The destination is always the same, but there are a hundred different ways of getting there. It works nicely because it adds a sense of finality to your decisions and takes you off the rails. You have to balance working, looting, and spying on your coworkers while leaving enough time to watch TV and train your skills at home. Beholder 2 has three currencies: money, reputation, and time. It’s the one major weak spot of an otherwise fantastic experience.Īside from great character interactions, there’s also a unique twist on time management. All you can do is grind until you legitimately earn the promotion. You've helped others, but doomed yourself. You're encouraged to earn the promotion by "eliminating" colleagues, but befriending them doesn't trigger new tasks or dialogue options.
I played through several times because I could only see a single order of events that would finish the beta in a timely manner. Unfortunately, while there’s a lot of charm in befriending people, it closes off more options than it opens, at least in the beta. These outcomes are just as impactful because your actions bring a glimmer of hope to this greyscale totalitarian nightmare. You can, of course, befriend your coworkers instead. Good character writing makes you cringe, hesitate, and search for other options before making a decision that might embarrass someone.įriends are so rare in this world, people will give you all they have for a small act of kindness. Bad character writing makes it easy to slaughter entire towns of NPCs. It’s easy to empathize with these characters and their problems. Everyone has a distinct persona accompanied by a unique mumble. This is where Beholder 2 reveals its true genius.īy watching TV and asking around the office, you can befriend your three coworkers and other office personnel. You can do this by grinding through normal work days or, more attractively, by plotting against your coworkers. So what’s the goal here? You’re trying to get a promotion. Beholder 2 is a fully realized 3D world (still navigated on a single axis) populated by characters with physical and emotional depth. The art style has changed as much as the gameplay. Gone is the cutaway dollhouse and its paper people. While the first game was a 2.5D building manager/strategy hybrid set in a 1984 scenario, Beholder 2 is closer to a traditional adventure title supplemented by elements of strategy and time management. Few of these contenders are as spectacular as Beholder 2 who simultaneously brings delightful, innovative gameplay and some of the best character writing I’ve seen in a video game.įans of the original may be a little confused.
That’s why it’s always exciting to see an indie studio step up to challenge the status quo. Today, the traditional point and click genre is more often associated with pixel hunting and ridiculous leaps of logic. While Telltale is still king of adventure games, they've shifted toward powerful narratives with less emphasis on puzzle solving. The days where bestselling titles like Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max Hit the Road reigned are long behind us. With its eyestalks rotted away, ten spectral eyes hover above the creature and glare in all directions.ĭeath Tyrant for use in any epic adventure! Compatible with D&D and tabletop role-playing games.Adventure games are evolving.
A death tyrant appears as a massive, naked skull, with a pinpoint of red light gleaming in its hollow eye socket. This monster possesses the cunning and much of the magic it had in life, but it is fueled by the power of undeath. When such dreams take hold, a beholder can transform, its flesh sloughing away to leave a death tyrant behind. Join me on Patreon! On rare occasions, a beholder's sleeping mind drifts to places beyond its normal madness, imagining a reality in which it exists beyond death.
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