Recommended☆Steam Game Review No. 5: "Beholder," a black job monitoring apartment residents

A Government Spy Named "Apartment Manager

In this series, Mina Tsujimura, aka SteamMania, a core gamer on Steam, reviews in detail the recommended games available on Steam, a PC game platform that is currently enjoying a lot of popularity. She will introduce the fun of the games.

This time, we will introduce a 2D adventure game called "Beholder ". It is an indie game created by raising funds for its development on the crowdfunding site "Kickstarter.

The main character is appointed by the government to be the caretaker of an apartment building, monitoring the private lives of the residents and performing his duties as a caretaker. It is easy to be fooled by the character designs drawn with a unique soft touch, but the motif of this game is actually a "totalitarian state. Why such a heavy theme? I wondered why, but when I learned that the developer, Warm Lamp Games, is a company from the former Soviet Union (now Russia), I was convinced.

There is no privacy for the people! Terrible totalitarian state.

The laws are absolute, and surveillance is everything in the totalitarian state of "Dystopia. The main character, Carl Stein, is ordered by the government to move into an apartment with his wife, son, and daughter as an apartment manager.

The apartment superintendent's job is to make the apartment a place of relaxation for the residents, but this is, of course, only a facade. In reality, his real job is to keep an eye on the residents 24 hours a day, sometimes breaking in to investigate and report illegal items (prohibited items) and illegal activities to the government.

For such a hard job, Carl's salary paid by the government is very small. On top of that, his expenses pile up when his daughter falls ill or his son is expelled from school. Karl's life is always on the edge, as he is constantly being chased by the bills that keep coming in.

It's like working at a black-owned business! The protagonist is drugged with a drug that makes him sleepless and forced to work 24 hours a day.

Karl's surveillance duties go on all day long, from "good morning" to "good night," and he doesn't need to sleep because he has been drugged to work 24 hours a day without sleep.

Karl's basic duties include remotely monitoring residents' rooms with surveillance cameras, breaking into rooms with a master key while residents are away, finding contraband, and reporting it to the government. Of course, when entering each room, remember to check for residents by peering into the room through the keyhole.

You can also plant contraband in the rooms of residents you don't like, and even make up crimes to get rid of them. When you need money, you can make it illegally by extorting residents or give them a chance by letting them off the hook for illegal activities.

It is up to you to decide whether Karl ends up being a mere cog in a dystopian wheel, or whether he lives without forgetting his human emotions. How you use the power of the apartment manager will greatly affect the ending.

I actually tried playing!

Let's try playing the game right away. First, select the game mode from "New Game" in the TOP menu. The game modes are Government Officials (high difficulty) and Trainees (low difficulty). This time I chose Government Official.

After selecting the difficulty level, an opening movie will be played. After the opening movie, the boss will be waiting for you in the basement of your apartment, so talk to the boss and a brief tutorial of sorts will begin.

The boss will instruct you to install a surveillance camera in the dining room. Incidentally, this is a communal dining hall, used by all residents. To buy a surveillance camera, use reputation points from the shopping symbol icon in the upper right corner of the screen.

Reputation points are awarded for completing residents' requests and government tasks. On the other hand, if you fail to complete a task in time or are caught cheating, you will lose reputation points.

Tasks from the government are requested by phone. You will be penalized if you do not answer the phone, so always pay attention to the sound of the phone bell. In-game time progresses in real time, but time stops when you are talking with residents. You can fast forward by clicking on the arrow icon attached to the clock in the upper left corner of the screen, or you can stop time by using the pause icon.

The first task is to keep an eye on Jacob Manishek, who lives in room 2. We immediately install the surveillance camera and search the room while Jacob is away. When Jacob returns home, he has started a drug operation under the surveillance camera that we have just installed. We click on the drug icon, take evidence, and immediately report it to the government.

After a while, the police come to take him into custody. Goodbye, Jacob. Once the residents are arrested, they can receive the luggage left in their rooms. This luggage can be sold to a merchant for money. Sometimes, expensive items are included in the package, so it is a very tasty source of funds. However, as a matter of course, if a resident moves out voluntarily, he/she cannot receive the luggage because he/she leaves with it.

Super important! How to earn money

Of course, it is important to earn money by proceeding with government tasks, but that alone will inevitably lead to bankruptcy at the end of the project. Therefore, it is also important to use the evidence you have gathered to send threatening letters and extort residents. The amount of money you receive when you blackmail someone depends on the difficulty level, but this time it is $1,000 for the government official mode and $2,000 for the trainee mode. In the case of trainee mode, the amount is $2,000.

Residents who confirm the blackmail letter will put the money in a flowerpot at the entrance of their apartment.

Occasionally, a merchant named "Nathan Koehler" will appear in front of the apartment. If you talk to him, he will trade with you, allowing you to sell items you don't want or get items you need. Since he also sells illegal items here, you can do evil deeds such as collecting illegal items, planting them in residents' rooms, and then extorting them through self-made schemes. You can also turn reputation points into money by purchasing surveillance cameras sold in the government store for 350 reputation points, which you can resell to a merchant for $500.

Dramatic game reminiscent of the former Soviet Union

As the game is based on the motif of a totalitarian state, it was a great game to enjoy a worldview reminiscent of the former Soviet Union. In the game, the people are realistically portrayed as being at the mercy of the state through riots and propaganda battles.

The main character, as well as all the inhabitants, have their own stories, and the way they are portrayed is very dramatic. The residents' mumbled lines are also elaborate, and I enjoyed it as if I were watching a human drama. There are various options, such as which residents to move in, whether to inform on them or not, and how to clear the game is up to each player. It is a game that can be enjoyed in many different ways. If you are interested, why not give it a try?

As for the translation in the game, it seems to have been improved a lot since it was first released through a series of updates, and the game itself was not affected because it is within the range of being fully understandable. A sequel to this game, "Beholder 2," was also released last December. Unfortunately, the English version is now available from Steam, although the Japanese version is not yet supported.

Title Information

Beholder" by Warm Lamp Games
Released November 9, 2016
Price: 980 yen (as of June 7, 2019)
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Author：Suchimu Mana (Mina Tsujimura)

Writer and gamer at Office Mica. Her favorite game genres include sandbox survival games and horror games. Her style of game playing is a text-chatting game player who is afraid of VC players.

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