Beholder: Conductor

Fun but short game.
Really enjoyed it, the atmosphere of Beholder games is always heavy, makes for such good games.

I enjoyed this game's visuals and music a lot. I like that the game can be finished within a few days unlike others that require more of a long term commitment. I will say that it feels like some content was to be added but didn't make it into the final release. I hope that an update or DLC will make it more detailed to the extent that Beholder 2 was which was however a longer game with more extensive character backstories and interactions.

Игра для любителей тоталитарного режима и любовной истории международного посла и женщины вождя

I don't like that a big part of the game is failing and then replaying, also first class feels kind of rough if you didn't blackmail anyone but reported them instead. Having two passengers access the two unlocked doors basically sending you down a failure spiral.

Frustrating, unfortunately.

The game has a fascinating setting, and it truly shines in that regard. However, the execution is poor. Three examples:

- There are far too few passengers for absurdly high objectives. 20,000 reputation or 15,000 dollars... how the hell is that supposed to be achievable without bending over backward and wiggling your ears while simultaneously guessing the next prime number?! It's just not. If you don't have enough passengers, it's simply impossible. And as for trying to jump through hoops... the 90s, where you had to pop some pills to solve crude puzzles by sheer chance, are over. Just no!

- The puzzles are illogical. For instance, an activist gives you a letter and asks you to deliver it to someone in 1st class. But the door is locked and stays locked unless you somehow manage to reach that absurdly high objective. There seem to be no alternatives. The door remains shut, and there are no hints for the puzzle, not on the item itself or from the quest giver. THEN DELIVER YOUR DAMN LETTER ON YOUR OWN! That would be the best response to throw at an NPC like that... but no, you have to accept the quest, otherwise the already absurd goal gets even further away than Oslo is from India.

- Regarding the controls: again, the 90s are over, and they figured this out back in Command & Conquer 1 (a real-time strategy game, wow) => move the mouse to the edge of the screen, and the camera follows. Was that so hard to develop? You have to laboriously drag the camera around with the arrow keys. Far too often, you're fighting the controls more than the puzzles. The result: your character is somewhere too far to the left or right.

It's a shame. The game does everything right in terms of the series' usual formula and its setting. Once again, you have to spy and make difficult decisions. But this time, it's just not fun. The game fails here – a great idea on paper, but due to the reasons mentioned above, it falls flat with its more than flimsy quest design and execution. Since I was otherwise satisfied with the series, this is all the more disappointing. I do not recommend buying it and suggest sticking to the predecessors instead.

Its a good game but its short. I enjoyed rifling through people's things and reporting people who I didnt like. However, the direction of the game is a bit unclear. I think they had two visions for the title and they didnt choose either and that got in the way of executing either of them to a higher level. The game is enjoyable for what it is, if you like papers please and want a short story with that kind of gameplay then this is for you. This game will have you checking tickets, spying on people, reporting and or blackmailing them. I think if the developers would have gone with either a fully randomized set of characters that are auto generated with some short storylines then the game would have been great as the gameplay can be expanded to match it. Or they could have went with a story driven game that had multiple acts that gave time to show the disparity between the different people on the train, also they should have made your spying more intentional as opposed to just something that you do just to get by. There are never any threats to you as there are no random weapon searches as far as I know. You hardly catch people doing illegal things in their rooms. The scenery although very beautiful is only tertiary to the train which is a bummer as that red bridge with the flooded houses made me feel like I wanted to live there. I hope they make a sequel or at least take some of the ideas they had for this game and make another entirely different one. I definitely enjoy police state games, I bought this on a whim and I don't regret it. Just know its kind of short and could have had a more intentional direction, as it sits now its in between the two and its good for a play through but most likely you wont want to replay it again as the story is short and memorable. I'll definitely be waiting until I forget the story so I can play it again.

I loved this game !!! not too hard, simple and just mwah ! Only thing is I might go back and replay to get new endings or on different difficulty but it is a little repetitive with the guests and beginning. I skipped the tutorial but you still have to go through very slow paced beginning, I wish there was a way to jump in (maybe I don't know tbh)

Very nice game for those who love dystopian setting, conspirancy and non-linear narrative. Lovely pixel art, great soundtrack & sound design, nice pacing and unexpected ending. Wish it was a bit longer, but it has high replay value so it's not a big problem.

I don't like this as much as the original Beholder, but it's more of the same universe and gameplay.

I decided to start getting to know the game series "beholder" from this part and i'm prity glad with such expirience. I like pixel style and gameplay, story of the game is good. I spended a good time and recive planty emotions, thx for the game

It can be considered the best part of the Beholder game series. The graphics have improved, the gameplay is engaging, and the lack of mercy meets the expectations when playing Beholder. The interesting storylines, especially the tutorial, stand out. However, it feels easier than Beholder 1. The items and tasks simply involve accepting a mission, going to buy, and then completing the task. In the end, this game is still very enjoyable. Sorry if my English is not native, so it feels a bit lifeless.

I was as horrific and as much of a state cog as possible. This game taught me that you make infinite money and can do anything you want and ruin people for no reason at all and still get the best ending and be a good guy. I guess. The game is essentially predicated on the concept that the little people are totally meaningless and can be sacrificed for power, and that's the best thing to do because you're more important. Not sure that's the message the dev meant to send but it's the one I got after ending up with 40K more money and authority than I could feasibly spend.

really amazing game. captures the feel of the original while also being its own thing. i'm loving the new artstyle too. good story and music with some challenges that make it worth replaying for a better outcome

This game was f*cking good. Got very attached to the characters and the storyline's amazing. I felt so fulfilled at the end, getting the Best Ending (with the cat). Moreover, everything seemed connected in a way, maybe that's just me.

The setting captures the totalitarian setting and the class division between the rich and ordinary people very well. Furthermore, achievements are pretty easy to get, though there are some that are harder and require their own playthrough as 'Snitches get Stitches' (and some I can't endure to do with my conscience clear like 'Stowaway').

There're only two minor things I'll complain about. The first thing is that you can't save when you want to, as the game only autosaves when you arrive at stations. This makes it pretty annoying when you're between them and you've already done so much after you left the station or when you HAVE TO get something from the Black Market to complete a quest, but you leave the game, cme back the other day and forget to do it, so you have to come back.

The second minor thing are the abrupt soundtrack transitions. I'm not talking about the transition when you search luggage here or any other that is normal to ahve an abrupt shift, but when you get into a dialogue that shifts the music or when something happens and the music's gotta reflect that, the transition should be less noticeable, more fluid, to remain in the background.

Overall, the game's very good. From what I've seen from the other Beholder titles' gameplay, Beholder Conductor's 2d Artstyle of everything is to my liking more. To add one more thing, good job, devs, you made me attached to another fictional character..

9/10

the initial bit is really great though it does get a little boring later on in the game as the events and feel more and more generic up until the very end which is unique in its own where there are many outcomes that come from the final destination alone. You can speed up the game for longer train rides when theres nothing to do though, so thats a plus. also you can get a cat lol

well.. i bought this and got what i expected, a solid game **though** its not without its flaws.
The story is a little predictable and the game lacks any... long staying power at this time. The story mode is the only mode and there isn't any randomisation when it comes to the passengers.
But overall the game isn't bad, its fun. The mechanics are interesting, the morality is fun and the struggle is interesting.
Sadly though, like i said there's no randomisation or an endless mode.

Fun game if you like'd papers please type games, i enjoyed it but there were a lot of bugs, so I think its a bit pricey all things considered.

My issues include the ending cutscenes not progressing (bug), for mac gameplay there isn't a way to zoom out without a mouse, no controls guide etc.

I also feel like there could be some more content / quests bc a lot of time is spent just waiting around for the story to progress. It would also be better if using your authority to find out what the sarge is doing could actually impact the ending, like if he gets arrested etc.

Still enjoyed playing it though!~ I like the graphics and the way the character models have such fluid motions despite being pixelated.

Sadly cannot recommende this game as it feels like a straight downgrade from the other entries. It honestly feels like a dlc that takes place in a train, where the decisions you take don't feel like there is any consequences, with a scenario so straightforward I almost finished it in under 5 hours. Don't buy it at full price and wait for it to drop to 4 or 5€

It's really fun, but I can't recommend this game in it's current state. The cat will ruin your run, being a good person ruins the run, the promotion quota is way too hard, etc.

Keeping the cat means $1500 every few stops, -2000AP every few stops, meaning both the original AP cost of the promotion is null, and the backup bribe option is null. Helping people costs $ and gives 0 AP. It just doesn't work for the players experience. It's designed to make you play multiple times and only do certain things every run, and that isn't what me and everyone I know would want to do; play the game 10+ times just to see one interaction and achievement.

I replayed an hour of the game in order to sleep with Michelle and then immediately sold her to the police for singing

If that's not sacrifice, I don't know what is

Even after the disappointment of Beholder 3, I was still excited to see a new Beholder game released. After 1 and 2 and the DLC, I knew that the developer could make some amazing games and had a lot of hope that they would listen to the feedback given by players. and imo, they did.

Great visuals, great audio, and I had absolutely no bugs or control issues during my playthrough. One of my favourite shifts between the first and second game was the subtle graphic changes that kept the style but made each version feel so completely its own. First was very classic, felt like it was building a framework for the world through the lens of a very grounded setting. Second was so grandiose in comparison. The new rendering made everything feel so much bigger, and added so much perspective. You couldn't get much bigger, in my opinion. After all, thats the state! what's bigger than the propaganda machine itself? I feel like that's why 3 didn't work. 2 games rammed into one, it felt like a backwards step. I also think that's why it was so buggy. tried to do too much with two styles that just didn't fit right.

This 'spinoff' could quite easily have replaced the 3rd game in the series, and I would've been happy. Conspiratorial and very, very lonely- it once again opened a new set of eyes on the world the developer has built. which honestly is the strongest part of these games, the world building. First game felt cramped, second felt crowded. This one felt so isolated. There was so much paranoia about who to trust, about where to put your feet, what you should be doing. The constant movement and visualisation of the 'end of the line' really really made me feel like I was gonna run off the edge of the world. The revamped, more pixellated design worked beautifully with that atmosphere. Slightly dehumanised. Censored. Just a little off.

I played on Elite mode and honestly it was fine. If you're familiar with the game, you know that a successful first playthrough is often about making the desperate choices you would have to irl. There's no playing the hero, and playing the villain doesn't get you much further. It's a balance I really enjoy maintaining, as It helps me connect with my sprite. Really liked the option to reload at each saved platform though, I think i would've ragequit a few times if I didn't have that option. It can be a litttllee slow when ur not sure what to do, but I never felt like I was stuck and I never got bored. And I get bored way too easy.

Annnyyywaay I really enjoyed this : -) ran thru it in a single sitting and never once got tired. Worth the price and definitely has replay-ability. So glad to see this kind of experimentation again. I'll be buzzin for any more releases in the future !

It's okay but they never really got to the level of 1st game, surely better than beholder 2 and 3, although a little short. I would recommend waiting for a sale with this one

I really liked it. Especially that the game is very reminiscent of the first beloved part of the series. New mechanics only improve the gameplay!

it has sooo much potential but the way it is now, meh. there's not nearly enough passengers. the longer the game goes the easier it gets. and the extra characters like cooks or the bartenders are almost completely useless. and they dont react to certain key situations, no extra dialog or pathways to the story, nothing. I think a fix to this is a free mode after you beat the game to conduct the train in a free mode back and forth and dealing with different passengers (a lot more than the main game has to offer) and situations. and for a real challenge conduct the whole train with many different passengers showing up and leaving at each station. in short the game feels very incomplete, but I really appreciate what I got for the cost. the game is good but its not great.

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☐ Decent
☑ Good
☐ Bad
☐ Don’t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma

---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☑ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☑ Old Fashioned
☐ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data

---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☑ Easy
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☑ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding

---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☑ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life

---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☑ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond

---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{ Bugs }---
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

---{ Overall }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☑ 8
☐ 8.5
☐ 9
☐ 10

The game should really tell you in the beginning that there are only a limited number of passengers, each pre-scripted to arrive on particular stops. I didn't know this, and I just kicked every passenger as soon as I found that they were violating something. I don't understand why, aside from a handful of passengers, most passengers can be reported and kicked off the train? I am incentivized through game mechanics to farm money and authority, and the most convenient way to do this is to make character summaries and report violations like in papers please. And yet by doing this I miss out on story quests, which are also a main source of income and authority, and a brunt of the game's content.

Why am I effectively punished for reporting illegal activity? It's too easy to be the "good guy" in this game. There are also some shallow story elements and strange mechanics. I lost 3000 authority because for some reason my evidence was not appropriate for blue button passenger analysis. I also never heard from the people who I had to bribe in the beginning of the game. The prison / storage train compartment is never used beyond the beginning of the game. People I report simply vanish into thin air, and there is no such mechanic to interview them as prisoners before they get sent off on the next stop.

I think this game is mediocre at best. It should pick a lane. Are the mechanical puzzles like reviewing tickets and finding illegal items the focus, or is story and getting to know each individual character more important? This was unclear throughout my playthrough. Games like Papers Please and Not Tonight seemlessly combine these two things, but this game does not.

i love beholder and the beholder series. i would love to see a game set in the world where you run the city. issuing orders for crackdowns and setting up checkpoints. etc etc. i think it would be fun.

orang cat cost me a liver and lung for food and reputation but worth the ending slide

the game looks interesting, but it needs to fix at least the most obvious bugs. At some point it just broken - the train didn't start, timer stopper at 00:00. The only way to fix it was to load few stations back and play again. And that's really terrible. Why there aren't any button, lever - literally anything that would force the train to move? And yeah, as always it happens at 2.1 hrs, right after the refund time. Well, i'll just hope that they would fix things like this, because game looks promising.

Solid game wish there was more content or dlc because its very fun

Positives:
- great animation
- pleasant gameplay
- likable characters
- great music
- pretty cool story
- Peter
- cat

Negatives:
- too much gooner bait for my taste (I'd forgive it if there was more Peter content)
- too little Peter I Lovehim

I've been a fan of the Beholder franchise from the very beginning—the graphics, the story that shows you how being a "good person" doesn't always lead to the best outcome or benefit anyone, and the overall tragedy. The first Beholder game was peak, and I recommend it to everyone.

I remember when Beholder 2 came out—I was really surprised by the new 3D-style graphics. (I had a really crappy laptop back then, and playing the game was a nightmare, constant lagging, lol.) Still, I thought it was just as good as the first. You could tell the creators wanted to maintain the same vibe without simply copying the original. Beholder 2 was peak as well.

I can’t say much about Beholder 3 because I honestly don’t remember anything about it. I’ve played it, but my mind has completely erased the plot and everything else. Judging by the reviews, maybe there’s a reason for that.

Three days ago, I was browsing Steam for new games and stumbled upon Beholder: Conductor. I was really surprised—I hadn’t heard anything about a new Beholder game, but it was a pleasant surprise. I bought it, I played it, and… it was disappointing.

The game is short, the characters and their stories/quests are forgettable, and to be honest—your choices don’t matter. You can be a “good guy” throughout the whole game and still end up with a bad ending, or be a “bad guy” and get a good one. No matter what you do or how you act, the only real choice that matters is the one at the end.

It was nice to see another Beholder game now that I'm older, but as a longtime fan of the franchise—it just wasn’t good.

Having finished my playthrough, I can confirm Beholder Conductor is a good return to the series’ roots. It borrows a lot from the original game arresting, blackmailing, and the general themes all feel very much the same. But honestly, that’s not a bad thing if you ask me. Instead of trying new mechanics that don’t quite work, it focused on what made the original great and having played and watched all the Beholder games, I can say it worked out.

One thing I also want to highlight is the difficulty. For context, I played on the "Government Elite" setting (Hard), and it was actually challenging in a good way. I needed to plan ahead, pay close attention to what passengers were saying, and be smart about how I spent my money and authority points. Unlike Beholder 2, this game made you stop and think analyzing your next move instead of just going through blindly clicking every dialogue options, it actually punishes you for what you say/do which added a layer of strategy that really fits the tone of the game.

Wrapping it up, If you didn’t enjoy Beholder 2 or 3, I’d strongly recommend giving this one a try. It goes back to what made the series great.

Positives:
- The game is very graphically pleasing.
- The story, even though maybe a bit flat and absurd, fits within the game.
- Characters are well written.
- For you gooners, there's fully animated sex and sexy waitresses.
- Reappearing characters with influencable story.
- The game isn't buggy from what I've seen.
- Satisfying ending.
Negatives
- SHORT AS HELL
- Story a bit cheesy
Overall, tottaly worth the $10. The characters are nice, there are reappearing characters, allowing us to get closure from previous arcs. The game fits well within the universe. Characters are very likeable, even though we don't have much time to spend with them. I quickly fell in love with michelle and wanted to protect her. I was ready to face all the fines for protecting my kitty, and I immadietely hated Major Sargas, or as I called him, "Major Hitler". I felt strong connection to Peter and wanted to make sure he gets a good ending and many other feelings toward other characters that I don't wish to spoil. I recommend playing. (Oh and btw, do NOT carry a gun in 1st class)

I was excited for this game to come out as I have been an avid enjoyer of the beholder series, playing it across multiple platforms. While this game takes on a new style of having us be a train conductor, I can say that this is definitely not one of my favorite games of the series.

My first gripe with this game is that there is no save button. You have to rely on the games auto-saves and figure out where the loads will put you. I have had to write timestamps down to try and remember which save makes sense for what I want to do.

As another review had mentioned, the characters lack the lore and background that they had in previous games. While it was nice and exciting to see some previous characters, I felt like the new characters were place holders. In the previous games, blackmailing and reporting your tenants felt harder to do because you got to learn about them, and help them through meaningful quests. That was not felt here, if anything I felt like a delivery driver just bringing the passengers their batteries and vodka. Simply not doing their tasks did not cause any damage or anything meaningful to happen as they would just give you another random one. They also do not share much information about themselves unless you get their task which even then is just a brief interaction on why they needed batteries. The other passengers ignore you all together by not even letting you talk to them in general.

I played on the harder difficulty as I do in all of the games. The quests were making multi-tasking in the game difficult. When I have to make 20k authority within an in-game week while also dealing with quests that only offer you 100 authority is really stressful and tedious. When you do not get enough authority, being forced to come up with thousands of dollars in a few minutes (Especially since you need to report lots of them) is frustrating and almost mind numbing. Because you need to get so much authority by getting rid of passengers for having the contraband, you lose on so much story and quests that you have no idea that you need. It seems like following the missions makes you lose authority or money in some way, so you are constantly facing a game over.

While the beginning does a good job of introducing the player into what they need to be doing, later in the game you do not get the same support. You are often left confused and having to go back to the previously poorly timed saves to hope you can do it. I have had to restart the game multiple times due to that, and the glitches I was experiencing.

The game does have some interesting additions that I do like. I like the searching mechanic of this game. The fact that you have to put the items back in the right order is really nice and makes you pay attention to their belongings more. I loved the pet option, although, I feel like more could have been done with that like in the previous games.

Overall would I recommend this game? In its current state, no. Just play the old games. While the company is putting updates, I feel like it might take some time to get it in a playable and polished state. Even if they could add a saving feature that would help tremendously.

it definitely doesn't live up to the first 2 games and id even call it early access with how little the story diverges and how empty it feels but i still had fun. i found it to be a bit TOO grindy and constricting on elite and found myself enjoying the game way more on intern where authority and money allowed me to explore everything but elite mode is fun too if that's what you like about Beholder and you're not trying for achievements

As a huge fan of the Beholder series, I can honestly say Beholder: Conduct is the best installment yet. I've been in love with the world of Beholder from the very beginning — its dark atmosphere, tough choices, and haunting storytelling always pulled me in. But Conduct takes everything I love and pushes it even further.

The new mechanics, the deeper moral dilemmas, and the incredible attention to detail make this part stand out in every way. It feels like the developers truly listened to longtime fans and delivered a game that’s not only challenging but emotionally powerful. I found myself completely immersed, questioning every decision, and caring about every character.

If you're already a fan of Beholder, this will absolutely blow you away. And if you're new to the series, this is the perfect reason to jump in. Beholder: Conduct isn't just a game — it’s an experience you won’t forget.

Very similar to Beholder 2 in a linear story line as you coast in the train, but has a lot of replay-ability like all the other games in this series. Intern mode is perfect if you're new and elite official mode gives forces you to make harder choices with your limited money and authority. Highly recommend, especially if you liked any of the other Beholder games, though I do feel like getting a good ending is easier in this game like Beholder 2 than in Beholder 1 or 3 which had harder choices and ambiguously good endings.

Now THIS is Beholder! I own all the Beholder games and I just bought this one. I've got 3 hours in and I'm hooked. I didn't care for the third beholder so much so it is nice to get back into what I loved about the first and second.

I beat the first act with pretty much everyone locked up.
the 2nd act seemed to get softlocked or something, none of the quest items were available in any of the vendors, or in anyones inventory. i was basically just afking the entire time. wanderng up and down trying to figure if i could do anything.

the 3rd act automatically started. all the npcs dont leave their room, and the ones i can interact with [who are all stationary in a bar] just repeat the same lines. this time i had to hold the pass time button for about 6 stops. its like something didn't trigger and the game just jammed. the ending was litarely just a "do you turn the machine to the left, or right?" for the good ending. Sargas somehow escapes a nuclear explosion and is regarded as a hero. despite walking into the nuke zone. theres no ending sargas dies in apparently. you'd think me beating him to the bomb and accidently exploding it would do the trick but no. he somehow outran a nuclear explosion from point blank range.

I always loved the Beholder but this game is not up to par with the previous games; the gameplay is short and lacking in substance. I don't regret buying it, but it did not live up to my expectations. I suggest playing the previous games before this one and only buying this if you like the previous games.

This game is much shorter than previous ones. Too few interaction with the passengers and most of them just asked for one item and their stories end. I like the murder and attack scences but end up those passengers have too few storylines as well which is quite a pity

I loved 1, but just can't get into this one. Part of the moral struggle of 1 was these were you neighbours, friends, people you were willing to bend the rules for because you cared about them. In this one, they're just travellers on a train, they give you mini quests and are off at the next stop, never to be seen again. It's jut churning out information and reports to avoid a game over.

Also so much soft locking! You have to earn your promotion or game over, so you have to report travellers to earn your money and authority - you just locked yourself out of their quest line.

It's a game of constantly just about surviving getting a game over and stressing over too much going on. I just got promoted and the first thing I have to do is spend 10k unlocking 2 rooms - but each stop you don't have the money, you get fined money. So all the running around I'm trying to do to earn the money and I'm just losing money instead. At this point I've put the game down and I don't intend to bother with it anymore.

I was really excited for this after playing the demo but I'm really not into these games when you can die and have to redo everything, it's not fun for me. The timer sucks as well, I prefer to chill and make thoughtful decisions. If you like that kind of thing though you'll probably like this game. If there were no deaths or timers and the decisions you make just affect story I'd enjoy it more. Still went positive because it's done well it's just not for me.

The series really went back to its roots with this one. Strongly resembles the original Beholder with quick and simple gameplay that can be stressful at times. Exactly how it's supposed to be. I felt a bit lost at times on how to progress certain missions, but the best advice is to speak with everyone or check their luggage if you feel stuck.

Only encountered one bug where two end-game events overlapped and thereby breaking dialoge from one character (the actor in the 1st class' kitchen section), which was fixed with a quick reload, so this is an overall solid game directly from release date.

Strongly recommend!

Back to Basics, yet not Return to Form

A decade ago I used to be a passionate fan of Beholder and even won a key for Beholder 2 in the Wise Leader quiz. However, I had to skip the third game entirely after realizing what kind of a dumpster fire it was. As a result of "inertia" I did not really follow the development of Conductor and only recently played the demo. Even though I wasn't impressed with it, I decided to give the full game a shot, maybe it'd get better? Well, it didn't.

Before we begin, let's briefly revisit what made the original Beholder so amazing. One, it was a more "static" experience in a sense you started and ended the game as a landlord in the basement. Two, it was very grounded and your motivations were simple and relatable - you had a family to care for, a retirement plan to secure, a cat to feed. Three, you got to know the characters for an extended period of time by virtue of sharing the same space with them. Which led to them growing on you and you actually caring about their ultimate fate and the decisions you made.

Conductor takes the winning formula and throws it out of the window. The train setting is the #1 issue of this game that to an extent leads to every other one. Sure, it makes more sense to get promoted to conductor first class as opposed to being yeeted from floor 12 all the way to floor 25 of the ministry in Beholder 2, and promotions allow you to experience different social classes with their stories and perspectives. However, the downside is promotion-centric gameplay where promotions drive the story, as a result you must go out of your way to get them, because otherwise you literally get a game over. This is terrible in two ways simultaneously: it creates a cheap way of incentivizing you to play as the "bad guy"; and it makes your choice an illusion - no matter if you helped the prisoner escape or stopped him, your boss will tell you've done a great job, as the game can't advance the plot otherwise.

In this reality, the only case where you see impact of your actions becomes NPC themselves. You are supposed to care about them, but, remember, they are literally "fellow travellers on a train". You don't get to know them for more than 10 minutes and will never meet them again, so why should you care, right? All of them bar a few are forgettable, interchangeable... including the main character himself. Winston is as generic as they come, his family we don't get to see or know, so while his motivation perhaps makes sense to him, I just can't feel invested in his story as a player. He also comes with a "background" that takes place entirely off-screen and boils down to him doing something in the past and now having to do things for the blackmailer. This is yet another strange way how Conductor strips your agency and pigeon-holes you into doing questionable acts.

Even though Conductor doesn't quite understand what made Beholder great, it still desperately clings to legitimacy of the first game by randomly dropping lore bits as well as inserting its characters into this new story - whether it makes sense according to that game's plot or not, to the point it starts to feel like a parody. Perhaps it's a result of the developers realizing you can't form a connection with a character over a short time you meet them, hence relying on characters we already know?

However, you don't really get to ask yourself all this questions while playing, as Conductor is a quite a stressful game that has you juggling many plates at a time. Not only did it preserve the original's minigames - it added more. Like I said, there's only a short while before your passengers reach their destination and are gone forever, so you're always in a rush to get things done. Main quests, side quests, reports. Oh look, this guy just left his room and who knows if he'll ever leave it again, you should dash over there and search his luggage! And the entire game is like that. As a result, we just don't really have the time to care about NPC and their stories - or anything outside of an immediate task. Anything you do feels like it comes with an opportunity cost.

Worst part? You can do pretty much anything, but you're never sure if you should do it. You have a task to make 3 reports, you find an NPC carrying an apple in their luggage (despicable!), you report them... boom! - you've just eliminated an NPC along with their quests and opportunities. Your cat (yes, you get a cat again) will get sick and die because the only NPC who could treat him is no longer around. The hot girl won't have sex with you, because you can no longer complete her questline. When you need an item to solve a quest, the item is nowhere to be found. But - guess what - the station vendor had this item in his stock an hour of gameplay ago, who would've thought you'd need it, huh? Or maybe you bought the item and wasted it on a trivial side-quest which has no bearing on the plot anyway? All of it leads to constant frustration due to missing out on content and having to replay large chunks of the game again, and ultimately makes Conductor the kind of game that's hardly enjoyable without a walkthrough.

First class car feels like devs realizing this issue and trying to "reign in" the player by reintroducing "protected" status which makes it so NPC can't be reported. However, say hello to another issue, and that is softlocks. Imagine you need 10000 money to furnish two rooms (out of your pocket, for some reason), however you've just blown 15000 on a bribe to get promoted in the first place, and so you got none. And if passengers don't get a room - you can't interact with them, and they keep complaining, chipping away at your resources. And since you retain access to your previous areas and continue to get quests there, your map size has just effectively doubled. Yay, more plates to juggle. And that point I was so tired and frustrated I had no desire to continue. Making it the only Beholder game I'll probably never finish.

Overall, Conductor is a uninspired, mediocre title. While it grasps the fundamentals, it never quite reaches the heights of Beholder for me. Returning characters from the first game are a band-aid for dull story and otherwise forgettable NPC, while a clutter of pointless minigames is a band-aid for derivative core gameplay. Conductor revels in making you feel like piece of human trash and constantly finds a way to deprive you of your agenda just to hammer the point home. Combined with game design which actively makes your experience miserable unless you follow a walkthrough, as well as some things that were plain poorly tested or poorly thought-out, overall it leads to a reality where I cannot recommend this one.

P.S. To be honest, I'm not quite sure where the franchise should go from here. The success of the first game led to Alawar making a franchise out of it. However, as we've seen after 3 attempts, they just can't pull the proverbial recapture of lightning in the bottle. If I had to oversimplify it by singling out a reason though, I'd say the promotion-centric gameplay is at the root of the issue, because it breaks one of Beholder's core pillars in that your choices matter. In the ideal world, you should be able to choose not to get promoted - and the game should respect your choice and provide you with more quests and characters. This content, however, would be invisible to other players and would likely push the scope and budget of such game outside of what Alawar can reasonably allocate to a Beholder title. And do we even need another Beholder title? The themes Beholder games explore felt quaint and novel a decade ago, but this days? This days authoritarian regimes are on the rise and freedom of speech is challenged in many countries across the globe, to the point what used to feel like fantasy now feels like a documentary - a sad reminder of the world outside the window. We play games for escapism, not to be sad, right?

It really needs a manual save option. I don't like playing the same parts again and again because of a blind choice. Doesn't deserve the ''not recommended'' though, i'll change it to thumbs up once they address this issue.

Update: Well unfortunately this delibarate design might quickly become a joy killer. I know that the feature has been used in the other games too but it didn't feel like a chore then. At least there could be more auto saves. Anyways as promised, game doesn't deserve "not recommended" so i'll change it.

It was great, but was seriously hoping it'd be longer. I feel this is the shortest game of the series :(

Feels like a proper sequel to beholder, especially if you like trains. You also have Papers Please elements where you check tickets but it's more of a Choices matter game. sadly i don't think the game will ever have procedural content, it's linear.
But you can have a cat and it seems like there are many interactions and different endings.

I played 40 minutes and it's pretty good https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRzWpx1Ux-8
Note: you work your way through the worst passager car to the luxurious one, monitoring a lot of people. There is also a bit of a time element with certain tasks needing to be completed before time runs out.

Note: don't expect more than 10 hours of gameplay, perfect gameplay but too little gameplay overall. Wish they would have made this better and more complex.
It's worth the price but it's not going to be as immersive as it could have been

Loved Beholder 1 & 2, absolutely couldn't stand Beholder 3. This one though, is a great continuation in the Beholder universe. It takes place before Beholder 1, but that doesn't really affect the story (at least not as far as I have seen). All in all, it's a great, fresh take on the concept/universe.