It’s not often you’re given the opportunity to spy on others and make a living off of it, but that’s pretty much the premise here. In addition to spying, you’re essentially working for the mafia, as not performing the job correctly results in some less than satisfactory results for you. Remember, you have a family – that’s a lot more leverage than anyone without.

Moving into your new residence, you watch as the previous manager is dragged out, beaten black and blue. After asking what happened, you’re informed he didn’t perform his duties adequately, and hopefully you’ll do better. Naturally, seeing someone beaten to the brink of death will encourage anyone to do well, but if the job entails that for poor performance, it’s unlikely the thought of what you’ll be required to do doesn’t pass through your mind. Your family is against the situation, but given the circumstances, you don’t have much of a choice. Such is life in a world controlled by the State.

Starting out, you’re informed of how to purchase things such as security cameras, which will allow you to see into the darkness of the layout that will be familiar for anyone that’s played the likes of Fallout Shelter. While initially I thought these would later be used at your terminal at home, it’s just a way to see into the fog of war, as it were. That’s really about all the info the game provides if you choose to do the tutorial, although you can go to the phone and ask more questions about how to play. But the gist of it is you’ll be given a mission that you must complete within a certain period of time, and the way that you do so is up to you. The draw of the game is supposed to play heavily on the moral decision making, although a good amount of it isn’t necessarily a choice you would make because you don’t have the funds. And that’s what makes it all the more engaging.

Many games like the last few Fallout titles, as well Mass Effect give you choices that are essentially good or bad. They attempt to frame it in another light, but that’s what it comes down to. The idea is that you’ll role play the character making decisions you would honestly want to make. However, in those games you almost always have the choice, regardless of the state your character is in. In Beholder, you can be good so long as you are diligent, but chances are you won’t have the funds to help everyone – and your family requires quite a bit if you don’t want them to die off. So you have to decide on whether you want to help your family or if you want to help the tenants. Bear in mind that the reward for helping the tenants opposed to selling them out is minuscule and much more costly. It’s here that the game shines, as you have to truly choose what you’ll do based on your finances and situation. It’s also important to note that the State sees a lot of what you do, and should you help people escape, it may result in a less than satisfactory end for you.

The game has a fairly unique aesthetic, with the silhouetted characters in a dreary world. However, as you’re required to know who characters are by name and match them up to their designs, it may prove to be difficult. Silhouette art is beautiful, but it requires very precise and definitive features for readability. While some characters are obvious enough, others blend together and make it difficult to know whether you need to run out of their place of residence or not. This actually leads me to one of the more amusing things about the game. Regardless of what a resident is doing in their place – even if they’re dead asleep with a door between them and the front door, if you attempt to use a key to enter their premises they’ll come over to you very upset. In the event they are out on the town and you end up seeing them come out of the elevator of the building and walk toward their room, you won’t hide in their apartment – instead, you’ll either get caught being inside and they’ll be distressed, or you’ll run out right in front of them without them caring at all. As long as they aren’t in their place or looking in it with you inside, you’re solid. There are also some weird caveats with the z-axis, as you can go forward and back in the rooms, but this will often lead to some undue frustration when attempting to interact with objects. Between my nerves of being in a place when someone is away and trying to get the right option chosen, I would’ve been much happier if everything was on a single plane.

Going into this, I was expecting something more along the lines of the upcoming Do Not Feed the Monkeys, but really it’s more of a management simulator with moral choices. Do you plant evidence to cause someone to get in trouble, or do you help them flee the State? Do you care about the characters and your family, or do you just go at with the intent of doing whatever you feel like? There’s a lot to take in; I just wish it was executed a bit more efficiently. Beholder: Complete Edition is a fun, unique experience for those that haven’t played simulators like it before, but I can’t help but think it’s more fitting on the original mobile and PC platforms. It does have a lot of promise though, and hopefully that shines through in the sequel.

6 out of 10

Pros

• Moral Decisions Governed by Money
• Very Dreary World
• Lots of Fun Ideas

Cons

• Depth of Field Selection
• Some Annoying Mechanics
• Hard to Distinguish Characters

Beholder: Complete Edition was developed by Warm Lamp Games and published by Curve Digital. The complete edition of the game launched on PS4 January 16th, 2018 and X1 on January 19th, 2018 for $14.99. It was previously released on PC and mobile devices. The PS4 version of the game was provided to us for review. If you’d like to see more of Beholder: Complete Edition, check out the official site.

 

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