Review Fix Exclusive: Inside ‘Beholder DLC: Blissful Sleep’

Review Fix chats with Evgeny Sister, Producer at Alawar, who discusses the upcoming Beholder DLC: Blissful Sleep. Breaking down the inspiration for the DLC and the warm reception of the original game, Sister lets us know exactly why it’s worth your time.

Review Fix: What inspired this DLC?

Evgeny Sister: It was inspired by the success of the original game, however, if we are speaking about the storylines rather than about why we decided to develop and release this DLC, then it is just a little bit more complicated: original Beholder is a story-based and a story-driven game with multiple endings. This means that we have unfolded as many outcomes as possible (or very close to a possible number of endings). Therefore, a DLC that would tell stories of Carl Shteyn and his family sounded a bit strained. On the other hand, we have a previous landlord, who is dragged away by police at the beginning of the game. His story is completely unknown. Moreover, we can also tell some more stories of the secondary characters from the original game, without changing the settings and stay within the same atmosphere of totalitarianism and surveillance. These thoughts inspired us to come up with the idea for the DLC.

Review Fix: How does it change the game?

Sister: It doesn’t change the game at all, from the point of mechanics or setting or gameplay. We are still in the same State, under the same rule, even in the same building. But again, Beholder is all about decisions that a player makes; about the circumstances that we put a player in; and about the stories that we tell. So, we introduced new characters, added more details to the existing ones and, of course, we created more exciting and sometimes shocking stories!

Review Fix: What was the original reception for the game like? How did it fuel the fire for this DLC?

Sister: The game received a very warm welcome from the players. Even at the beta-test stage, we got an overwhelmingly positive feedback from players who agreed to participate (by the way there were over 20 000 beta-testers), followed by a close attention from the streamers and vloggers (with some of let’s players creating a whole series of 5+ let’s play videos). We also received great reviews from different gaming media, including IGN Russia, who named us the best adventure game of 2016.

All in all, over the previous 6 months we won 7 nominations, including Best in Play @GDC 2017 and Best Indie Game @GCA 2017 and @DevGAMM 2016.

Of course, such a tremendous success lends you wings. We even started thinking of Beholder 2 before we got down to developing the DLC!

But anyway, it all depend on the players – they decide to either make a DLC come true or to make the original game sink into oblivion. Quite an elegant way to touch upon a sales question, I think 

Review Fix: Bottom line, why should someone download this game and the DLC?

Sister: Beholder is a game that tests your moral compass.

But we do not ask you, what is good or what is bad. Nor do we provide an answer to that. Instead, we put a choice in front of you, a choice that will make you think of what you believe is right or wrong, good or evil. What ending will you encounter? Will it be a happy or a sad one? In fact, it is all in the eye of a Beholder.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Sister: We are already working on Beholder 2. We will stick to this totalitarian state, but this time it’s going to be a whole new perspective. However, we may also continue with the DLCs – it all depends on whether we will meet our players’ expectations with Beholder: Blissful Sleep.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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