[Switch-on] Beholder 2. Unable to grow wings

Totalitarianism - a regime, which implies absolute control of all spheres of society. How many works told us about the struggle of a “little man” with this ruthless machine, about the “deviants” who realized the failure of such a system and challenged it. But how many among them there were attempts to immerse the viewer “inside”, show the whole power of the genees that fill this monstrous control mechanism with life?

In fact - Yes, The reader’s immersion in the absurdity and indestructibility of the rules of the next totalitarian world often underlies anti -utopias. But, despite this, from time to time we do not bother us to plunge into these gloomy universes: whether it be a marvelous new world, where the nameless “numbers” strive for distant stars [1], or the gloomy cities of Oceania, forever frightened under the tireless eyes of a “big brother” [2]. And it was precisely the last novel that Warm Lamp Games turned, drawing inspiration for creating Beholder II - no longer a miniature sketch that affects the fate of “little people”, but a whole opus about the rattle of a bureaucratic motor roaring in the heart of the country. Whether they managed to soak above their heads? Well, you will find out after

"BEHOLLER II compatibility with the Nintendo Switch systems complex"

Excerpts from the study. Addition level: 1.

The content of the document is confirmed by the following seals:

The next document contains a technical specification of the Beholder II software on the basis of Nintendo Switch equipment. The study considered the stability of work, the convenience of interaction with the software, possible software errors and shortcomings of the product, comparing its functions with analogues provided on other systems.

The study was carried out primarily, From the point of view of the Nintendo Switch systems complex, Features of interaction with other systems in the text are minimized.

The verification shows the primary version of the text. Perhaps the abundance of literary turns. The transfer to third parties is punishable according to the protocol U/19284.01. Pleasant acquaintance.

Well, this time without an original story - I first met Beholder II on Stream [3] Zhenya Baranov and Miguel Nrai. Nothing portended trouble on that fine summer day of 2018, when, without declaring war, Alawar [4] rolled out a demo version of his game on the lands of Steam. Dozens of spectators were abandoned on a sudden, veterans of the first Beholder hastily installed the second part on the hard drives. Among them I accidentally ended up ..

But, frankly, the matter did not go further than this - the offensive was choked, the demo quietly disappeared from my hard drive, and the series was once again buried in the depths of memory. Only a year later, having reveled in the hopelessness in the previous game of the studio, the author’s black soul demanded a continuation. And what to say - despite the fundamental differences, the first watches of Beholder II can be called exemplary sequel. It is a pity that this cannot be said about her.

Helmer, 1985. Lead clouds covered the sky over the city, dropping large drops on the heads of the inhabitants - the silent black mass, whose system was filled with all the streets, and whose grave silence is interrupted only by an unpleasant low rumble, which is distributed, as if, from everywhere. Their views are fixed at one point - a middle -aged man in horny glasses hastily crosses the square, rushing into the building of the ministry. He does not violate the silence-he only leads an internal monologue, hopes to correct something ... But, instead, a few minutes later, the thirty-seventh floor falls out of the windows, breaking up on a paving stones.

Do not be afraid to jump from the cliff, but while flying down, grow wings.

P. Bredbiei

This man is Kaleb Redgrave, a high -ranking official, one of the most respected people in the country and father of Evan Redgrave, a protagonist of the game, standing, at this moment, at the threshold of the ministry. Only a week passed since that strange evening, the trace of the chalk still attracts the attention of onlookers, but Evan receives an unexpected transfer to a new position - someone sent him to work at the ministry itself, the main managing body of the whole country.

However, not for beautiful eyes - James Cunningham, the old father of the father and the head of the department for investigation of official crimes are the mysterious well -wisher. He, like Evan, eagers to unearth the truth about this incident, but not everything is so simple - the secret of the imaginary “suicide” of the minister is hidden behind his colleagues, and these people have to reckon. The only way out: send a “mole”, which, from the bottom, bypassing all the difficulties, peering, eavesdropping and getting rid of interference, will be able to climb to the very top. And, I think, there is no need to explain to anyone the honorary role ..

Beholder II - another game. You know, I saw a lot of sequels, both games and films, but they always had something in common: they all took and multiplied the developments of their own original. Yes, not always successful: some went in the wrong direction (Hi Dark Souls III), the latter rolled into the conveyor (Insert the right one), others .. Dragon Age, we'll talk with you at home. But products in the manner of Beholder II, almost completely casting aside the previous part, I do not remember immediately.

The first thing that meets us at the first launch of the game is the scale. The action, from the chamber apartment building, was transferred to the vicinity of the nameless ministry, to various provincial corners of Helmer himself, into a close apartment of the protagonist - in a word, the second part boasts an abundance of various locations that differ both by the representation and the gameplay. The latter, conditionally, can be divided into three parts: everyday working routine, evening troubles in their native apartment and the study of Helmer, made in the form of a text quest.

If the first part, despite the registration “Strategy” in the genre, was, in fact, the “Rat simulator” [5], then the second, despite the same title, is a cross between a classic quest and various mini-games. The latter is a source of stable income necessary to pay for accounts, acquire some items and authority, the first ... I think it is worth telling about it in the context of the plot. As I said earlier, the main goal of the protagonist is to achieve the top in the service, behind which the secret of the death of his father is hidden. How to achieve them? Get a transfer to another department of the ministry (Read - an increase). What is in this way? Three colleagues who also claim to be a vacant vacancy, as well as the heads of floors, having ... a certain interest in the Person of the Redgrave Jr. As a result, the gameplay in the ministry comes down to the same thing: we are transferred to a new floor, we rub into confidence in colleagues and the boss, we get rid of them with the ways convenient for you. We repeat until readiness. Accordingly, the process of “rubbing in trust” itself and boils down to the quest.

Globally, it is this part of the game that is closest to the original Beholder - communicating with the characters and digging in their cabinets and terminals, the player will gradually receive clues for advancement in the plot, find various useful objects and acquire new skills necessary for further passage. But, wait. The latter is the innovation of Beholder II, related to the second layer of the gameplay - the apartment.

Sometimes information can be very "unexpected"

Formally, micro -management in the apartment can be compared with the arrangement of the base in XCOM - in his free time, Evan will perform actions in it, which, subsequently, will contribute to its successes in the ministry. There are four of them in total: payment of accounts, watching TV shows, reading books and execution of text quests. The first is an everyday routine justifying the “mini-games” (About them later). Most of the accounts come on their own, some depending on the actions of the player. A colleague caught you at his workplace? Check. Retired with a pretty girl in the pantry? Check. Came across the theft of things from the ministry? You can pay on the spot or ask to recover a new account. Each cash payment has its own amount and time of entry, so you often have to choose whether to withdraw the next load of reckoning from the neck, or save money until better times.

Reading books and watching TV shows, for their part, have more weight in the gameplay. The first in abundance are dusting in the nooks of text quests, tasks of colleagues and secluded corners of the ministry, when reading giving Evan a variety of active and passive abilities - from saving money when paying for electricity to the skill of hacking locks. The latter is one of the elements of rapprochement with colleagues: finding out the preferences of the colleagues and discussing television frauds with them, you can open access to previously inaccessible execution of tasks and dialogues. Unlike books, the series are optionals for study, but “Knowing the characters of the series“ Walking Boreans ”” can not only greatly diversify the passage, but also please with witty references to the works of mass culture.

Finally, text quests. I will talk about their content a little later, in conjunction with the plot, so, in short - here:

Yes, it is in this form that-no illustrations, video locations or any other graphic representation. This, third, layer of the gameplay, also serves to advance by the quest component of the ministry - often, by order of the authorities or his own initiative, Evan can go on a text trip along Helmer, which will depend on the elections accepted by the protagonist as they fulfill them. As a rule, such quests act according to the scheme “perform a certain sequence of actions in the correct order”, but curiosity and a non -standard approach, often add pleasant awards to this formula, in the form of new books or resources. By the way, hacking skills studied during pumping also periodically allow you to get additional bonuses, in the form of money, authority or any valuable information.

And yes, money, authority and ... time. Until now, I deliberately tried to avoid these three parameters of the character, since it would be a little more difficult to explain their purpose without context. But, let's now talk about a thing like

Game currency
As I said, there are three of them, and each of them has its own method of prey, value and purpose. Money and authority, if you are familiar with the first Beholder, should also be familiar to you-the first serve for financial transactions, the second-for operations with conscience, when you need to put pressure on someone, find out information or vice versa: save the known place of the Redgrave from an unpleasant situation. Both of these types of currency can be obtained in two ways-performing routine mini-games (about which still later) or completing the plot tasks bringing both of these resources to where as large volumes.

The third type of "currency" (Although, this is rather a https://www.popularslotgames.co.uk/ resource) - time. I don’t know if the developers heard the flurry of criticism towards the speed of the clock of the first part, or such an idea was at the base initially, but the time in Beholder II does not flow now - instead it is turned into a valuable resource spent on the discretion of the player. In total, Evan has at the disposal of 11 hours a day: 9 hours of working time and 2 hours for troubles in the apartment, which he is free to dispose of at his discretion. And, this is the only thing that justifies the title of “strategy”-if the management of authority and money is not a paramount task, then the correct waste of time in the second “watching” is not only “desirable”, but also strictly necessary to achieve certain successes.

That's who knows a lot about his time

“What is the time spent on?" - you ask. “To everything” - I will answer. You need to achieve an audience of the boss? Hello wait an hour in the reception. I decided to sear the colleague's desktop? Do not forget - you need not only its absence, but also the presence of 15 minutes in the reserve. Book regiment and a magazine of tasks are breaking out of their filling? Well, what to do - today Evan Redgrave, instead of performing direct duties, will return home early to have not 2, but n hours in the tanning pollutant (The remaining working time is plused to home). Thus, the player all the time has to choose whether to spend time on side activity, self -development or ..

You know the work - I did not want and do not want to touch on this game aspect for one simple reason: it is not needed. That is, the implementation of the mini-game called here “work” is sometimes necessary to recruit money and authority, but ... If they were not in Beholder II, then nothing would have changed in an absolutely (Yes, they are so torn from the gameplay). There are three similar activities in total - one for each subsequent floor. And, perhaps, I will even hide them under the spoiler - read at your own risk.

Can I write off you? Come on, just not exactly.

And this .. *drum fraction* Papers, Please. Yes, perhaps the execution is different, but, in fact, it is - we get appeals from citizens, focusing on incoming information, select the type of circulation, responsible body and working cabinet ... Profit. The only thing that makes us return to this "exciting" lesson from time to time is the appeal itself. They are diverse, they are hilarious and there are many of them. It is a pity that not so much that it is not to start repeating by the end of the life on the floor.

You will not go further until you get paper

The same as on the last floor, only boring - 7 out of 10 appeals at this level are repeated by those that we processed before. Purpose: focusing on constantly changing instructions (Papers, please smell of again ..to choose measures that are required to be executed in relation to the requester, appeal and accused. There is nothing more to say, except ... I shake the hand of the one who chose as options by default “refuse, shoot the requester, destroy the form”. Friend, you gave me a lot of sadistic pleasure. Thank you.

[Data deleted]

Ta-Dame! Clone programming! Suddenly, is it not true?! Well, in short - every day a request is received to create clones of a certain profession, with its own set of characteristics. The player's task is to collect something approximately similar from the existing presets. The most. Boring, mini-game. In mine. Life.

*** You know, I tormented this section for the last week. And still not fully satisfied with its content. But, it will not be true to say that I am not happy to end him and finally tell me that I am really interested. So

I remember that at one time I warmly spoke out about this aspect of the first Beholder - despite the unbalanced pace of the narrative and excessive haste, he clung to the abundance of really pleasant and charismatic personalities, whose misfortunes were very interesting to observe. The second part, in terms of characters, has not lost this advantage, but the approach to the plot presentation in it has changed a lot. However, let's in order.

"All in one boat"
As you already understood, now the focus is not a comfortable house in the sleeping area, but a classic “office” - I think those who have not yet had to be in a similar environment understand the whole of the pain of work in a similar team. No, here you will no longer meet the elderly residents inviting you to a party in chess, now you are closely woven into a ball of snakes, where everyone is not averse to stinging you or strangle. Does such a change make its amendments to the narrative? Definitely.

Unlike the original, where the story of each individual tenant was almost completely isolated from the rest, in Beholder II everything is connected with everyone - each character, both main and secondary, has its own opinion about others, is different to the person of Evan himself, and hides the trump card in the sleeve in the form of an interesting personal story, which he will not throw to the playing table ahead of time. Such an approach not only enhances immersion in the process, but also shifts accents - if Karl Stein has always been an outsider who controlled events from the shadow, but never felt their consequences, then Evan Redgrav is free to go into the squints of his colleagues, independently choosing which side to accept and what benefit to find from this.

Here I would like to make a slight digression - A similar opinion about local relations was formed only after the second, more thoughtful and leisurely passage, in which I deliberately tried to make opposite decisions and achieve the closure of previously failed sideners. No, I do not want to say that the branch of a positive character is more fresh than the villain line - just the game itself often plugs as a priority choice the one that will immediately cut off the rest of the storyline of one or another character. Let's get back to the narrative.

I did not exaggerate about the “choice of the party”: if in the original Beholder, the villain’s behavior was sometimes not supposed to be a little unnatural, then in the sequel, on the contrary, it was not only possible to play out the antagonist, but it was necessary - the developers from Warm Lamp were not too lazy and thought out really branched plot lines for each of the characters. Yes, you can feel the story of Peter Dong, delve into his love experiences and bring his line to a happy finale, conquering his hands to the princess and destroying his vile opponent, but ... what a joy is if the game allows you to make you freezing scum?

- To delve into the experiences of this neurasthenic? Oh, is it not better to play on his fears, disgrace it, bring to a partial loss of reason, and then force to arrange a massive Masakr in the Ministry?
- Vile rival? Rather, a reliable ally - and will help to earn extra money, and drugs will help to make drugs. The main thing to get rid of this vombat until he tried to get rid of you.
- Beautiful princess? Rather, the elite Putan, who will spread his legs in front of anyone, in whom he will see at least some benefit. Perhaps these wonderful pills will appeal to her ... ha. Ha ha. Muhahahahahaha!

Kh. Sorry, got carried away. I think you yourself have already noticed, but the innovations also touched the presentation-the Beholder II is not afraid, sometimes, to break into the full-fledged Katsen and staged scenes, and the sudden events that previously arose as exceptions are now taking place regularly: then someone will knock on the door of the apartment, then the sudden order will fly from the boss, and then suddenly [the data is removed [data]. There is really one mah-a-allenny problem, whose name ..

"You come tomorrow, I'll tell you later"
Yes, the first part had huge problems with the pace - very often there were situations when the player had a heel of plot missions at once, with extremely compressed deadlines. In the second part there is no such. At all. Since the time is now frozen, and the passage period is not limited, any plot quests will wait for the happy moment when the player deigns to descend to them. Are there any problems from the player? Not really. But the developer, so that the particularly cunning gamer does not violate the chain of tasks, has to be forcibly slowing it down, because of which Evan Redgrave will very often hear “excellent, talk to you tomorrow and I will explain everything to you” not that it was some kind of global problem-one day less, one day more, but also, these constant “chapter” [6] The pace of the game, on the contrary, begins to sag-yes, yes, you get it, yes, yes, you get it.This information, but not the fact that after that there will not be another plug that makes you miss the working day again. Perhaps the game suggests that the free time (And here, I remind you, a valuable resource) will be spent on

work ..

But better I will spend it on the performance of text quests. Fortunately there are a lot of them here.

Once I was led by the Road of Adventure ... [7]
Text quests in the second Beholder is one of the best innovations invented by developers. Without jokes. They are not very long, quite diverse, often these missions dilute stagnation that occurs when passing the plot, and sometimes I want to take more for them than for the main tasks. In addition, this layer of the gameplay works in tandem with additional missions - there is no need to force Redgrave to overtake the thresholds of ministerial offices, if you can send it, albeit through the text, to other colorful corners of Helmer. In fact, we could talk about side tasks from colleagues separately - yes, there are few of them, but again, often they are much more complex than their analogues from the first Beholder (where, in fact, all tasks outside the main plot were "optional"). Unfortunately, unlike the same first part, the same tasks do not “poke” [8] right in the face of the player, but, showing sufficient perseverance, you can stumble upon mission, almost inferior in complexity and duration of the plot. However, that we are talking about the plot, but about the plot - we should put a few words about the quality of the port.

From a thick pile of sheets (You have not forgotten that it is, like, a technical specification) a restless envelope is falling out, scattering part of its contents on the floor in flight. You were trying to catch it in flight, but the red inscription [Secret: 3rd level] makes you freeze in place. Unfortunately, it's too late - even a cursory glance at the contents will be equated to the state treason. In indecision, you think what to do: whether to get acquainted with the document closer, or to collect the falling pile of the sheets and try to lay it so that no one smells a catch.

Introductory Protocol No. 16/9 from 10.04.1984
Stenography of interrogation and.N. [Data on the individual are deleted, sentenced to death], a member of the research group of the project. During the tests of the product, the latter caused him a sharp negative reaction, which is why the sentenced tried to sabotage the research process. The contribution of the sentenced is excluded from the text of the document, a brief aging from the interrogation is given below.

[05.04.1984, Ministry of Science and Technology]
You know, I did not want to go through this game for the second time, although, initially, I subscribed to these studies. The first Beholder was for me ... I don’t know, with a revelation - even though I did not immediately get used to the pace and intricacies of this game, but, over and over again reaching the finale, the desire to start it again did not leave me again. Yes, it was imperfect, yes - it is monotonous, but the desire to see all possible outcomes managed to keep me in the original for almost fifty hours. And, in no case do I want to refute what my colleagues and I said earlier, but ... all these positive aspects begin to naught immediately after the end of the first third of the game.

At first, this is imperceptible - only a remark abandoned by a passing about the “wild turnover” on the twelfth floor portends the coming horror. But when the next day, in Katszen, the game in all seriously reports that Superigra reigns here, as a result of which half of the employees are dumped into a huge crusher-you understand that the creators turned away somewhere in the wrong direction. No, I do not deny that such elements of the setting, which had previously played in allusia on the USSR, surprise a lot, but ... they have no place here, as well as caricators who replaced the employees of the highest rane. Prior to this, albeit, even hypertrophied, but recognizable images-gloomy employees in the windows of a petition, behind the scenes, imagining quite ordinary people with understandable problems, the evil boss, of course, launching thick fingers into budget funds, ordinary, albeit too patriotic, citizens ... The boss of the Italian mafia, a crazy woman whose madness not notices for some reasonand a maniac, not even trying to hide his inclinations - that is what we get on the twelfth floor. I will not paint their plot branches in detail, this is not necessary (Yes, and you yourself can find out about them - you yourself know where), but the farther the game goes, the more surrealism the local setting begins to slide - from the creation of clones to remote neuro -projection of the whole nation.

Moreover, I would not have expressed half of the claims, if all this was well worked out-the first third, despite all the excesses, did not let go from the screen for all three to four hours. But the farther the game goes, the more scarce its filling becomes. Personal quest for each employee, revealing his unique story? There is, but it is not only not so interesting, but does not end at least any impressive denouement. Exciting storyline of each official? If Ferguson on the ground floor at the end rolled a grandiose party, then the rest does not even have a hint of the logical ending-their storylines seem to break off somewhere in half, but the continuation should not be (which is especially strange against the background of the ending, according to which they should We had to lure Evan to their side). And finally, Evan himself ..

At one time, I praised the character of Karl Stein from the original Beholder-although he was a puppet in the player’s hands, managed to maintain a Tolik of his own opinion about the events that were taking place, which is why our actions were not so much repulsed from the madness of the scriptwriters as from the worldviews of the character himself. Evan - no. Yes, he has a family, yes, we, although in passing, learn about his discord with his father, but ... outside this, the protagonist does not only have motivation - he was completely deprived of character. You are a loving family man, dear to the happiness of loved ones? Spit, for the whole game Evan will only talk to his wife on the phone, while not disdaining to cheat on her with the first oncoming. The protagonist did not offend flies in his whole life? Nothing, now he is a clock of the poor hard worker with a scalpel, and the next day he will be with hope to talk about when he suddenly discovered a psychopath maniac. And this is the whole Evan - above I said that the bosses are not doing anything to lure him to their side? The bitter truth is that he himself, by clicking his fingers, is inclined to their ideology, which, however, affects only the ending, and nothing more.

Moreover, you know that the most offensive? Caleb, Evan's father, hardly five minutes appearing in the frame, has been worked out much better and deeper than all the characters combined. Yes, its plot is revealed purely through biometric safes (which, by the way, are needed for the best ending) but, gradually finding and reading them, the player is truly penetrated by this old man with respect-with each new letter, the image of a senior redgrave will be replaced by the stale cracker to to a stupid loving father, who did not go to extremes to extremes, but only for the good of his loved ones.

And finally, endings. They are absurd, they are illogical, but I will not talk about them - half of them are connected with the bosses, the other is reflections on the topic of human choice. I would only like to talk about the "best" ending in which Evan makes The entire population countries to reject the current state system and decide their own fate by themselves. She doesn't work. The population of the state, in which the Beholder action unfolds, has been under the yoke of totalitarian power for more than a hundred years, who from childhood ate all the inhabitants in the shackles of their system. They, even having received a direct order, will not be freed once from the ideology, which intended in their minds-yes, it was imposed on them, but imposed gradually, and they will not succeed in throwing out of their heads so significant. Whatever wings they grow, rushing into the abyss from the cliff, shown to us in the final utopia - only a fiction, until the onset of which, at best, is not one ten years old. However, enough about the plot - I have one defect in my mind, which I would like, finally, pour out a lot of bile.

Sales system. Here, I think, we need a context-in the first and second Beholder, this aspect is made in a completely different way. In the original, it was not allowed to do the preservation independently, because of which an additional challenge arose-although the game generated a new one when activating each new quest, but the player could not just take and protect himself before the dangerous situation-in case of death, he would have to be replayed from some, sometimes very distant, conservation, losing all the developed progress. In the sequel, the opposite is true-due to an overgrown scale of action, you can persist at any time, but the game itself now remembers only two auto-preservations: one is generated when crossing the rooms, and the second at the beginning of each new working day. And yes, there is a problem again, maybe not so noticeable, but much more critical.

My colleague has already described its origins - the game loves to stretch the rubber, forcing the player to endure the continuation of the quest the next day. The outcome of this problem is much less harmless - one fine day, having arrived at work, Evan can be automatically transferred to the carpet of the boss, who will announce him a death sentence, for the appeal of which the player may not have enough authority. What is the problem? Let me remind you, the game is saved in the morning of the current day, erasing the previous preservation. Accordingly, if the player has not been worried about to preserve in advance, he will be waiting for the inevitable software, which intends to block further passage. Yes, you say you yourself are to blame: since the game makes it possible to do manual preservations, then it must be actively used. To which I will answer you:

1. The game does not warn about it in any way These outcomes. Yes, she will not be carefully notifying you about the irreversibility of choice in side quests more than once, which will not harm Evan in any way, but as soon as it comes to such a development of events - silent.
2. Passing, on average, lasts up to fifteen hours. You would like to replay, say, two-thirds of the game, because of one unsuccessful choice?
3. The game does not give an alternative. If such a situation brought to some quest that allows you to get away from punishment, this claim would not be. But instead, it gives you three options, one of which may not be available to you, and the rest will lead to the immediately end of the game.

Bottom line - over the last passage, I twice crossed a similar situation, both times without enough authority. Of course, I am glad that I always had stones that protect the protagonist from imminent death, but it was unpleasant to replay for more than forty minutes. Let's move on to technical implementation.

The following excerpts from stenography, in one form or another, repeat the text of the study 12/3 of 06.03.1984. The text of the stenography should be classified and transferred for storage to the state archive of the third level, along with a copy of the study.

[Collect the contents and invest in an envelope]

(Transition to the next section)

Speaking about the style of the game, one cannot fail to note, at least one difference:

Yes, the game acquired the third dimension, and this change ... Well, to put it mildly, ambiguous: from the point of view of a new place of action, it is justified - in addition to a small handful of actors, the locations were filled with a mass that is constantly scurrying in the background and imitating violent activities, and the passages and other moving elements inaccessible to the player create the illusion of the depths of the locations. On the other hand, the Beholder II itself almost completely neglects such an innovation in the gameplay - in addition to a few interaction items that are a step to the left or right from the axis of the protagonist’s movement, Evan does not go beyond the framework of two measurements, moving strictly horizontally.

The three-dimensionality itself especially cuts the eyes on Switch, where the level of graphics corresponds to the low settings of the PC version: if the lack of landfills and, in general, the angularity of models, on senior platforms were partially hidden by the granularity of the picture and the effect of Bloom, then the port of all these effects was lost. And, this beats not only in quality, but also in the atmosphere: the mentioned effects created the illusion of shooting with a hidden chamber that constantly followed the main character, which also added tension, but now, with their departure, primitive lighting and strange shadows on the characters become especially noticeable. The characters themselves also do not save the situation - compare them in the first and second part:

In this case, this is purely my personal opinion, and it is known to be subjectively, but the translation of the characters themselves from the state of two-dimensional sprites into three-dimensional models only harmed them: in the original, despite the minimum number of details, possibly due to the features of the drawing, the tenants of the house No. 6 did not seem foreign. Yes, sometimes they had hypertrophied proportions and a clearly strange anatomy, but due to scarcity on the details, the brain itself finished all the missing. The transition to three-dimensional space drove the developers into a corner-they had to leave the same oddities, but because of the depth of the picture, some of the characters turned into caricatures. This mainly applies to the masses - the main characters, with rare exceptions, look decent, even trying to convey character through their meager models, but among the crowds you can sometimes see gorilla -shaped figures, with your hands hanging to the knees, and a tooth -shaped body resembling more gorillas than a person than a person. However, all these innovations failed to take away another feature from Beholder II, which came to it straight from the original - the atmosphere of hopelessness, which rolls in the gloomy world of the game.

The author said a lot above that this work is an atypical sequel. And, formulating that thought, I first thought about the setting itself. Getting acquainted with the first part and learning the details of the local system through fragments of dialogues and newspapers, I have a person from the country, as if frozen at the time of the late USSR, there were involuntarily arose with the union: the first Beholder has intensively projected us a picture of the state, for more than a hundred years of rushing straight a lot, but still, despite the already audible popular murmur, not stopping extracting its extensionssuperiority over "external enemies, tirelessly washing the integrity of our great state". Yes, the stratification of the masses in it was already visible with the naked look, yes, every area of ​​activity, except for the military, underwent full decline, but ask anyone - and he would have no doubt about love for his country. Not only because of fear-the system itself was so eaten into the subcorta of every local character that it was no longer able to imagine a different, perhaps the best life.

The second part ... not that discards a similar concept - it pushes it to the background. Old buses do not rattle the walls of the ministry-on the contrary, all the most advanced technologies are concentrated here: from mega scanners and metal detectors, to powerful computers and trading machines operating on mini-reactors. Yes, the mention of the “terrible regime” has not gone anywhere - that is only the story of the local baffer about the hungry deaths of employees, but the emphasis of the story itself shifted from “little people” to the “privileged minority”, which is concerned with somewhat different problems. And ... yes, in this regard, the game itself is not deprived of problems. When she talks about the horrors of the regime, everything remains within the framework of decency: Beholder II really raises very unpleasant topics more than once, whether it is a “blessed dream” that stems from the original, or a very scrupulous theme of the “cleanliness of the nation”. But she should climb from the railway of side stories to the main plot, as a well -written anti -utopia begins to inexorably slide into a regular satire on modern society:

Yes, a witty reference. But is she definitely a place for her here?

The game throws the game from extreme to extreme: now we are processing hundreds of appeals, often rolling to the real patriotic delirium (I remember that under some pretext they demanded to arrest a tree), and the next second - we communicate with the next colleague, as if going into this setting by mistake. And, if I can still understand the negligent “son” of a senior official who ended up in the ministry only because of the whim of my father, then the sudden boss of the Italian mafia ... Per Favore, stop, Signora, you were mistaken in the world. However [Deleted. The level of tolerance 3 for access to the full version of the text is required]

As for everything else - well, the music has become even less, and now it is noticeably more monophonic, but there were no reasons to add rolling melodies to the game, due to the change of mood, the developers did not have.

The approach to the sound design also changed - the dynamic change of sound has sunk into oblivion, but, in return, each location acquired its own background noises, and the voices of the characters, from a couple of identical stops, have grown to a very impressive list of unique voices - even with a separate announcement of especially significant. Positive changes also affected the references - there are much more of them than in the first part, but they are sewn into the setting more organic: to change BFG, with which one residents of the house on Krushvitsa slept in embracing, numerous images, text notes and dialogs of characters, weaving the subject of reference to the local narrative.

Finally, the quality of the port ... normal. Unlike the first part, which “pleased” with breaking preservations, Beholder II for two passages did not cause problems regarding the “iron” or the fillings of the game itself - I do not remember breaking quests, sorties or other bugs. Yes, the game could clearly be better optimized, all other things being equal, preserving part of the visual effects, and, consequently, the atmospheres, but outside such nit -picking, it copes with its main task - stably play. I noticed even the absence of part of the extras only when viewing the summer on YouTube. The only thing - a couple of times, when starting, I noticed an increase in the work of coolers to very tangible values. But it was only a couple of times.

Finally - management, as I could forget about him. Migrated directly from the PC version (With a gamepad), from the keyboard and mice differs only in that the choice of objects is made not by a cursor, but by an arrow tied to the right stick and a character spinning around the character. Let's move on to the final verdict.

And again I return to the opinion expressed once by Evgeny Baranov [9]. Once, in his review, he called the Beholder II “a laudable game that strives for a pass”: causing questions for a setting that does not delight with his mini-players, but serving a good appendix to the first part.

In general, such a position can be understood (especially from the point of view of Stopgame assessments), but if the last time, analyzing the first Beholder, I agreed with him, then I will allow myself to express my “no”. Yes, Beholder II can be called a commendable game, but only on one condition - considering it in tandem with the first part, and sharing the sensations equally. I don't know how you, but I can only call it "parasitication". Yes, it is not so bad, yes, the first few hours, especially with a thoughtful game, will cause a lot of positive impressions, but the game is “blown away” too quickly to keep his gamut of emotions until the very end.

Like appendage, DLC, it would undoubtedly be a commendable product. But, unfortunately, this is a full -fledged game, not an addition. However, it does not cause absolutely negative emotions, so

If the first part I could recommend, as an original, unusual, and yet interesting product, then the second - only as an appendage to the first, and nothing else. And let it deliver truly pleasant sensations only the first two to three hours, Beholder II does not cause the negativity that would not allow it to go to the end. It's a pity that you are unlikely to return to her.

Well, I would have to change the vector a little - if the war in Beholder was only a distant echo, then this time I will have to plunge into it with my head. The main thing is to remember - not everyone in the war is a soldier. See you here, here, in blogs Stopgame.ru.