Beholder: Conductor

I'm leaving a 'recommend' being reductive. It is an okay game, maybe fine at best. I find myself revisiting the series yet again, and for the last time regardless of how many more parts there might be. It does serve it's function of playing this cool musical motive and letting you profile, report and blackmail people. Their stories don't offer too much, yet again. At this point I am starting to doubt myself even liking the original Beholder (2016) that much to begin with. But I remain convinced that that game was somewhat special. Here we have some stories of the characters, but not really engaging. Not really offering much. The game even seems empty rather often. I was finding myself just going around talking to every character to find out - it is just empty space here and you should push the speed-up button till something happens, so I did. A lot I would say. I have no will to try to get different endings - I did three I think with reloading the last save the game gives you. Minimal effort one can undertake. I have no will to do achievements or my personal goals for what I thought would be cool to be achieved,, while playing. I just don't care and I'm sad and dissapointed about it. Even seven hours of my time seem really excessive as to what this game offers. Though I could see someone never playing anything in the series and finding here something new and fun for a few hours. Akin to watching The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) instead of Spider-Man (2002). You can do that. You might enjoy that, take away something from the experience, but it will be worse that what you could have had.

потратила 4 часа своей жизни чтобы меня растреляли как собаку иза того что не набрала 15000$ на взятку за 5 часов игрового времени, ахрененная игра про подглядывание в замочную скважену 10/10

Michelle... Need i say more ?

got the "you're a good man, winston smith" achievement cuz i didnt know we could steal things LMAO

TLDR: As an expansion this is decent, but I don’t think you should go into it if you haven’t played and enjoyed the games before it. [b][u]General Thoughts/Overview:[/u][/b] Beholder: Conductor (BC) is the latest in the Beholder series, and follows the same general themes. Dystopian surveillance state where we are the authoritarian spy. Gather information and report it up the chain for money and authority (a form of influence currency). Use these to buy resources for quests, or gather information if you have enough at specific dialogues, or spend it to avoid your fate if you get caught being naughty. And that’s the crux of the game. Fulfil quests, spy, report, and don’t get caught. [b][u]Pros:[/u][/b] [list][*] The ambience remains a real staple for the Beholder series, and BC is no different. The music, art, and general attitudes and personalities of the characters remains well entrenched and provide solid verisimilitude. [*] The core gameplay loop is satisfying, although this iteration feels somewhat half-baked compared to the others. It kinda just goes to show that the base idea is decent when even something stripped back still feels compelling. [*] The story is short and quite tight. The whole game is about 4 hours long, with a couple of runs necessary to 100% it – which is I don’t usually particularly like, but in this instance the branching narratives and meaningful choices actually make it feel quite different, and the short time makes it assessable. [/list] [b][u]Cons:[/u][/b] [list][*] There are a few choices which simply lock you out of various things, including a single choice which defines your survival at the end of the game, where it feels like it should complicate matters, but shouldn’t define the final ending. [*] As previously mentioned, BC feels quite undercooked. It seems to me that there was the basis for a lot more interactions, which just don’t take place. It also seems odd that you can spy and people just don’t care. The whole game feels like it has potential which just wasn’t met, but that the half formed parts thereof remain, leaving a sort of bloated but also empty feeling. It’s as if they stripped out a bunch of quests and mechanics but left in the assets for them, giving you a lot of useless stuff. [*] The manual inputs for each passenger EVERYTIME is frustrating. I could get behind having to compose each file once, and then just adding to it after. Every time though, is frustrating. [/list] [b][u]Suggested improvements:[/u][/b] [list][*] I feel like decoration and service mechanics were stripped out. The potential was there. Possibly giving each carriage a service and quality rating, with different passengers with different needs. Hard to say, but I feel like that would have given the game a little more mechanical depth, as well as ways to generate more information. [*] I feel like there should be a greater need for secrecy, I know everyone knows everyone is watching… but it just doesn’t feel like there are any consequences for getting caught, except for rummaging in peoples luggage. [*] There needs to be more ways to complete that final objective. I dislike being pulled into the two paths. It feels like you should be able to learn more, do more, use more authority, have things done in different ways… It feels like this was planned and just never came through. [/list] [b][u]Overall Recommendation:[/u][/b] This is actually a tough one to recommend. On the one hand I do think it’s a decent addition to the Beholder series, and it’s a good offering of that dystopian voyeuristic surveillance 1984 charm… but as a standalone game? On its own merit? I don’t think this stands up. I recommend BC to people who enjoyed the first couple of games. I recommend it to people who enjoy games with meaningful choices, and I recommend this to people who enjoy dystopian settings. I do not recommend this to people looking for a power trip, bangbangwizzpop, or a happy story in a colourful world. Ultimately I do give this the thumbs up, tentatively. I love the world, the style, the ambiance, and the story. However I strongly recommend you only pick this up as an expansion if you enjoyed the first games, while it might just about stand on its own two feet, it isn’t anywhere near as strong as the other games in the series, and I don’t think it makes a good introductory point. [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44852412/]My curator page[/url] with reviews by genre. In case you want to find more games, or even reviews, like this one.

Michelle made it 11/10

Beholder Conductor - очень простая по сравнению с остальными играми серии часть, что является лично для меня огромным плюсом, ведь если ты сам не хочешь выполнять доп. задания - можешь не делать и игра тебя не накажет. Да, возможно в начале будет чувствоваться давление, но оно быстро пройдёт, продвигаясь по сюжету. Решение сделать игру пиксельной однозначно делает её второй после первой части самой стильной для меня. Музыка хороша, персонажи запоминаются и сам сюжет привлекает. В эту часть можно спокойно зайти расслабиться и просто побыть контролёром в такой атмосфере. Слава Вождю! -Гос. аппарат.