Review: Beholder – Blissful Sleep DLC (2017)

Blissful Sleep is the first DLC for Beholder, the game developed by Warm Lamp Games. This time round however, it is a look back at Hector Medina, the man who Carl Shteyn (the character in the original) succeeded. You are returned to the dystopian world and faced with what are certainly tougher decisions with greater consequences.

The story begins in the same apartment building when Hector receives a call from the Ministry of Care about his 85^th birthday. What better way to celebrate your birthday than to be told you have served your country well, but now it is time to “let the country serve you”. With what you say? A cake? A solid pension? In fact the state is looking to save money on pensions by introducing a euthanasia programme. Pretty intense right…and to make the whole situation even worse, it isn’t even his 85^th birthday.

Not only that, you are told that government scientists have discovered a genetic breakthrough in their quest to find genetic purity. Therefore traitors are able to be identified by their DNA and can be rooted out by the police. Oh, and the police are picking Hector up in two weeks to take him to the euthanasia centre. To say the least, Warm Lamp Games just took the dystopian theme up a notch.

On a positive note, Hector has a cat you need to feed and look after…or not if you’re a dog person…The storyline follows a very similar vein to the main game. You are to find out as much information about your tenants as you can and report to the ministry on any illegal activities they may be performing. Possessing or drinking fruit juice is a serious crime people – keep an eye out. A series of tough choices flow through the dialogue and have pretty devastating results.

I tried to help a family save their little daughter and so had to decide how to best get some family records from my boss to do so. I had the choice of either paying him a shit tonne of money (which I didn’t have), getting the father to give his job to my boss’ nephew, or getting the mother to sleep with my boss. Needless to say what I chose didn’t end well. At all.

That said some of the storyline ended up confusing me. Another couple in the apartment above asked me to look after their son for a while whilst they were away. However, the six year old kid kept “catching” me in his apartment despite the fact I was looking after him and he kept throwing me out! I mean, I was stealing their stuff to make some money…but that was beside the point! The kid also, according to his bio, is a six year old who looks like “his” father but stays home with “her” mother.

As a DLC though, I did enjoy it. This could be due to me being instantly familiar with the gameplay and the harder choices in the game certainly made it more exciting. Despite being an interesting story, it offers a lot more of the same and feels rather slow paced. Missions seemed to be dished out slower and I found myself fast forwarding a fair bit.

In the end however, I ended up voluntarily going to the euthanasia centre rather than putting up a fight. This was because of a walkthrough break bug…I got caught stealing from another apartment (I promise I’m a good person IRL, honest) but this time I got caught stealing a quest item which unfortunately then disappeared from the game after being caught by the police who I had to bribe (again) to stay alive. I ended up having to call up the euthanasia centre and book myself in…it was that or fast forward until the police dragged me there anyway.