“Could this game get any darker!?” I kept thinking as I watched over all my conveniently placed security cameras. And by “conveniently placed” I mean in my tenant’s bedrooms, living rooms, and other private spaces. No one gets away with reading government banned materials or storing illegal goods in the nightstand! You are Comrade Carl, a government puppet man, and you go where you want when you want. Just make sure they are not home, we need to maintain the landlord facade. Welcome to a totalitarian state where freedom has left the building. Welcome, Beholder Carl.

Being the Beholder

Your Beholder log and inventory is fairly well organized.

By peeping through keyholes and keeping an eye on your cameras you have the ability to collect informational and illegal actions of your tenants. The game makes collecting these “reportable” actions fairly easy. With a swift click of your right stick, the game will log the actions into your Beholder log. It is now up to you on what you wish to do with this evidence. Do you bribe the tenant for money? The choice is yours.

Actions always have consequences in Beholder and everyone is not as they appear sometimes. This is one of the things I wish Beholder did better. The controls to collect evidence from your tenants are stupidly simple but reporting on these items is a pain in the rear. It takes too many clicks as you search for the right person, add the necessary evidence, and submit the report.

Eventually, you won’t need any cameras if you choose to spend.

Secretly planted security cameras can assist you with monitoring your tenants but they must be purchased from the shop. The shop is stocked with security cameras of 3 varying qualities with the more expensive ones covering a wider area. Upgrading your security cameras seems like a no-brainer as it allows you to keep a close eye and report on your tenants from afar. Each apartment has pre-defined placements for each camera so there’s no deciding where they go. It’s all rather plug-and-play. Sometimes it was just fun to sit and watch what my tenants were doing. You can sort of decipher what they are talking about by the icon that pops up above their heads.

Maybe he did something bad. Maybe he was reading a book. Either way its illegal!

A black market dealer will set up shop outside your building from time to time. This is the perfect place to buy and sell in stolen or illegal goods. Throughout the game, various Ministry directives will be handed down outlawing certain items. You never know when blue ties will be illegal, you might want to hang onto that one. The black market dealer will also be where you need to acquire most of the items needed for various quests to be sure to check in on him every so often.

Quests for your tenants are marked in the now standard fashion of placing exclamation marks above their heads. Each of your tenants will have something to say. This is because each is their own character with their own story and goals. Your apartments are not filled with empty husks; they are actually living people.

Nothing to see here move along.

In Beholder the aim is not to make the right or wrong decision. It is to make the one decision that hopefully allows you to live one day longer and keep playing to the end. Throughout my time with Beholder I found numerous quest dead ends which resulted in my untimely demise. There are truly bad decisions you can make in Beholder. The tricky part is determining which are “the worst” in a game that has a dark brooding totalitarian theme where everything is bad, and everyone is oppressed. It’s also worth noting that some of the requests require pricey “payments” in order to succeed. They are so pricey that you may not be able to afford the next “payment” for the next bribe…. quest.

The Ministry Requires…

Please vote.

I don’t think there’s an ounce of good choices in this game in it so your only choices are bad, bad, and worse. Mandatory tasks will be given to you by the Ministry via your telephone. Be sure to answer this immediately or you will be beaten and taken away. Complete these tasks successfully or you will be taken away. Ignore the tasks and you will be taken away. I think you get the idea.

Illegal Illegal. The choice is yours.

Tasks such as making someone “go away” could include everything from eviction to “accidental” deaths. Do you turn in your son that was just seen doing illegal things? Does the wife deserve to be hauled away for yet again, asking for more money? The choice is yours, Carl. Just remember, all choices have consequences and there are rarely good outcomes in Beholder.

Blissful Sleep

The Ministry doesn’t make mistakes.

Beholder comes with additional DLC called the Blissful Sleep. Not to ruin any surprises but the Blissful Sleep DLC is a prequel to the main game. If you remember, there was a poor soul at the beginning of the main game that was being hauled into the paddy wagon as you arrived. Blissful sleep takes place before those… unfortunate incidents.

The Blissful Sleep DLC plays exactly like the main game. There are no real advancements or major changes. Even the location is the same since you are assuming the role of the previous landlord of Krushvice 6. The main difference is that there’s an overarching quest for the duration of the DLC storyline titled “I don’t want to die”. I’ll leave it up to you on deciphering that one.

The Word on the Block

One of the happy endings I’m sure.

I’m kind of scared to say this as I’m not sure what conclusions you all will come to about me but Beholder is a good bit of fun. It almost sort of a feels like a guilty pleasure. The voyeuristic aspects of the game are fun to work with. Who doesn’t want to sneak into neighboring apartments after they leave for work and rifle through their belongings? Just me? Sorry!? I could see where the game’s dark nature could turn people off but it wasn’t for me. The additional Blissful Sleep DLC just extends the play time for Beholder, shedding more light on the backstory.

They seemed to have enjoyed playing them, so you should enjoy reading them! I’m talking about our two new hit reviews on Horizon Chase Turbo and Kingdom Two Crowns. As always, let us know what you think on Twitter or drop in our Discord.