Totally totalitarian… Beholder
The authors of the game "Beholder" were inspired by George Orwell's novel "1984". In the game we find ourselves in a totalitarian world where our every step is controlled by Big Brother. We play the role of a building manager named Carl, who is tasked with supervising and even supervising the tenants. So the character is straight out of Orwell...
We start the game by moving into a building that we will be in charge of managing. We live in it with our family, i.e. with wife Anna and two children – six-year-old Martha and XNUMX-year-old Patrick. The apartment is unprepossessing, even gloomy, like the rest of the apartment building, besides, it is located in the basement.
The start seems pretty simple. We need to collect information about tenants, incl. by secretly installing cameras in someone's apartment or breaking into apartments - of course, in the absence of residents. After completing the assigned tasks, we are obliged to prepare a report or call the ministry. And, as happens in a totalitarian world, these reports lead, among other things, to the arrival of the police at the apartment of the person to whom we sent a statement earlier ...
The deeper we dive into the game, the more difficult it seems to be. And from the very beginning, we have in the back of our heads the realization that if we “fail”, our entire family will die. As happened to his predecessors in this post.
It is unlikely that anyone has the character of an informer, and our employer expects this from us and pays us for it. Therefore, moral dilemmas quickly arise, and daily duties can become increasingly difficult. In my opinion, this is a game for people who are not prone to depression, because, to be honest, I succeeded a little. The illness of the daughter, the son who wants to study so as not to work as a miner, and the choice of which is more important: the health of the child or the happiness of the son ... because there is no money for both - these are just some of the many problems that the protagonist has to face, in which we play. Our Carl is reminiscent of an SB agent from the times of communism, and intolerance of disobedience to the authorities, for which one could go to jail or even die, are realities taken straight from those inglorious times.
At the beginning of the game, I tried to obey all the orders of my superiors, but the more kindness I experienced from the residents, the more difficult the role I had to play. I could not refuse to help a neighbor who gave me many expensive textbooks for her son. To get money for my daughter's treatment, I sold canned food, which my bosses didn't like. I was arrested for disobedience, and in the end my family actually paid for it with their lives. Phew, but luckily it's just a virtual world and I can always start over.
This interesting, maybe a bit controversial game has received a lot of recognition around the world. Interesting, gloomy graphics, great music and an interesting plot, we will surely like it too. It can also be seen as a history lesson that will make it easier for us to understand the dilemmas our parents faced while living under communism.
The Polish version of the game was introduced to our market by Techland - now it is available on store shelves. I think it’s worth reaching out to at least to feel the atmosphere of antiquity.
