Beholder 4 is official, and this time you're spying on the government from the inside

After a decade of watching suspicious tenants and reporting citizens to the authorities, Beholder is turning its surveillance machinery inward.

Alawar has announced Beholder 4, a new entry in the dystopian narrative series, as part of its tenth anniversary celebrations.

The announcement was made on November 9, 2026, alongside a teaser trailer and a new Steam store page.

The game is officially in development for PC, although Alawar has not announced a release date.

Its central premise immediately distinguishes it from the original game: players will become a government employee who secretly works against the State.

A promising government employee with a dangerous secret

The protagonist of Beholder 4 is a young Ministry official.

Their superiors consider them loyal, diligent and ambitious.

That reputation is essential to maintaining their cover.

In reality, the character is an underground operative working to undermine the authoritarian regime.

During the day, the protagonist processes administrative files, signs orders and attempts to advance through the Ministry's hierarchy.

Behind the scenes, they steal confidential documents, sabotage government operations and gather intelligence for the resistance.

The challenge involves keeping both sides satisfied without exposing the character's real loyalties.

Advancement within the government can provide access to restricted information, but higher positions also carry greater responsibility for the regime's actions.

The protagonist may ultimately have to decide whether a promotion is worth the consequences of the orders they are required to sign.

The Ministry becomes an espionage playground

Alawar has confirmed several activities built around the character's double life.

Players will explore Ministry corridors and restricted offices, observing colleagues and gathering useful information.

They can listen to conversations, look through keyholes and plant surveillance devices.

Other actions include stealing keys, opening safes, forging documents and collecting compromising information.

Blackmail can be used against officials, while stolen intelligence can support underground operations.

These mechanics retain the franchise's emphasis on information as a form of power.

However, the protagonist's new position changes the risks involved.

In the original Beholder, the landlord monitored tenants while operating under the authority of the State.

In Beholder 4, the player may have to use the same surveillance techniques while hiding their actions from the people who employ them.

The information gathered can become a valuable resource, but also evidence of criminal activity.

What happens when two missions contradict each other?

The official Steam description provides an example of the game's moral dilemmas.

The Ministry may order the protagonist to identify a traitor among their colleagues.

At the same time, the resistance may ask them to help that person escape.

Completing one mission can mean betraying the other.

Another scenario concerns a promotion that would give the protagonist access to classified archives.

Accepting the position would also require them to sign arrest warrants.

These situations reflect the direction Alawar is taking with the game's narrative.

The State is not guaranteed to be wrong in every individual situation, and the underground resistance is not presented as morally flawless.

Players may also pursue their own interests rather than remaining loyal to either faction.

The developer says decisions will influence characters, relationships and operations.

The extent of those narrative consequences remains to be evaluated in the finished game.

The police can search your apartment

One of the game's most distinctive announced mechanics concerns the protagonist's home.

After completing a day at the Ministry, the character may return with stolen documents or other incriminating materials.

The police can arrive to search the apartment.

Players must then decide how to conceal evidence before investigators discover it.

Alawar describes hiding places such as ventilation shafts and concealed spaces around the home.

Documents can also be destroyed.

However, destroying evidence creates another problem: information that has been eliminated cannot be used again for future operations.

When officers discover suspicious objects, players may attempt to lie, make excuses or use their Ministry status to avoid punishment.

Police searches are expected to become more persistent over time.

The developer suggests that investigators may eventually arrive with a more precise idea of what they are looking for.

The system reverses the original franchise dynamic.

The person who once searched other people's homes must now prevent others from searching their own.

The game's visual identity continues to emphasize government institutions, restricted spaces and the oppressive atmosphere of its fictional State.

Four romantic relationships with political consequences

Beholder 4 also includes relationship systems.

Alawar has announced four female characters with whom the protagonist can develop romantic connections.

Each character will have her own personality, political beliefs, problems and secrets.

Players can get to know them, help with personal matters, flirt and go on dates.

However, their relationships will not be separated from the wider conflict.

Some characters work for the State, while others support the resistance.

A romantic partner may ask the protagonist to do something that directly contradicts an assignment or political allegiance.

That creates another source of uncertainty.

Trusting someone could affect personal relationships as well as government or underground operations.

The relationship system has been announced, but the number of scenes, available outcomes and full narrative complexity remain unknown.

Choices are intended to reshape the story

The game's Steam description emphasizes decisions and their consequences.

Players may save someone from arrest or sign the order that destroys their life.

They can assist an underground operation or secretly expose its plans to the authorities.

Other possibilities include modifying patrol schedules, warning endangered characters and choosing not to intervene.

In a game focused on moral responsibility, inaction may be as consequential as a direct decision.

Alawar says the game will remember the player's behavior and change character relationships, operational outcomes and story events accordingly.

This suggests an emphasis on replayability.

However, the announcement does not establish how many separate routes or endings the finished adventure will contain.

Those details will need to be assessed once more of the game becomes available.

Ten years of living under surveillance

The original Beholder launched in 2016.

Its premise centered on a landlord employed by an authoritarian government to watch tenants and report suspicious behavior.

The surveillance created moral conflicts whenever government directives threatened the safety or privacy of ordinary residents.

Beholder 2 later shifted the focus toward the Ministry itself, following a protagonist attempting to advance through the bureaucracy.

The series continued exploring different relationships between individuals and the State.

Beholder 4 builds upon those ideas by introducing a protagonist who openly serves the system while secretly working against it.

This creates a different type of conflict.

Rather than simply choosing whether to report someone, players must maintain a cover identity, prepare covert operations and protect themselves from surveillance.

This archival illustration from Beholder 2 highlights the series' long-standing interest in government bureaucracy. It is not a screenshot from Beholder 4.

A new digital comic joins the anniversary celebrations

Alawar has announced additional anniversary content alongside the new game.

Beholder: The Landlord's Handbook is a digital comic released separately on Steam on November 9.

The publication takes the form of an illustrated government manual for apartment managers.

Its stories explore surveillance, suspicious tenants, overheard conversations and the private lives hidden behind closed doors.

The material retains the series' recognizable dark humor.

The comic is available with a 10% launch discount for its first two weeks.

Importantly, it is not a playable game or an expansion for Beholder 4.

It is a separate digital publication within the franchise.

The original Beholder receives a 90% discount

The first Beholder is also part of the anniversary promotion.

Alawar has announced a 90% discount on Steam running from November 9 through November 24, 2026.

The promotion gives newcomers an opportunity to discover the original game's approach to surveillance and moral decisions.

Final prices depend on regional Steam pricing.

The discount applies to the original release, not the upcoming fourth installment.

No preorder price has been announced for Beholder 4.

Release date, platforms and supported languages

Beholder 4 is currently in development for Windows PC.

Its Steam page is available, and players can add the game to their wishlists.

Alawar has not announced a release date or launch price.

The store page confirms single-player support, Steam achievements and Steam Cloud functionality.

Controller support is also listed.

Eleven interface and subtitle languages are currently shown, including English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean and others.

No full voice acting is listed in the current language table.

No PlayStation, Xbox or Nintendo Switch edition has been officially confirmed.

The developer has also not announced a public demo or an Early Access launch.

For now, the game remains a newly announced project rather than a playable commercial release.

A familiar dystopia with the danger turned inward

The central idea behind Beholder 4 is already compelling.

Players will participate in a system of surveillance while secretly attempting to undermine it.

The police-search mechanic could make that contradiction particularly tangible.

Spying on a colleague to obtain useful information is one challenge. Returning home and desperately hiding the evidence of that activity is another.

The final result will depend on how well Alawar connects its undercover systems with the larger narrative and administrative progression.

At present, the announcement establishes the new protagonist, setting, several mechanics and a PC release plan.

The release date remains unknown.

After ten years of observing citizens, Beholder is preparing to remind players of a familiar lesson: in a society where everyone watches everyone else, nobody can ever be entirely safe.