Beholder is a management sim and a moral quandary all in one. It’s easy to become consumed by the lives of Carl Stein and the apartment dwellers he’s been hired to spy on, with a story full of twists, turns, and terrible fates.
I enjoyed my time playing Beholder. Everything comes together well, and the initial experience is fun. It is missing that hook to keep me interested in playing for an extended period. That is the only complaint I have about Beholder. It will give you an enjoyable experience, even if it is for a short time. If you’re looking for a game that you can play for a couple days, Beholder fits that bill.
Frightening and interesting vision of dystopia very well shown in the game
DLC that tells the story of the previous owner of the tenement is as great as the main game
Beholder feels like it isn't saying much politically, while still shouting at the top of its lungs about what is and what could be. It's an interactive moral dilemma that will force players to rethink everything they thought they knew about themselves.
Beholder is a fairly unique game of spying, decision making, and disaster avoidance. The story of a secret rebellion uprising against an authoritarian government has been told many times before, but at least government controlled property landlord is a fresh perspective on things. It won’t take you that long to complete, but it doesn’t outstay its welcome, and you’ll have a good time balancing all the things that need doing for those few hours.
While it does have issues, I hope that the brevity of Beholder’s appeal and the sloppiness of its translation don’t dissuade anyone from checking out one of the year’s more conceptually-ambitious indies. While I’ll hopefully never find myself in a position similar to Carl’s, I’d like to think that games such as Beholder help me to understand, even just a little, how a middle-class everyman can be coerced into performing heinous deeds, as so many throughout history have.
Beholder does an excellent job of making you feel hopeless. I was immediately infected by the game’s clouded atmosphere. I felt ready to do whatever it took to keep my household afloat. And while certain gameplay elements broke this spell, the game is worth playing. Even the most saintly players can find a little awful in themselves with Beholder.
I'll recommend this game but guys, seriously, this one-sided view of how things are done in the world of politics starts getting sickening. Because it is quite clear what the references are.
Pros.:
- Empathy.
- Multiple story lines.
- Multiple decisions.
- Easy to die.
- Difficulty forces you to evaluate your actions, also, saves are quite comfortably managed.
- Aesthetics.
- Replayability!
- Art game.
Cons.:
- Music.
- Annoying open-steal-earn money mechanic.
- Overall insistence that SOME (let's not point the fingers - easy to read through names and papers) countries are bad and there are GOOD guys who will fix everything. Papers, please! plays with the topic much better and with more realistic approach.
Still, recommend to play and will even try sequels. Because the game is super replayable and forces you to make a choice. Which is great.
P.S.: and for the record. George Orwell worked in BBC. He was writing not about the USSR but about the UK. A hint of reality. A detail current wikipedia generation ignores.
Honestly, the game let me down terribly. Promoted to the mechanics of making difficult decisions in the face of problems related to building management in a totalitarian regime ... And in my opinion, the puzzle game came out - the dilemmas were often limited to two goals A) CORRECT B) INCORRECT choice. I didn't feel at all that these decisions were difficult because they often ended in the death of the main character or there was no other way out other than the one specific one planned in advance by the developers. Someone needs X, and the other person can handle it once we get Y, and that just happens to be wonderful in another character's locker.
The best part of the game was writing reports. Though it hurt how few characters could be encountered on the way.
Le gros étron du jour est un jeu indé ! quoi de plus naturel en somme pour un indé comme d’habitude à côté de la plaque et à côté de ses pompes ! y compris lorsqu’il prétend nous mettre dans la peau d’un citoyen « modèle » qui espionne ses voisins afin de les dénoncer immédiatement à la mère Patrie pour subversion, déviance ou haute trahison. Ou autres activités politiques. Ou terroristes.
L’idée semble intéressante mais elle est restée sur le papier seulement ou au mieux comme concept assez vague, très vague… La mise en oeuvre et le développement de cette idée en un « jeu » est un échec total et le résultat d’un bricolage lamentable, rapidement démoulé par une bande de cons qui n’avaient aucune idée de ce qu’ils étaient en train de faire.
Ainsi, la présentation est exécrable dans sa 2D et demi dégueulasse en 5 couleurs et demi et les contrôles sont pensés en dépit du bon sens le plus élementaire ; tout est à dire vrai dans ce sous-jeu pensé n’importe comment ou pas pensé du tout : c’est le « résultat » des stagiaires qui ont boulotté de la merde sur cet étron indé à la petite semaine !
C’est en outre très limité, vite répétitif et d’un goût constamment douteux ou carrément mauvais dans tous les compartiments de ce sous-produit qui s’est voulu opportuniste mais qui mériterait un petit stage dans un camp de rééducation par le travail manuel afin -bien entendu- de procéder également à son autocritique. Pour le bien de la Patrie, camarade !
SummaryYou’re a State-installed Landlord in a totalitarian State. You must spy on tenants, peep, eavesdrop and profile! You must report on anyone capable of plotting subversion against the State.