All Aboard! Beholder Conductor will be leaving the station, destination life or death.
Beholder Conductor developed by Alawar. This game had originally been released on the 23rd of April 2025 on Steam, the version that I have will be reviewing the one that released back on the 3rd of June 2026, this version was released for both the PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2, with Xbox getting it on the 14th of July. Beholder Conductor is a spin off game that takes place within the same style world that the prior Beholder games take place in. Much like the games that came before this one Beholder Conductor is set in a dystopian style totalitarian police state, only this time it is set on a train.
In Beholder Conductor you will play as Winston Smith, the newest conductor for the fabulous Determination Bringer. You will start off in the third-class train carriage, as you complete tasks throughout the game you will make your way up to the VIP carriage, but just because you have a promotion doesn’t mean the danger isn’t ever-present. As mentioned throughout the game you will be tasked with either keeping order or rooting out any of the troublemakers that threaten to disrupt the order. You can do this my checking passenger’s tickets and luggage before filing a report but more on that later. The alternative is that you can turn to the side of the rebels and disobey those above you.
Before I started to play this game, I was not sure what to expect and within the first ten minutes I failed, more on that in a minute Beholder Conductor is a Simulation/ Mystery/Text adventure, with a 2D art style this choice in art styles makes the game stand out and after playing it I can feel that this game would not work in any other style. The game opens with an extremely easy tutorial that if you read it, you could not mess up in the first ten minutes, right? So, I obviously did not pay attention to one of the important parts of the game and it caused me to die/enter the game over screen. Let me explain how I got to that point, within the game you will have a points system called Authority Points, if you AP goes below zero then you are quickly delt with.
There are many ways that you can lose AP, this can be anything from making a mistake in the reports that you will file throughout the game, making the wrong choice in a conversation or being caught looking through passengers’ luggage. The last one is an important part of game play but it also is a very risky, you can look through the bags to find out if the commuters are hiding any times of contraband, or an item that you need to progress one of the tasks that you have been set. However, if you steal from a bag, you will also lose AP points, so it is best to try and find another way to get the item that you need.
If you find out that someone has a prohibited item then you can file a report on them, a guard will then come along and remove them. Upon a successful report you will gain coins and AP. Alternatively if they do not have any illegal items on them but have items of interest, which will be in their bag and once removed you will have an option to record the item. You can then take this information and create a Character evidence report. This will not negatively impact the passenger, but you will gain AP and cons for every report you submit.
I will not go into too much detail about the story of the game as I would rather not spoil it, and that I have not played through every outcome of the game. I will say that through the game you will work you up to the higher-class carriages and be thrust into a mini murder mystery, unless that outcome was caused by my choices I made within my playthrough.
I have never played any of the other Beholder games, so I am unable to say if this meets the same standard as the others or if it was better than what came before. For me personally this game was very middle of the road. The reason why I feel this is because there were several points in the game where I was left running around trying to find that one thing that would help progress me onto the next task only to find out that I have to wait for the train to get to the next station for either a new person to join or for enough time to pass to trigger the next event.
While this is not bad, I feel that with it happening to many times players may get bored of the game and move onto something else. To 100% this game it will certainly take multiple playthroughs of the game but with each playthrough being around 4-6 hours it should not be too much of a hassle. So, if like me you are someone who likes to 100% their games and get the Platinum trophy then this game is certainly one that should be added to the list.
I would say that this game defiantly leaves me interested into what the other games in the series are like, but I won’t be rushing to play them just yet. This game feels like the kind you may play in between playing bigger triple A games. An enjoyable game yet one that I feel isn’t going to stick with me and be one that I may easily forget.
