is declaredly taken from the RPG Maker 2000 library, but fits with the atmosphere. Most of the time, however, it's just silence and strange noises, developing the tension.
The interface is simple and not invasive. You can use the icons on the bottom of the screen to select the main actions, but it's better clicking the right mouse button to recall the complete interface with actions, items and save/load/quit functions. Only annoyance is that you have to move the mouse outside the interface to close it every time.

The game is not exactly long, also due to the limited amount of rooms - but, after all, you are confined inside a mansion, so a huge variety of locations wasn't to be expected from the start. Some puzzles could prove to be challenging, you may feel clueless about what to do next until you gather the necessary information; remember, often reading is the key. Don't forget to save sometimes: in the second half of the game, there are a couple of situations were you could get killed.
There are some game design flaws. You will find, at some points, a couple of objects practically popping out of nowhere at the right time you need them, an artifice I never liked in adventure games. And at times, for example after Trilby heard a strange noise or a bad event just occurred, he talks to other characters like nothing happened.

On to the proper game. 6DAS takes place about 200 years after 5 Days A Stranger, and about 200 years before 7 Days A Skeptic. Theodore DaCabe is a surveying officer for the Buckinghamshire County Council, assigned to the inspection of the building of some sort of religion, called Optimology. It should be just routine work on a normal day, but soon Theo is forcefully drifted in a nightmare that will see him become an important element in the machinations of destiny.
In some ways, it’s a return to the first two episodes: the characters are imprisoned in a sealed, limited, claustrophobic space (not that Trilby’s Notes was much vaster, but the hotel appeared more spacious), and the nightmare sequences you cannot separate from reality are back, as it is a point-and-click interface, which is practically the same as 7DAS: left-click to walk, right click on an object to bring up the inventory items and the actions you can perform on it. Save/Load/Quit options appear if you move the cursor to the top of the screen, along with two new options: a Cellphone you will use occasionally, and the Journal, an archive of the texts found throughout the game.

Not much to say on the technical side, positively: same good and simple graphics, good animations, and original music. The composer outdid himself and the tunes are some of the best I've heard in a freeware game. I especially loved the intro music, and the remixed version of one of the themes from the previous episode.

Playing as a character in a very bad shape enhances the sense of vulnerability in the player, but you cannot die, at any point of the game. While this departure from the predecessors could seem an odd choice at first, you’ll find out that it makes perfect sense in the plot. Yes, the plot. Always the series’ strongest point, it assumes even more importance in an episode which is intended to wrap up all – it even gives more sense to one of the most criticized points in the saga, the ending of 7DAS. Dialogues must be followed very carefully and, while it never got scary as Trilby’s Notes, 6DAS often surprised me with its plot twists.
Puzzles are not banal, but I found them quite easy: unlike the predecessors, I was able to finish 6DAS with no external help. It’s probably the shortest of the series, too, but again, if longer it could have been resulted in a more diluted playing experience. It must be noted, however, that in creating an epic plot, maybe Yahtzee went too far sometimes – there are even time paradoxes involved!

Some things haven't changed since 5 Days A Stranger. The graphic style is more or less the same: simple yet effective, with some good character animation. A few background tunes, but only sond effects (many taken from Half-Life) for most of the time. A real classy touch: while wearing the EVA suit, you hear only your breathing inside it, like in the movie "2001" (it's a voluntary reference). The download size, too, hasn't changed: small. There are some screens where you can walk on the exterior, but you are mostly limited to the decks of this small scoutship. Do not take it as a flaw, though, since it strenghtens the sense of oppression and claustrophobia.
The interface, on the other hand, has changed. The save, load and quit functions are located on top of the screen, appearing as you drag the cursor there. The items and actions interface doesn't appear anytime you want, but only as you right-click on something you can interact with, immediately choosing what to do or use with it. This cuts out all that unnecessary cursor movement to close the interface in the previous game.

There's much more gore in 7 Days A Skeptic. I have no problems with it, but the predecessor didn't resort to extremely bloody scenes to be scary: this is much more violent, to the point of being gross at times. In spite of this, probably due to the hi-tech setting, it feels more aseptic to me. There are plenty of chances to die this time; sometimes you will have to run for your life, so save often. Sometimes the "enemy entities" (let's call them this way, I don't want to give spoilers away) pop out from where they shouldn't logically be, for example a room you just came out from! This is intentional, to give doubts and create more tension (are you battling something concrete, or is it more akin to a ghost?), but since you can't cancel a command once it is given, being surprised and killed while walking to reach a door, totally unable to avoid such occurrence, is frustrating.

Puzzles are, for the most, easy, except one in a dangerous situation: it suffers for being far from intuitive. There's another puzzle, instead, which could be quite challenging but you can solve with some reasoning and attention to detail, I liked it. Though the plot is articulated through seven days (again, like in the title), the game is shorter. The ending is a mixed bag: really unexpected and surprising, but it also feels "thrown in", to give some closure to the story.

AfterShocked! is a real gem. It takes serious and sensitive issues, such as racism, homosexuality, prejudices, nuclear holocausts, abusive dictators, death, homelessness, and substance abuse - and makes fun of them all. If you're a fan of the satirical show "South Park," you'll likely appreciate the humor in AS; on the other hand, if you're one of those people who are apalled by South Park (and I'm talking about the humor; not the sex references or swearing) and are concerned with politcal correctness, you'll probably dislike the humor in AS. But even if you do dislike that sort of humor, and especially if you're a fan of point-and-click adventures, AfterShocked! may still be worth playing.

The first thing you'll notice when playing AS for the first time is the unique, hand-drawn backgrounds. At first, I was turned off by them, but once you realize how ridiculous the story and puzzles are, you'll understand why the graphics fit perfectly. Unfortunately, the animation doesn't flow quite as smoothly as one might hope. The legs just seem to alternate rapidly as the character walks. The music is annoying, and there are no effects or voice-overs, but who needs sound, anyway?

AfterShocked! is a point-and-click adventure, so the gameplay consists of completing puzzles, communicating with the various townspeople, and progressing through the story. Along the way, you'll see cutscenes of Hatler and his servant, Igor, conversing. There's really nothing very innovative about AS's approach to the proven point-and-click adventure formula.

The Bottom Line: If you've got broadband (the file is over 46 MB), AfterShocked! is worth the download and will leave you laughing for nearly the entire game.

The story, as said before, is substantial...but it certainly didn't strike me as particularly amazing. It's told a little shakily, and you often hear something and not realize its complete importance story-wise until later in the game, when someone casually mentions something that could be as big as, say, your characters true indentity. It's not terrible, but there are more dramatic ways to tell a story than this. The story itself isn't really anything new, but it's a tried-and-true utopeian society yarn, with a couple of nice twists along the way.

The art in BASS was drawn by comic book dude Dave Gibbons, and this could be somewhat of a mixed blessing. The enviroments have a very 'realized' and full look, but from a technical standpoint, they are somewhat their point and click contemporaries (KQ6).

The CD version of BASS, which GH links to, has full voice acting, which is surprisingly good; although the voices do have a little bit of a tinny sound. I'd say it's worth the extra download time to experience the game with the full music track (which is also quite good) and voices.

Bottom Line: Beneath a Steel Sky is a good adventure game, which, although not perfect, is fully deserving of it's 10/10 score. Point-and-click fans would do well to check it out, especially now that it's FREE.