Games like Beholder
If Beholder is your kind of game, the closest matches are Beholder 2, Beholder 3 and Mayor Quake — picked from the ranked list below. Reviewers single out its atmospheric, bleak and dark. Each pick is ranked by what players of this game also play, shared genres and tags, and review-mined similarity — not a generic popularity list.
Get personalized picks →Beholder is a 2016 strategy, indie, and adventure game set in a 1984-inspired dystopia where players assume the role of a state-installed landlord tasked with spying on tenants, gathering evidence, and reporting potential dissidents. The game blends blackmail simulation, consequence-driven choices, resource management, and multiple endings into a challenging experience. Players describe the atmosphere as bleak, dark, and grim, with dark humor undercutting the oppressive setting. Reviewers highlight that the dystopian bureaucracy feels oppressively real, moral choices have irreversible consequences, and the writing and characters feel authentically Russian. Currently priced at $13.99 USD and verified on Steam Deck, it holds an 82% positive rating from over 3,000 Steam reviews.
About Beholder: You’re a state-installed landlord in a totalitarian country. Place listening devices, steal and sneak into your tenants’ apartments. Use what you uncovered to report anyone capable of plotting against the state. You MUST! But WILL you?
Players who liked Beholder also play
Steam players who put hours into Beholder also tend to own these titles — a signal called collaborative filtering. imho.run cross-references millions of library ownership patterns to surface games whose real audiences overlap, regardless of whether their genre tags match.
Beholder 2
WHY THIS
Shares multiple endings and an atmospheric mood with Beholder.
Top pick for Beholder fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with Beholder.
You are an intern at the central ministry of a totalitarian state with your whole career ahead of you. Work your way up the ladder by scheming against employees, spying on your boss, and completing paperwork. Or do you turn against the state and expose corruption. The choice is still yours to make!
Beholder 3
WHY THIS
Shares a dark mood with Beholder.
Second-strongest match for Beholder fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with Beholder.
When a high-ranking security officer saves you from prison, you end up a pawn in her schemes. Now you must eliminate anyone standing in the way of her secret plans and try to get your life back while working two jobs. No tenant, employee or superior is safe from your spying.
Mayor Quake
WHY THIS
Third-strongest match for Beholder fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with Beholder.
You're the new mayor of a dystopian city on the brink of a devastating earthquake. Review building records, make urban transformation decisions, and maintain public support despite political pressure. Manage the economy and make critical choices. Can you prepare your city before disaster strikes?
Do Not Feed the Monkeys
WHY THIS
Shares resource management and a dark mood with Beholder.
Ranked #4 for Beholder fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with Beholder.
A digital voyeur simulator where you watch strangers through surveillance cameras. Invade their privacy and witness their most intimate moments, but don’t interact with the subjects – anything could happen if you dare feed the monkeys!
Ministry of Truth: 1964
WHY THIS
Ranked #5 for Beholder fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie and Adventure with Beholder.
MINISTRY OF TRUTH: 1984 is a story-driven simulator in a totalitarian society. Become an official, manipulate facts, rewrite history, and provide the ‘truth’ to the public. Choose: obey or fight against the regime. Big Brother is watching you! This game is inspired by George Orwell’s classic novel.
Corporate Entropy
WHY THIS
Ranked #6 for Beholder fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with Beholder.
Climb the ladder while burning it down. In this satirical management sim, you work for a corporation rolling out ARIA — an AI that's replacing your coworkers. Balance your performance cover against quiet sabotage, organize your resistance, and survive 8 quarters with your soul mostly intact.
Cat's Vote
WHY THIS
Ranked #7 for Beholder fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with Beholder.
Balance happiness and survival in Cat's Vote, a whimsical pastel-colored resource management game where you juggle your family's needs and vote in unpredictable feline elections. Shape your story, customize your cat family, and decide if those campaign promises are worth the risk!
Project HN
WHY THIS
Ranked #8 for Beholder fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with Beholder.
An administrative office in a fantasy world. Review documents from humans, elves, orcs, and beastfolk to uphold the republic's order. Follow the rules, or overlook suspicious files for personal gain? Every choice is yours. Heroines await after work. Your decisions shape the republic's future.
Reviewers mention these as similar to Beholder
Surfaced from review text: when other players write 'if you liked X, try Y', we catch the name and resolve it back to a Steam game.
This War of Mine
WHY THIS
Shares resource management and a grim mood with Beholder.
Reviewers of Beholder cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Indie and Adventure with Beholder.
In This War Of Mine you do not play as an elite soldier, rather a group of civilians trying to survive in a besieged city; struggling with lack of food, medicine and constant danger from snipers and hostile scavengers. The game provides an experience of war seen from an entirely new angle.
Papers, Please
WHY THIS
Shares time pressure, resource management and an atmospheric mood with Beholder.
Reviewers of Beholder cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Indie and Adventure with Beholder.
Congratulations. The October labor lottery is complete. Your name was pulled. For immediate placement, report to the Ministry of Admission at Grestin Border Checkpoint. An apartment will be provided for you and your family in East Grestin. Expect a Class-8 dwelling.
Floor 13: Deep State
WHY THIS
Reviewers of Beholder cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Indie and Adventure with Beholder.
Floor 13: Deep State is a dynamically generated dystopian thriller, inspired by the 90’s classic Floor 13 and created by its original team. In a free society, citizens make their own decisions, can challenge authority, and are able to speak their truth. Your job is to put a stop to that.
Not Dying Today
WHY THIS
Shares a dark mood with Beholder.
Reviewers of Beholder cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Indie and Adventure with Beholder.
Not dying today is a 2D side-scrolling action game. In 2030, the world has been taken over by zombies. With fire and blade, bullets and guns, you, captain Aiden, will do anything to protect the last human kind, anything, even turn into a zombie, using zombie power to kill zombies.
Heart. Papers. Border.
WHY THIS
Reviewers of Beholder cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy and Indie with Beholder.
Heart. Papers. Border. is an optimistic strategy game about travelling, freedom and changing the world!
Portal
WHY THIS
Shares a dark mood with Beholder.
Reviewers of Beholder cross-mention this title as a similar play.
Portal™ is a new single player game from Valve. Set in the mysterious Aperture Science Laboratories, Portal has been called one of the most innovative new games on the horizon and will offer gamers hours of unique gameplay.
Pillars of Eternity
WHY THIS
Shares an atmospheric mood with Beholder.
Reviewers of Beholder cross-mention this title as a similar play.
Prepare to be enchanted by a world where the choices you make and the paths you choose shape your destiny. Obsidian Entertainment, the developer of Fallout: New Vegas™ and South Park: The Stick of Truth™, together with Paradox Interactive is proud to present Pillars of Eternity.
Cheaper alternatives
Games in the same vein priced at least 40% below Beholder at current Steam store prices.
Garry's Mod
WHY THIS
Priced ~64% under Beholder on Steam right now. Shares Indie with Beholder.
Garry's Mod is a physics sandbox. There aren't any predefined aims or goals. We give you the tools and leave you to play.
Vampire Survivors
WHY THIS
Priced ~64% under Beholder on Steam right now. Shares Indie with Beholder.
Mow down thousands of night creatures and survive until dawn! Vampire Survivors is a gothic horror casual game with rogue-lite elements, where your choices can allow you to quickly snowball against the hundreds of monsters that get thrown at you. Be the bullet hell!
PEAK
WHY THIS
Priced ~43% under Beholder on Steam right now. Shares Indie and Adventure with Beholder.
PEAK is a co-op climbing game where the slightest mistake can spell your doom. Either solo or as a group of lost nature scouts, your only hope of rescue from a mysterious island is to scale the mountain at its center. Do you have what it takes to reach the PEAK?
Sid Meier's Civilization® V
WHY THIS
Priced ~46% under Beholder on Steam right now. Shares Strategy with Beholder.
Create, discover, and download new player-created maps, scenarios, interfaces, and more!
Slay the Spire
WHY THIS
Priced ~55% under Beholder on Steam right now. Shares Strategy and Indie with Beholder.
We fused card games and roguelikes together to make the best single player deckbuilder we could. Craft a unique deck, encounter bizarre creatures, discover relics of immense power, and Slay the Spire!
Inscryption
WHY THIS
Priced ~43% under Beholder on Steam right now. Shares Strategy and Indie with Beholder.
Inscryption is an inky black card-based odyssey that blends the deckbuilding roguelike, escape-room style puzzles, and psychological horror into a blood-laced smoothie. Darker still are the secrets inscrybed upon the cards...
Cookie Clicker
WHY THIS
Priced ~64% under Beholder on Steam right now. Shares Strategy and Indie with Beholder.
An idle game about making cookies! Originally released in 2013 on the web, and actively developed since then. This is the official version for Steam.
WEBFISHING
WHY THIS
Priced ~64% under Beholder on Steam right now. Shares Indie with Beholder.
WEBFISHING a multiplayer chatroom-focused fishing game! Relax and fish (on the web!)
Free alternatives
Free-to-play games that recommended players of this title also tend to enjoy.
Doki Doki Literature Club!
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie with Beholder.
The Literature Club is full of cute girls! Will you write the way into their heart? This game is not suitable for children or those who are easily disturbed.
Life is Strange - Episode 1
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Adventure with Beholder.
Episode 1 now FREE! Life is Strange is an award-winning and critically acclaimed episodic adventure game that allows the player to rewind time and affect the past, present and future.
Ultimate Custom Night
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie with Beholder.
Welcome to the ultimate FNAF mashup, featuring 50 selectable characters and custom difficulties!
Bongo Cat
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie with Beholder.
Bongo cat needs your help. Bongo cat needz more hatz!!! Every time you press a key, Bongo cat will punch your taskbar. Type, click, play, work to collect more points. Which hats will you find?
ENA: Dream BBQ
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie and Adventure with Beholder.
Experience surreal environments and inexplicable characters as ENA in a new wild world.
The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie with Beholder.
Sonic the Hedgehog...was murdered!? Get to the bottom of the mystery in this brand-new adventure!
Indigo Park: Chapter 1
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie and Adventure with Beholder.
Explore the abandoned childhood wonder of Indigo Park! Guided by Rambley the Raccoon, help restore power to the destroyed amusement park while you run from the reason it shut down.
Narrow it down
Head-to-head comparisons
Frequently asked about Beholder
- Is Beholder verified for Steam Deck?
- Yes — Beholder is Steam Deck Verified, meaning Valve has confirmed it runs well on the Deck with full controller, text legibility, and default configuration support.
- How much does Beholder cost?
- Beholder is listed on Steam at 13.99 USD (current store price; Steam sales may reduce this temporarily).
- What games are most similar to Beholder?
- Based on Steam play patterns and shared genres/tags, the games most often recommended alongside Beholder are Beholder 2, Beholder 3, Mayor Quake.
- Who developed Beholder?
- Beholder was developed by Alawar Stargaze (Warm Lamp Games) and published by Alawar.
imho.run ranks Steam game alternatives using a mix of collaborative filtering (ALS / iALS / EASE / LightGCN), content scoring over genres, categories, Steam tags, developers, and publishers, plus AI-extracted vibes mined from review text. The page above is generated in seed mode anchored on Beholder.
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