Deceit Review

Title: Deceit

Available On: PC

Where To Buy: Steam

Would I lie to you? Yes, in Deceit, I most certainly would. In this 6 player horror survival game, the aim of the game is to lie your way to victory, being wary of others and building trust with your teammates.

In Deceit, you play as one of 6 test subjects in each game, 2 subjects are injected with a virus which allows them to turn into a bloodthirsty creature when the conditions are dark.

The objective in Deceit entirely depends on whether you are innocent or infected; if you are innocent, you must quickly determine who is infected, try to eliminate them from the game and escape. If you are infected, your aim is to kill the innocent players.

Infected players must drink blood from blood bags which are dotted around the level in order to transform and execute innocent players. Drinking the blood makes a loud, obnoxious noise that can be heard from some distance; so this needs to be a discreet action. Drinking blood around other players is a sure way to get yourself eliminated from the game.

As each match progresses, the innocents can equip themselves with camera’s to stun the infected creatures in the dark, which in the current build of the game, is the best form of defense during the dark periods of the game. The gun is ineffective at night time but can stun the creature, but a couple of clicks with your camera does the same job in far less time.

Players can also acquire other items such as a tracker which does what it says on the tin, it tracks a player’s movement for a set period of time. Players can use this to track someone they may suspect to be the infected or the infected can use it closer to the dark period of play in order to find their prey in the dark much easier.

Sometimes, the players can find a scanner, a one-time use item that can tell the user if another player is infected or not. I stress that only the user can see what the results are, which allows for potentially infected players to either keep hold of the item or scan another player and lie to their “teammates” in order for the team to eliminate them. Either way, as the infected, you do not want to be scanned, so pleading innocence before someone scans you may just save you from elimination.

There is an antidote that can instantly revive a player who has been downed. This item appears to have very little use against players who know how to play, as the creature has an uninterruptible cinematic kill that doesn’t allow the victim to be revived, which can be used so long as they have at least 1 third of their blood meter filled.

Finally, there is a lethal injection that can be used as an instant kill on any innocent player; the lethal injection does not work on the infected players. Most innocents will plead for everyone to not attempt to pick this up, as it results in an easy kill for the infected, should the infected pick this up. An innocent would technically have no reason to use this item, other than to stop the infected from being able to acquire it.

I was disappointed to find only a handful of maps are available, with no way of choosing a map. Running through the same few corridors or the same forest gets dull pretty quick. Variety is the spice of life after all! There are 4 playable characters, each with their own glut of customization options (purchasable in the game). For the record, I really don’t look at cosmetics or skins as “content”, since it does little to enhance a game.

Each character has their own set of perks, which are unlocked by completing challenges as those particular characters. The perks basically break the game when paired against new players. The fact that the creature can be stun locked with the camera is ridiculous, allowing them no time to recover or any hope of ever killing another survivor.

Deceit offers a pretty intense communication-based scenario in which you must learn to trust and detect when people are lying. If you suspect a player is lying you can shoot them with your gun, which begins the voting process. When enough shots have been counted as votes from other players, the downed victim is eliminated from the game, with no chance to respawn.

The biggest obstacle you will face in Deceit are players working together. Despite the game being very much a game about discovering the truth about other players, you can eliminate the need to do this by partying up with friends, and telling each other who is infected and who is innocent, which completely detracts from the point of the game.

Deceit comes with a ranking system and in-game currency which can only be acquired by winning games. The grind can be incredibly monotonous so, why not cheat to get ahead? After the first week of playing this game, many of the games I found myself in were completely unbalanced and spoiled by this type of behavior.

Whether innocent or infected, you are at a complete disadvantage when 2 or more of the players in the game are uncooperative simply because they want to grind experience and play to their own agenda.

At present, there is no way to really counter this, other than trying to convince every other player to eliminate these types of player, however, this is easier said than done! Too much emphasis is hinged onto the community to play the game as intended for this to ultimately work.

So, would I recommend Deceit? If the game goes on sale, certainly, but ultimately I’m left disappointed because there just isn’t enough content to warrant a full price purchase here.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdqX_PRXqfA[/embedyt]

• Gameplay: Gameplay shows potential, but it’s far too repetitive and doesn’t vary from game to game.

• Graphics: A mixed bag. Backgrounds look nice, but certain models clearly look out of place.

• Sound: Default sound levels are deafening! Gun shots sound weak, drinking blood is exceptionally loud; a poor balance overall.

• Presentation: The concept of Saw meets Trouble in Terrorist Town (Garry’s Mod) is an interesting one, but requires a community to play as intended.

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