Beholder

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 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.

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.

Beholder's dystopian world provides a grimly satisfying management playground to work in. It's got plenty of heart – albeit a rather scorched black one – and it forces you into making genuinely interesting moral and ethical decisions, which should be enough to see you through the tiresome grind, muddled signposting and rather flakey controls.

The Soviet Union was a beast whose shadow darkened most of the globe for almost 50 years. Even if you weren’t alive at the time, the USSR’s mark is all over the period’s popular culture. Beholder offers a look at that world rooted in the people and their daily lives. Rather than the usual assortment of spies and soldiers, Beholder puts you in the shoes of a landlord.

Become what you behold.

When a game wants you to toss aside your morals for the greater good.

Chris McAuley looks at Beholder, a game currently available in the Utomik Library and asks himself is he a good man as he spies on his tennants.