It was announced today by Alawar and Warm Lamp Games, that their dystopia simulator Beholder is now available on Steam for PC, Mac and Linux. Beholder puts you in the shoes of Carl, a state-installed Landlord tasked by a totalitarian State to spy on his tenants. You must eavesdrop, place wiretaps and cameras and search apartments in order unmask and report anyone that might be plotting subversion against the State.
Check out the gameplay trailer of Beholder, showcasing the games’ features:
“Beholder models a totalitarian State in a bleak dystopian future, where the player’s moral compass will be rigorously tested,” said Evgeny Sister, Producer at Alawar. “The State’s instructions are clear: report on any suspicious behavior. But what do you do when those actions threaten to leave two children fatherless? The game is filled with decisions like these where there is no right answer – only what feels right to the player.”
“As Carl, the landlord of an apartment house employed to serve the state, new tenants are moving in and out, and at first impression, your daily routine is simply to make the property attractive to its tenants. Little do they know that as a servant of the the state you have ulterior motives and will use any means available to observe, whether it’s spying, eavesdropping or wiretapping as you build tenant profiles to report any illegal activities to the authorities.
Inspired heavily by George Orwell’s groundbreaking 1984 the philosophical narrative of Beholder, opens up questions around issues of social and moral values. If you are given power to destroy privacy, should you follow the orders of the giver? Or should you treat those that you spy on the way they deserve? Who decides what is deserved? And what if two different people deserve to be saved, but one has to go? Who will you choose?”
For more information on Beholder, visit its Steam page.
Includes several titles.
Which was showcased at E3 2003.