Beholder – Beta Demo (Steam)

Beholder is a very cool blend of building management sim, stealth, spying and Papers, Please-esque moral dilemmas, with you playing a building landlord who must report any tenants who break the totalitarian governments strictly enforced rules.

We’ve featured Beholder a couple of times on Alpha Beta Gamer, and have been very impressed with the games high quality animation, fun spying mechanics and the tough choices you have to make about reporting your tenants to the government. You and your family have just moved into the apartment block after the previous landlord was deemed unsuitable for the job (then promptly beaten up and taken away). It’s up to you to keep the government happy by reporting wrongdoers and to keep revenue coming to help fix up the apartment, purchase new spying equipment and provide for your family.

In Beholder you rent out apartments to tenants, then you sneak into their apartments when they’re out, looking for prohibited materials and hooking up cameras and other spying equipment so you can observe any illegal behaviour.  Once you discover evidence of a tenant breaking the law (or just having bad character traits) you can either report them to the government, blackmail them or show some human kindness and let them off with a warning.  Each option has different effects and while there are monetary bonuses for being a ‘good citizen’ the choices you make are often dependent on how you personally feel about the tenant (it’s easy to report an a**hole who shouts at your kids, but do you really want to report nice little old ladies for baking nice treats?)

It’s a very interesting game, with a very dark and oppressive atmosphere created by the beautiful artwork and the knowledge that Big Brother is always watching. Will you be a good citizen, obeying every whim of the government or a good human being, showing compassion and kindness? Each decision has a real impact in this well crafted blend of spying and building management as you balance pleasing your superiors and your sating your conscience.

Check Out a Gameplay Video Here

Download The Beta Demo Here (Steam)