Now Playable: Beholder Demo by Warm Lamp Games
Developers Warm Lamp Games (WLG) released a playable demo on Steam of their upcoming release, Beholder.
If you’ve never heard of the studio before, that’s normal. They’re yet another up-and-coming indie crew, but this one has many talents on its hands. The demo looks and run beautifully, and with 11 artists on staff, you’d expect as much. That’s no small team in the indie realm.
They’re also from Siberia, and we’ll dare say it: Russian gaming isn’t just on the rise. It’s consistently defiant.
It seems that indie gaming is becoming a form of expression that goes somewhat unnoticed by government authorities, and consequently, leads the way for Russians that, if we'll believe what we see, seek to wave high a rebellious banner. Seek to change minds through arts and craft. That's not new, but it's almost always welcomed I'd dare say.
Yep, this isn’t the first title I noticed this year that, as an art form of expression, criticizes the country’s government and its modern history.
Beholder isn’t just dark, you see. It’s political. And me like.
WLG defined Beholder as a “totalitarian spying game,” where players are “tasked with rooting out subversion and anti-government sentiment among the tenants in their building, while constantly asking themselves the question: is this right?”
That fine line between right and wrong as a plot isn’t all that original you might say, but the demo you should download today (it’s free = you can’t lose), is. Don't expect the standardized spy game, indie-style. Carl, the protagonist, isn’t the decked out Double-Agent. He's your average little Soviet landlord spying on tenants. And WLG states:
You don't know where you'll end up: Beholder is a game of multiple endings. You will have enough info to consider and decide wisely but there is always something that you may not be aware of. Well, this is not a beautifully calibrated virtual reality! This is life! And it's real!
The game is inspired heavily by George Orwell’s 1984, and if you don’t know the book... Dude. Stop playing video games. Read a little?
Ok, I didn't actually mean that. Au-di-ble-dot-com. Because you can.
