Games like Beholder 2

The Squirrel's verdictWhere Beholder 2 puts you among NPCs to surveil and manipulate, The Alters centers on one character split into multiple versions of himself, managing a survival base under a time limit. The split between base-building and dialogue runs roughly 40/60 by reviewer accounts. Choices carry weight, but the mechanical context—resource management, base construction—is a significant departure.

Not for you if you want the social manipulation of multiple distinct NPCs rather than survival management layered under the narrative choices.

The Squirrel's verdictYes, Your Grace shares Beholder 2's core loop: a narrative manager where you sit at a desk, hear petitioners, and make dialogue choices that reshape a household under pressure. Here you're a king allocating scarce resources across a kingdom instead of a clerk climbing ministry ranks. Same day-to-day management feel, different institution and stakes.

Not for you if you want dialogue choices to meaningfully branch the story rather than funnel toward a fixed outcome.

The Squirrel's verdictThe 4X, city-builder, and RPG framing in Heart of the Machine is thin by reviewer consensus: building placement has little strategic effect, combat is light, and the core loop is closer to a choice-driven visual novel than a strategy game. Players drawn to Beholder 2's narrative decision-making will find the choice structure familiar; those expecting the genre systems advertised will not.

Not for you if you want the 4X/strategy/city-builder systems to have real depth rather than function as dressing around a choice-driven narrative.

The Squirrel's verdictAs a news editor deciding what to publish, you sit at the center of state-adjacent power rather than as a low-level clerk filing reports. NoviNews is built for multiple short playthroughs—a single run takes around 90 minutes—with branching endings that reward replaying more than investing in one long campaign. Social interactions outside work add a personal layer alongside the editorial choices.

Not for you if you want deep office-task variety and freeform choices rather than a short, ending-focused branching story.

The Squirrel's verdictA Papers Please-style loop set inside a surveillance-state bureaucracy: you process applications under a system built on control, with choices that carry consequences. The paperwork mechanics are tighter and faster-paced than Beholder 2's slow-walk office politics, but reviewers describe the story as thin and the dialogue as clunky. Median playtime is around 6 hours.

Not for you if you came to Beholder 2 for its character-driven story and moral dilemmas rather than the paperwork mechanics.

The Squirrel's verdictBoth cast you as a low-level cog feeding surveillance to an authoritarian system, with choices about who gets hurt. Orwell drops Beholder 2's slow-walk exploration and dialogue trees for a shorter, more linear info-gathering loop: you select which citizen data to upload, deciding what the state sees. Median playtime is 5.5 hours, a fraction of Beholder 2's sprawl.

Not for you if you want branching character relationships and a long campaign rather than a tight, linear evidence-selection loop.

The Squirrel's verdictYes, Your Grace 2 suits players who want feudal kingdom management with inherited consequences from the first game, since it accepts save data to carry prior choices forward. Reviewers consistently flag that major story outcomes feel fixed regardless of decisions, pacing turns repetitive in later chapters, and game-breaking bugs have blocked some players from finishing. Median playtime is around 15 hours.

Not for you if you need choices to visibly steer major story outcomes, or bugs blocking chapter progression would stop you from finishing.

The Squirrel's verdictBeholder 3 keeps the core setup—spy on residents, juggle directives, navigate a surveillance state—but reviewers who valued the earlier games' creative freedom report that choices feel more fixed and spying tasks grow repetitive. The studio that made it differs from Beholder 2's, and that shift is noticeable. Players new to the series may find it more tolerable than returning fans.

Not for you if you valued Beholder 2's open-ended scheming and creative freedom, since reviewers report Beholder 3's choices are more fixed and spying feels repetitive.