Beholder 3
Life and survival in a surveillance state
Welcome to the Great Union: a totalitarian state that controls everything and everyone. As a disgraced ministry official, you must work your way back to the top whilst disguised as a caretaker. Monitor your tenants, spy on your colleagues and decide how far you are willing to go for your career and family.
About the game
1989 in “Great Leader City”. Frank Schwarz has lost his high-ranking post in the Ministry due to a plot and, as punishment, must play the role of caretaker. But alongside repairs and bills, his real task remains: reporting to the Ministry on everything and everyone.
In the apartment block, you install cameras, search flats, eavesdrop on conversations and gather incriminating material. Anyone who stands out is arrested and disappears. But then the political landscape begins to shift: bans are relaxed, reforms announced. Suddenly, there are alternatives to blind loyalty to the system.
Hardliners, reformers or revolutionaries: who are you really working for? And what are you prepared to sacrifice: your career, your family or your conscience?
Gameplay
Beholder 3 is a blend of strategy, simulation and narrative adventure. In the game’s distinctive silhouette style, you navigate through the apartment block and the Ministry:
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Surveillance: Install cameras, peer through keyholes, search flats
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Reporting: Create profiles on your fellow citizens and report violations to the Ministry
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Decisions: Support the system, work for reforms, or help the resistance
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Balancing: Keep your family together as the pressure mounts from all sides
Every decision has consequences. Those who fail risk more than just their career: suddenly, the wife loses her job, the son is involved in an accident, or Frank himself disappears. The game ruthlessly exposes the limits of individual agency within authoritarian systems.
Education & Use
Beholder 3 is the third instalment in a globally successful game series that has sold hundreds of thousands of copies. With its oppressive atmosphere and dark humour, the game offers a unique approach to the themes of surveillance and authoritarianism: emotionally gripping and intellectually challenging.
From the German names and the Berlin snark to the floral wallpaper, the fictional “Greatest Union” is reminiscent of the GDR. The game plays with historical references such as travel permits and visits from the West, without being a direct retelling.
Learning objectives
Players actively engage with key questions:
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Surveillance and control: How does state surveillance affect both the observers and the observed?
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Conformity and resistance: What scope for action remains in authoritarian systems?
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Morality under pressure: How do you make decisions when every option means loss?
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Civil courage: What do you risk for others when you yourself are under threat?
The game makes abstract political concepts tangible and encourages reflection on privacy, power and the role of the individual.
Areas of application
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History: Cold War, GDR, surveillance states
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Politics / Social Studies: Authoritarian systems, democracy and dictatorship, human rights
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Ethics / Philosophy: Moral dilemmas, responsibility, moral courage
- Social Sciences: Social control, individual freedom, pressure to conform
Target audience
USK rating: 16+. Recommended from Year 11/12 (pupils aged approx. 16 and over). Due to the length of the game (approx. 10 hours), it cannot be used in its entirety in the classroom, but individual missions are suitable for group play and subsequent discussions.
Note on sensitive content
In addition to repression and denunciation, the game also addresses domestic violence, homosexuality under the threat of persecution, HIV/AIDS and drug use. The portrayal serves to encourage critical engagement with the surveillance state and its impact on individual lives.
Awards & Press
Recommended by the Federal Agency for Civic Education as a game for political education
The game presents us with many challenges that explore the conflicts between conformity and resistance. In the end, it will not be possible to reconcile career, state reform and freedom for ourselves and our family.