If you think privacy is a problem now, just wait until you play grim point-and-tap strategy game Beholder.
In an Orwellian totalitarian state you’re Carl Stein, a building manager and one of the many eyes of the unblinking government.
Alongside normal landlord tasks of keeping the building in good order and moving residents in, it’s your job to spy on your tenants using bugs, security cameras and searching while they’re out living their oppressed lives to make sure they're not flouting Directives.
Are they crying? Do they possess fish? Wearing jeans? Keep track of a daily-growing list of rules and find out. As you gather evidence and build profiles of your tenants, you can choose to file reports and turn them in to earn money and reputation that helps your family survive.
Throughout the game you receive tasks of varying complexity from your family, tenants and employer with a timeframe in which they need to be completed.
Sometimes they’ll be simple fetch quests while others will require more time, investigation and conversation. It’s down to you to prioritise.
The problem is your tenants are also your neighbours, which can make turning them over to the authorities difficult. If your tenant owns a forbidden book but he’s kindly helped your son get university textbooks, what do you do?
You can also earn money by stealing and selling tenants’ things or blackmailing them. No option makes you a good person but not doing anything could result in your family’s death. And that’s not great either. Quickly you’ll find yourself torn between self-interest, duty to your state and empathy for your fellow man.
This is a game for those that like a slow-burning, narrative challenge where right and wrong are in the eye of the Beholder.