Developer: Warm Lamp Games
Publisher: Curve Digital
Platform: PS4, Xbox One, Switch
Tested on: Switch
Beholder: Complete Edition – Review
Beholder was first released the 9th of November 2016 and received a lot of positive reviews. A while later it was released for iOS and Android. Then in May 2017 the DLC “Blissful Sleep” was released. Now not too long ago, Beholder: Complete Edition was released on the Nintendo Switch, which already included the DLC. Beholder: Complete Edition was developed by Warm Lamp Games and Published by Curve Digital and we got a chance to review it. In Beholder you play as Carl who is a newly appointed landlord of an apartment block. Pressured by the government he will have to keep an eye on his tenants but it still stays his/your choice on what information you pass through.
Story
Carl Stein has been appointed the landlord of a class D apartment block. He and his family have been given the first floor of the block for as long as Carl does what the government desires. Carl has also been injected with an experimental drug which causes him to not need sleep. This makes it so that he will be able to serve his motherland even better.
This information is all sent to Carl in a letter. At the start of the game, you see Carl with his wife and two kids on the train on the way to the apartment block on Krushvice 6. While a voice reads the letter out loud, we see fragments of Carl and his family with flashes of a man being a beaten up in-between. Later it is revealed that the man was the previous landlord. You get information mostly at the start but bits and pieces about the kind of country/world Carl lives in is also revealed by talking to the residents, completing assignments and reading government operatives. You will also be able to find out more about the residents’ story as well as Carl’s the more you go on. So the story is progressed pretty nicely depending on how much you pay attention to things that are said.
Graphics
Overall, Beholder has a pretty gloomy design which fits in perfectly with the world it’s set in. All the characters have a basic black shape with white, greyish details added to that. The apartment is more colourful on the inside, with all the different furniture and rooms nicely designed. The outside looks gloomier and greyish like most roads and apartment blocks. It is possible to go in some backrooms in the apartments which isn’t all that clear in the design but you notice it when you accidentally go back too much.
Beholder is mostly 2D and feels as if you’re looking into a doll house. You can either zoom in or look at the apartment block in full. It also has the feel as if you’re looking at the game trough a camera monitor which might be what the developers were going for. The tabs that you have to look at your objectives and such, really look like tabs from a notebook which is a nice touch.
Sound
Music in Beholder is instrumental and dreary with sometimes an urgent undertone, dramatic effect or just calming effect. The gloominess of the music fits in perfectly with the game, it’s also pretty calming at times. It’s music that you wouldn’t mind having in the background while playing.
Sound effects are pretty well done, with a few important ones included. Some sound effects warn you of certain things that you would otherwise also need to keep paying visual attention to. There is a small bit of voice acting present at the start of Beholder. Residents talking actually sounds like a non-existent language is spoken. Although when Carl talks to someone for some strange reason the talking sound effects aren’t used.
Gameplay
Beholder is a strategy simulation game where you play as the landlord, Carl Stein, of an apartment block that has to keep an eye on his tenants. The government has given Carl a chance to prove himself by spying on his tenants and reporting suspicious behaviour. While Carl does good work and finishes his assignments, he and his family can stay in the apartment on the first floor. He also gets paid well, can put food on the table and his son can go to the university. However, if he doesn’t do what the government desires then he will be thrown in jail and there is no telling what would happen to his family.
Carl has a limited time to finish his assignments from the government. He will have to call in to receive his objective and from then on a timer will appear on screen. With Carl, you will be able to go everywhere in the apartment block, however the residents don’t like you snooping around in their apartment so they will kick you out if they discover you. You start out with only a few residents but after you’ve collected enough money, you will be able to repair apartments and get more residents. This makes it trickier to keep an eye on them though. Once you’ve gotten an assignment which mostly is about a specific resident, there are a few sub-objectives that you will have to complete. Once you’ve completed these, you can make a report or a profile about a resident. You’ll then complete the task and will have to call the government to let them know and to get a new task.
Completing objectives can have you do different things but it mostly comes back to: searching the resident’s apartment, talking to the residents and keeping an eye on the resident by placing cameras. Placing cameras and searching the apartment can logically only be done when the resident is away. If you want to place cameras, you’ll have to buy them from the shop first. There are three different cameras you can buy, each one a bit more expensive than the other. That they are more expensive is because they offer a wider view. You will have to start out with the smaller view since that is about all you can afford until you complete more government tasks.
Residents will sometimes also ask for help, including your family. So to keep them happy and also earn a bit of extra cash on the side, you can complete their tasks. Most of the time it is quite clear what the residents want but it’s not always easy to get. There also seems to be a weird thing where a resident asks you to search his home for something but still doesn’t want you in his home, which doesn’t really make sense. Searching homes is done when residents aren’t home. When you find something you need, you can easily spot it since at the bottom of the explanation of the item, there is some red text. When you find the item you press “y” and it adds it to the resident’s profile. If you talk to residents and they give you useful information, it automatically gets added to the profile of the resident it is about.
Beholder isn’t that hard to understand how the game works but sometimes it is hard to get your timing right. Residents go to work, go to eat and go do laundry. Those are the only times they leave their apartment so you’ll have to time your entry right. Luckily you can zoom out a bit to keep an eye on the residents their return but often it’s quite a rush to get everything done in time. It’s good that there is an easier option to start with for beginners, so you can learn the game a bit, without getting punished as heavily for mistakes. There is a strategy to what you tell the residents and what you report to the government. You get a choice as to what you report. Sometimes being a “good guy” doesn’t always mean listening to the law. When Carl and his family arrived you saw the previous landlord getting dragged off. In the DLC that was included in Beholder: Complete Edition, you get to play as that landlord and find out what really happened.
Conclusion
Beholder is a really fun game and with Beholder: Complete Edition you even get more gameplay with the DLC. It’s good that Beholder has an easier option to start with since as a beginner it can be tricky to get your timing right and to find everything the government wants. It’s quite exciting to be a bit of a spy and to secretly break into resident’s apartments. Beholder: Complete Edition is definitely a must-have for the Switch and other platforms. The Switch adds that little extra of being able to bring it anywhere and spy on people wherever you go.
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