Beholder Reviews
Beholder 2 is an immersive dystopia RPG with a desperate story, interesting gameplay, and hard choices.
Review in Chinese | Read full review
Beholder creates an interesting world and fills this world with weighty, morally-grey choices that actually matter. The feeling of actually having an influence on how events transpire is present here, a nice change from games that promise choice and deliver nothing of the sort.
I've never played this type of game before, and although I didn't necessarily enjoy every single minute of gameplay, it's memorable for the ideas it presents, and the different ways in which it plays out.
A good management sim with an interesting style, but it may be a bit grim for some
I’m not sure that I’ve ever played through a game before where my opinion changed so drastically or as often as it did while I was playing Beholder.
Beholder doesn't hold your hand and this can become an issue. It relies heavily on the player to self-teaching themselves about much of the game's mechanics.
'Beholder' effectively captures a dystopian society from the perspective of the middleman. The game is a welcomed addition to any indie library, despite the few flaws it contains. I highly recommend this game for anyone who enjoys dystopian and task-based adventure games.
Every choice you make has a consequence and every consequence takes you to one of many conclusions. Great stuff!
Beholder gives you scenarios in which you must choose what is truly right in contrast to what is lawful and is more than worthy of a playthrough. You will feel. You will think. You might just behold something worthwhile.
While its mechanics can be a little finicky, Beholder is a simple game that ends up immersing you in the life of an informant in a totalitarian state, and it’ll no doubt make you develop a fascination with the lives of others. As you juggle your desire to be a good person with your desire to stay out of prison or an early grave, Beholder will force you to make some heavy choices
Beholder is a management sim and a moral quandary all in one. It’s easy to become consumed by the lives of Carl Stein and the apartment dwellers he’s been hired to spy on, with a story full of twists, turns, and terrible fates.
Beholder is based on a strong concept, and it has moments that land well, but it’s also held back by repetition and an unexciting script. The unpleasantness doesn’t always feel worth the hassle, and few players will realise the ultimate goal of saving their family and escaping the mundanity of their tenement basement life without kowtowing to the state.
Beholder is a deeply terrifying look at the concept of an Orwellian nightmare through the lens of a video game.
Despite much of this review, Beholder is not a bad game and at the price asked, I think it is worth a buy. The criticisms only come because Beholder sets its sights at such lofty heights and complex issues but fails to reach them. And of course, it suffers by association with the ethically sensitive and artistically cohesive Papers Please. What it achieves, however, is an entertaining and challenging strategy game. It is just good, which is a shame because it could have been brilliant.
With a fantastically sombre and sinister art style, impeccable sound design and an innovative idea, if I were to have to describe this game on the fly I would say it’s a title somewhere between Papers, Please and The Sims, two games I have thoroughly enjoyed in the past. With the subtle application of moral choices of Papers, Please mixed with the sim management of The Sims I can wholeheartedly recommend Beholder as a quick pick me up this Christmas if you’ve got the rumblies only state intervention will satisfy.
Beholder is able to make us feel guilty and stressed thanks to its atmosphere of oppression and extremely hard decisions. A great option if the player is seeking for something different.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
While Beholder isn’t exactly a title that’s set to shake up the indie scene, the intriguing premise and solid execution makes it well worth seeking out all the same.
Beholder delivers a tough experience from the narrative standpoint, and a challenging gameplay. The player will face hard choices, and will have to live with the aftermath of its decisions every single time. The graphic is appealing, though sometimes it feels like the burden that the player has to carry - especially with the high number of quests given at the same time - can be a little discouraging. However, this is an original and suggested game.
Review in Italian | Read full review
'Beholder' is a somber, harsh experience in terms of both its theme and its gameplay. The naggy and sometimes baffling routines of the residents can get in the way of a good story at times, and it's too short overall. Still, it's an interesting addition to the growing "authoritarian state" genre, and well worth its small asking price.
Beholder is a game where the simple mechanics are just the tip of the iceberg. The game bombards the player with hard moral choices in a world where every decision may have dire consequences.