Beholder

Interesting Concept, Tedious Execution Beholder immediately caught my attention with its unique premise: you play as a government-installed landlord spying on your tenants in a dystopian surveillance state. It sounded like the kind of dark, choice-driven narrative I usually enjoy. Sadly, the execution didn’t live up to the potential. The atmosphere is strong — bleak and oppressive in just the right ways — but the gameplay loop quickly becomes repetitive. You spend most of your time running back and forth, installing cameras, digging through drawers, and waiting on timers. It feels more like busywork than engaging decision-making. Worse, the choices that should feel weighty and impactful often come off as arbitrary. The game pushes you to make morally complex decisions, but then punishes you harshly no matter what you do. Instead of feeling like you’re navigating a dangerous system with agency, you feel trapped in trial-and-error gameplay that punishes experimentation. On top of that, the interface is clunky and the pacing is slow. Even when dramatic things happen, they’re buried in a mechanical loop that rarely feels rewarding or immersive. I really wanted to enjoy Beholder. The art style is striking and the themes are compelling, but the experience itself is more of a chore than a compelling moral challenge. If you’re looking for meaningful narrative choices, there are better games out there.

The Beholder is a hidden gem of a game. This game isn't obscure by any means but you really never hear about this game anymore, Except for its heyday when it first came out. To be honest I really didn't know what to expect booting this game up for the first time. I just though I'd get it because it was 83 cents and had spare change. I'll be talking about the base game and the DLC separately despite them being pretty similar with a few distinct differences. The base game of Beholder starts you out as a landlord working for a corrupt fictional country. And you the player, Play as the titular Beholder, Carl, A landlord/security guard. Your job is to steal, bribe, blackmail, spy, and report tenants to make money and do the tasks the ministry gives you, All while trying to keep your family alive. An important thing to note about this game is the time limits. Most tasks you can do give you a certain amount of in game hours to complete. This game does also have a clock for the in game days but it doesn't seem to have a set amount of days until you get an ending, though the ministry will call you automatically after a while if you don't ask for a new task. You can at least pause time to think through your strategy. All in all its not as stressful as some other games but I can see this being a deal breaker for some people. I truly do believe making over the hurdle of the stress really opens the other aspects of the game. The quests and tenants you can choose to house are really good. Each with different personalities, connections, and circumstances. One of the early quests is to evict the Schimmers by any means possible so you could wait for a new law saying reading is illegal and catch them with hidden cameras, or plant evidence in their apartment. Alternatively you can confront them directly and try to help them escape the country either by leveraging your connection to a employee who works at a cargo ship and smuggle them. Or try to retrieve the lost paperwork from a worker at the archives. all of the different ways you can solve the quests really impressed me. And while most of the ways involve optional tenants you may or may not have living in you apartment. You can usually find a contraband smuggler ever day with the items you need, For a hefty price. Once beating the game I feel like there are two ways a player will approach a replay through: Excited and try to optimize how many tasks and money you can complete, while finding more secrets of the game. Or feel like the game becomes repetitive doing the same tasks again. I personally find trying to make the most amount of money possible very fun because trust me you need a lot of money to get some of the endings. If you liked something like Pikmin 1 or 3 I think this game would really click for you! To beat the game once it takes around 6 hours so you don't have to redo an insane amount on a replay. If you don't plan to replay the game then I'd recommend getting the game on sale. Me personally i went through the main campaign 4 times to get all the endings and achievements. As for the DLC: Blissful Sleep you play as Hector the previous landlord and you have 2 weeks to live because the state incorrectly labeled your file as 85 years old. Which in accordance with the new laws Anyone over the age of 85 will be killed in two weeks. The game play is much the same as before, But I find seeing how the first tenants you knew from the base game get expanded as they had a great relationship with hector and even had a different family. The lore of the entire country and people are expanded a lot. The DLC is harder then the base game but its nothing too crazy. I do feel like in general the DLC has less ways you can solve quests in the game its more linear. But i think that's because the DLC has a two week limit whereas the base game usually takes around 25 to 30 days. As for the length its around 4 hours long at around the same quality of the normal game. I think as a package the Beholder, DLC or not is a really solid game with a lot of charm and a unique setting. This game won't appeal to everyone and that's fine. But i think for the people who will like this game, this is pretty underrated! My final verdict is 8.8 out of 10. Thank you for reading.

just finished my first playthrough and heres some stuff i have to say about this peak honestly, this is an AWESOME game!!!!!! the gameplay is pretty fun, the graphics and artstyle are really damn good, i fw ts icl one problem i had with the game though is that it doesnt communicate some important mechanics in the tutorial and overall, in some cases its alright like the ability to sell your tenant's stuff (i dont remember if it tells you that but i think it doesnt) but sometimes its just BAD like the ability to right click on the tenant's actions to record it (or maybe im just autistic lol) anyways, i LOVE this game and imo its reaaaly fun 9/10 noobe absolutely approves.

Just completed the game with its DLC, currently i have all the achievement. Was it fun? not quite but the challenges this game had didn't make me feel bored because of these challenges, i was determined to fully complete this game in the first place. In short i will highly recommend the base game and dlc when they are on sale. This is not a spolier but buy the DLC only when you want to fully complete the game or find out the full lore as the dlc add nothing new just past characters backstory with some new npcs.

Absolutely one of my new all time favourite games. I had fun playing it on trainee mode, I had fun playing it on government elite mode, I had fun playing the DLC, and I even had fun trying to get all the achievements. This series quickly has become one of my favourites. Definitely recommend it if you haven't checked it out already.

99 cents on sale for a pretty good game. Probably can finish with best ending in about 10 hours but it's good. Just don't expect to do well on your first run.

Its overall a good game but way too hard. Also everything is on a timer.

I got the game for less than a dollar but after playing a few minutes, I knew I would've paid full price for it easily- First playthrough took around 3 hours (and I "died" twice, but reloaded the save). I went with following the Ministry of Order- now I'm planning on following the New Tomorrow Movement to see how that story goes. I have also played Beholder 2- and honestly, while they are both good games, I vastly prefer the original :)

The game choices have their own consequences. This make me have mix feelings and emotions just to make the choice. It also have multiple endings that shows the consequences from our little choices that can change the future. Overall 8.5/10.

10/10 game I play it practickly every day it is very fun. I really don't have much else to say other than its good.

Very challenging and fun game! Like papers please with the struggles of money and keeping the family safe. I've still yet to completely finish the game because I keep replaying to get the ending I want.

I liked the main game so much that I bought the DLC. Both were worth it. Being a nosy neighbor is not only acceptable, but your job description! You'll be snooping through apartments, planting evidence, and generally acting like a terrible landlord, all while trying to keep your family fed. 10/10.

Fun game, definitely worth the cost and time. Recommended!

Did you ever dream of legally spying on your neighbors and getting a government bonus for it? Beholder makes that dream come true! A dark stylish and surprisingly addictive game where you can play the perfect citizen or a master manipulator, tons of choices, loads of stress and even more moral dilemmas.

Not very well optomized. Was laggy, and increasingly laggy the longer it ran, like seconds between input and reation. which is real rough in a game where youre secretly snooping and need to dip out at a moments notice. Games of this caliber shouldnt require a serious gaming PC imho, but this one does.

Steam guide reading simulator, but you have to sit through the tedium many times if you plan to even make it to the endgame, let alone achieve different endings.

kazali mi zaplacic 10 tysiecy w gotowce zeby wyleczyc moja corke(teraz musze jeszcze wyremontowac caly blok)

As subtle with its messaging as getting slammed with a sledgehammer.

It took all my willpower to not report my daughter for reading a book.

Simulation of playing an old lady neighbor. You know all the gossip, who's drinking, when they go to work and when they eat.

it's a good concept but the execution is really boring

it's too hard. You wouldn't finish the game without looking up what you should do.

Very fun game to be a total bad guy in. Love it.

I liquidated my family so I could afford groceries

Russian FBI simulator

i love being an evil landlord

3/5 Worth: 5$

есть женчины

gud gaem

𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: ★★★★★ (𝟏𝟎/𝟏𝟎)

Tedious

Нет