Indie review: The Beholder

A totalitarian government demands loyalty to it above everything but it can’t assume that every citizen is a good patriot. As a state imposed landlord is our job to make sure our tenants are loyal to the country or we could be the ones lacking in patriotism or food.

The beholder is a game created by warm lamp games where we take charge of a government housing complex. As the landlords we must spy on our tenants to make sure they aren’t happy with the new government, make profiles about them and if necessary give them up to the authorities.

As a game the beholder can be a bit difficult to classify at first glance but it’s above all a management games. As the landlord we have many responsibilities to our tenants, family and government we juggle all this responsibilities and how much of our limited time and resources we spend on each.

While keeping the family and tenants happy can be easily done with money, pleasing the government on the other hand is where the main mechanics appear. We must do profiles of our tenants for which we need to spy on them with cameras and microphones, break into their apartments or simply use every opportunity to sneak in and take a peak at them.

I like how you need to be underhanded and stealthy to get information about the tenants because the profile and accusation you make are the main source of income. This also presents a moral choice about how much of a snitch you are and this can lead to multiple endings as tenants get kill or taken into custody.

In my opinion a good moral system must either make the good choice a hindrance for the player so it can be hard to make or the evil choice must be amazing to tempt the player. Under this the Beholder has a nice moral system as we don’t get enough money without the profiles and can even put ourselves in danger but this in turn will put our tenants in danger. At the start keeping a moral high ground is easy as the family necessities aren’t too expensive but after the daughter gets sick is when the difficulty curve spikes up.

As a whole i loved the gameplay until a bit after the difficulty spike. I learned a pattern of work and things became a bit too monotonous, not helped by the uninteresting or generic stories of the tenants and the country in general that have been done better in other games. Once i finished the story and got a not very satisfying ending i didn’t had any motivation to replay the game and see stories i missed or go for a different ending.

What i think is the best asset of the beholder it’s the art style and presentation. The unique cartoon style can be both cute and somber and each character is so well designed that one can easily identify them on the screen by their figure or the white parts on it’s design. I want to praise the art of this game because it manages to bring the right oppressive atmosphere while also being memorable and serving to gameplay wich is something i have rearly seen.

As much as i liked it i must say is not a game i would ever replay, my interest died quickly when everything settled so i can say is not for me. Nevertheless i can see it’s quality and imagination and would recommend anyone to try it.

Get the game on steam:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/475550/Beholder/