The Eye Of The Beholder

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I had just finished typing my report to send to the system, stating that one of my tenants of my apartment complex had broken the law. It was about time he faced the consequences of his actions. This is Beholder, a game where you play a landlord in a totalitarian state with an unforgiving judicial system. The law this man had broken put him under the upmost scrutiny. After searching his apartment while he was at work I discovered he owned an object, contraband. He owned jeans. Now, per article 4040, it states that jeans are illegal and all owners of such items are subject to conviction and will be arrested immediately. After reporting the instance of ownership of the paraphernalia the police swiftly arrived, searched his apartment, beat him and threw him in the cruiser.

(This is my apartment complex)

Beholder is a game with impactful decisions that could result in your arrest, death and even the deaths of your family members. You must sneak around, gather information, help your tenants and sometimes even blackmail them so you can make some more money. With all of the chaos going on around you it’s difficult to manage everything in order to keep your job and to keep the people you care about alive.

(I can't wait to never sleep)

The game starts off with you, Carl Stein, receiving news that you are now the landlord of a tenement and you must report there immediately. Once you get there you discuss what your role is with your new boss. Essentially, you are supposed to report when people break the laws and give the government any information you find on the people living in the complex. You also have full permission to ascertain information on the people living there and their habits in anyway necessary. This could be by asking them things. By helping them to get info on other people, spying on them, monitoring them with cameras in their apartments and even ransacking their stuff to see what contraband they might have.

(The price to pay when you own jeans)

I began my investigations by finding information on one of the tenants who “The Ministry” had asked me to find information on. Not long after raiding his room and setting up a camera to monitor him, the camera found something interesting. It turned out that in the confines of his home he was making drugs. This was not to be tolerated by The Ministry let alone me, Carl Stein, a father of 2. I quickly proceeded to evaluate him and write a report using the evidence I had gathered to prove what he had done. Almost immediately the police arrived. Of course, they found what they were looking for and proceeded to beat the man. I came out to the stoop and watched as he was dragged away, his fate sealed by the ink of my pen. Now this guy had said pushed my character's daughter down the stairs, and threatened his son and wife. He deserved what he got, no doubt about it. I would soon find that The Ministry wanted other people behind bars, innocent people. The question was would I stoop to their level and do their bidding.

(Carl Stein The Matchmaker)

The answer, well, obviously, it’s no. I couldn’t frame innocents regardless of what my superiors told me. I later met the couple they wanted me to report, The Schimmer’s. They were a middle-aged couple, the husband used to be the landlord of the apartment. Being the super nice landlord I decided to take it upon myself to warn them of what I had been told to do. I was quickly asked to get them some documents to help them leave the country. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the only problem I had to deal with.

(Eyes of a hawk on this guy)

I later discovered my son needed funds to stay in school and my young daughter was incredibly ill and if she did not receive medical attention she could die. After just an hour or so of playing my plate quickly began to fill up with tasks, many of which had consequences that could be drastic. Beholder already had me guessing what do and how it was even possible to help everyone, it didn’t take long to find out that helping everyone was impossible.

(It was too late for me to blackmail my tenants)

Perhaps one of my favorite portions of the game is the ability to take evidence of crimes and use it to blackmail the perpetrators. Now, when you must raise $20,000 to get medicine most people would do anything in their power to get that money. It turns out one of the best ways to consistently raise money is to have people pay for your silence or else you’ll throw them in jail. I tried the best I could to not betray the trust of others in my journey but the only way to save my daughter was to abuse my power, just a little bit.

(This lady killed me with a blowgun!)

In Beholder, you are forced into several instances where you are forced to make choices that could lead you in the right direction, or to your death. After playing through and dying several times I managed to get several hours in without losing. Being placed into the role of overseer wasn’t something I was sure would be that entertaining. However, I am addicted to this game so far and can’t wait to get to the end and see how all my decisions impact the conclusion of Carl Stein’s story.