Beholder

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.

the first time i played my daughter died of illness, my son was killed when robbing a bank and my wife died because i reported her. Before I beat the game I died 4 times from wasting money, was shot twice with a gun, stabbed once and died once from a dart. liked the game.

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.

The idea of the game is nice, but it uses most of your time for "useless" tasks, like finding stuff for you family.

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

the game didnt rlly tell what was i supposed to be beholded of but still i like this game because it gives this feeling of dead family hell yeah

Great game. Hard to put into words, but definitely worth experiencing.

Very fun and atmospheric game where it feels like choices matter, but there's also room to have some fun and do silly stuff. Worth a playthrough or two with the mutliple endings.

All the beholder games are sooo fire but the OG is still the best, the vibe, the lore, it has just really nailed the dystopian vibe, 100% recommend!

I started off with Beholder 2 so this game was a bit different for me. While all the games in the series have the same "kind" of theory to them, they are implemented in VERY different ways. Spiritual successors is more like it. This one was not as fun to me as the 2nd one. Although in ALL the games I ran into a few situations that seemed nearly impossible to solve, & there is VERY little information online - even in the dedicated subreddit for it, to the point where, if you solve something, you SHOULD post your answers on how you did it, because it's likely there are more than 1 way to do a few tasks & it's helpful to those who wish to RP in different manners, & most people many only be able to google 1 way - IF ANY to pass. In this game you manage a hotel. You spy on your tenants. Your life depends on it. You live in a dystopian autocratic regime. Not too disimilar to today except your landlord is tapped into your ring door bell & gets paid to report the activity, & is allowed to use his master key to come into your house to search for contraband. (Something they don't need to do today since people willingly allow all kinds of devices into the house like SIri, Roomba, any voice activated ANYTHING, or property cameras & digital receipts which all tell on you these days unlike the past, & we are very much asleep in this world - while the residents of Beholder KNOW they are in trouble). We are in denial. I play the game to be the good guy. Help as many people as possible, while still helping my family. However, you don't have to do it that way. You can go after everyone, but beware... you're character DOES have a conscious... & if he loses too much of his home... he can go crazy & cost you the game. There is a line you cannot cross. So play wisely. If that style is not for you, try Beholder 2. There are no lines that I have found. You can literally do ANYTHING to anyone within the game's parameters that is. All in the name of your noble mission. Overall I give Beholder a 6/10. Beholder 2 a 6.5/10. I haven't played the 3rd one yet on the train, but I'm sure it's similar. These games really feel like you HAVE A JOB!!! So sometimes I get bored playing them because if you work in an office... you might not want to come home & play a game that simulates that behavior too!

I really like this game. Love betraying my entire family all my tenants, friends even myself all for the glorious government

Beholder is a gripping strategy/simulation game set in a totalitarian state where you play as a government-installed landlord spying on your tenants. It’s dark, intense, and full of moral dilemmas. You have to balance loyalty to the regime with your own conscience. Do you report a tenant for illegal activity or help them and risk your own safety? Every choice matters, and the consequences can be brutal. The art style is gloomy and perfectly matches the atmosphere, while the gameplay keeps you hooked with time-sensitive decisions and branching outcomes. If you enjoy morally complex games with a heavy narrative and a unique concept, Beholder is a must-play. Rating: 9/10

Amazing game! 🎮✨ Very engaging story and fun, simple mechanics. The options you have throughout the game, as well as the path the story will follow, depend on the choices you make. This makes it very interesting to discover more about each NPC's own story and what they can possibly offer that can change the outcome of the story you're building. 🕵️‍♂️📚 Because of the wide range of possibilities, the game has several endings, so the game remains fun to play even after you finish it and unlock one of the endings. Besides that, the game is very easy to learn and to play, making it a good game for both beginners and experts. In addition to that, the game has two levels of difficulty available to choose: normal and easy. In the easy mode, you will receive double resources (e.g. more money from actions such as blackmailing tenants) and key items will cost half the original price, making it easier to unlock the best endings. Even though the easy version is, of course, easier, it still allows for a fun experience with the aspects that the game intended to offer, such as putting you in the position of making hard decisions and seeing how your choices impact the story. I recommend this game for anyone who enjoys engaging stories with mystery and suspense, as well as interacting with fun problem solving. 🧩

It's fun and also very stressful. If you want your family to live play the easy mode lol

This is the first game of this kind that I've played. It's quite unique. I bought it because it was on sale but it really has a very distinct atmosphere and an interesting concept. I like the design and the balancing act between the directives, your goals, and possibility of different approaches that it accounts for. It's not you need to do X, so go to Y, collect Z and get to Q to progress the game. It's more like a goal based system where you can take multiple routes to get to the result and decide what kind of loses you will tolerate and speculate which one will get you killed. Especially on difficult mode. And I like the suggestions about totalitarian regimes that this game makes. For example – your own family is breaching government directives and there is an option to report them...I can feel the hypocrisy when reporting tenants but turning a blind eye to the characters of my own family and I appreciate this little touch. The game doesn't draw attention to details like that and doesn't feel showy, like it's pointing a finger waiting for me to applaud, it just is what it is and that works unexpectedly well.

Pretty cool game and stories lines/quests. Camera are kind of useless after your first playthrough so I wish that game feature was a little better.

This game is good the story is a little bland but it good overall and i don't have much of a problem with it. You are a guy and his family where you have taken the job of a landlord and you are told by your employers to give them information on your guests who are in the building. What I think this game dose well is that it make it really hard to not mess up to where you might be forced in to hard depositions and my lead you in to a corner where you might have to hurt someone to save someone else. The gameplay is nice and give the player there own choice on how they want to approach this game you can bet a faithful employee to the government or go behind the government back to protect and save the people staying in the apartments going the easy way and just ratting out all the tenants when ever they break a law or do something your not supposed to do or be the nice guy and help them flee or not ratting them out. not following the orders you given can lead to the problem of having a bad reputation and making shear it dose not hit zero is your main goal. but you have to keep consent flow of information on your tenants will keep it from reaching that point

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

at the time i'm writing this review in, i've only played one run of beholder. and effed up really bad. like my whole family died and i got fired. and it all happened so fast i was shocked. but in an amazing way. here's the thing: i think instead of playing beholder with expectations of doing the right thing right away and instantly getting a perfect run, we should see beholder as it is: a game about the awful reality of a totalitarian state. a game that is soul crushing for its morality and cruelness. thats what it is about, so the ending i get, how bad it may be, is sth thats totally bound to happen if it were irl and thats why beholder stuns. any end is a good end when u think about it. not good in the game but good in the sense that it's well made. and you are like- staring at the screen of your ending for 15 mins not believing it and regreting all ur choices. thats a game. a [b] G A M E. [/b] because while my ending was horrible i can't even be mad about it because it is so real and well done. the atmosphere is dark and eerie in yellowish tones with black sillouettes, and honestly it really blends in well with what the game is doing. i can see a lot of care and tought was put into this game and i respect it a lot. i cant wait to play more runs and do horrible decisions and [i] feel something. [/i] because trust me beholder will make you feel things. take a deep breath before diving into it, you'll need it. then dive, into the shattering world of beholder where every choice matters and anything is bound to happen.

This game is worth it especially on sale for 83c I liked the fact you had to snoop around to get what you wanted and overall a fun short game.

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.

i dont know why it sayys i have played nearly 2 hours of this game when i have only played about 5 minutes. i am playing on steamdeck & have no idea what the controls are, the game does a terrible job at explaining them. i have been trying to work out how to knock on a door , when you press a you get a bubble with unlock knock & something in the middle i dont know what that is , i cant choose knock, i tthought it would be sensible to knock to see if someone was in first...im supposed to install 2 cameras its right at the start of the game , the game does not tell you how to get the cameras it might say a shop...so i thought i must have to catch the bus & go somewhere to find the shop...i dont though because theres a menu ...the shop is in a menu but it doesnt tell you that, same as it doesnt tell you how to choose knock or to use the key & from what i just read apparently it is automatic but had i got into the place the bloke that lives there came back a couple of seconds later so its a good job i couldnt work it out. i dont really get it . apparently there is supposed to be the trackpad working but it isnt , i have no clue how to get the pointer on the screen . im not keen on games that dont bother to tell you what buttons do what beyond tthe a button & trigger buttons to change floor /zoom in? not liking it much so far

I reported my family and my neighbors to authorities. I regret nothing

I still can’t believe that all my run was entirely dependent on the last minute cock fight. Thankfully Wise Cock didn’t betray me and we managed to flee the country. Thank you for your service Wise Cock! 7/10

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

It's completely luck-based. but the story is good.

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.

i got my family arrested in this game and i frame everyone lot of fun #killeveryone

fallout shelter but this is actually fun to play

Read 1984 once and make all the bad guys refer to each other as "comrade" and you get this game. Fox news probably fit in there somewhere.

отличная аллегория на РФ в данный момент

We Become What We Behold = Mr Morale And The Big Steppers ?!

my entire family died then i got killed by an old lady

too hard

𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: ★★★★★ (𝟏𝟎/𝟏𝟎)

5.5/10

juhu