Deceive Inc – Review
If you’re looking for a new multiplayer game to play online, Deceive Inc. may be it. It will creep up on you and eventually take over your mind. The value proposition of Decieve Inc. isn’t immediately apparent, but the following is essential to keep in mind: you play as a number of various spies sent out on the same mission, either individually or in teams of three. By pressing the play button, you have accepted the assignment to retrieve a suitcase from a secured vault and deliver it to the extraction point before escaping in a getaway vehicle.
The multiplayer mode is reminiscent of the classic Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood experience, but there is much more going on here due to the integration of multiple platforms. For starters, the lack of rules means that any conflict can break out at any time, be it a team coming to a third-party player versus player fight or even the toilet attendant watching over the cubicle you’ve crawled into to regain your composure and take stock after a bad firefight.
However, not every spy is the same. Some people like to carry two pistols so they can get in close and blast their enemies before finishing them off with a kung fu strike. A sniper prefers to lurk on distant roofs, while a reformed supervillain is perfectly content to barge into any gathering armed only with a hand-mounted shotgun.
Intelligent users will play to their abilities, which vary depending on the situation. There are multiple stages to each mission, and they each feel different to perform. At first, you’ll be looking for keycards, information, and the proper attire to hack the computers protecting the massive vault’s security. The actual infiltration of the vault, complete with gunfights with guards and rival squads, is the second step. The third and final stage is retrieving the mcguffin from its hiding place and transporting it to the extraction site in a suitcase. Everyone on the map can see you, but your foes will usually have the advantage of stealth, unless you use a true-sight that costs intelligence and gives you a brief window of visibility into their location.
The outcome is spy-based euphoria, in the form of a remarkably tight deception-based shooter that blends close-quarters gunplay with social stealth, fun gadgetry, and even the framework of the hottest genre right now, the extraction shooter.
It’s frustrating when you finally make it to the extract, only to be taken out by a sharpshooter who has been waiting in ambush for the entire round. In my limited experience, I have found that the best results come from staying out of sight and striking when my opponents are most vulnerable.
There’s a lot of time to take in the game’s visuals while you’re hunched over on that balcony. In a field with a reputation for gloom, it’s the hippies of the 1970s who are having the time of their lives. Remember the game No One Lives Forever? It had a similar visual style. A shooter with a madcap feel that makes it impossible to feel terrible when you get murdered by a pot plant, but it really shines here, as evidenced by the incredible outfits, the soundtrack, and the mechanics of the game themselves.
You see, if you die in a solo game here, you die immediately, and the game gives you your experience points and kicks you out without so much as a “better luck next time.” If your entire team is killed, the game is over, and even if one of your teammates manages to revive you, the odds are high that the other team is camped out nearby, waiting to ambush your saviours while pretending to be a trash can, a guard, or even invisible until the very moment they fire their weapon and then throw the empty weapon in your face.
That trash can primed for battle? The game’s item-mimicking device makes this possible, giving players access to Prey-style mimicry technology. It’s a tool that competitors can use, among others. It’s a bizarre option compared to the more common sentry gun or remote hacking device, but it’s not the only one; for example, there’s also a tiny cube that can be inflated and deflated at will, propelling anyone near it away at high speed while simultaneously blocking line of sight and bullets for a second, giving a shrewd player time to reposition themselves.
Once you’ve been completely surprised by another player using one of the game’s gadgets, an ability of a character, or even a generic talent that everyone has in Deceive Inc, you’ll realise that this is the game’s greatest trick. When you have that, you can’t help but want to use it against your opponents.
The battle will inevitably devolve into a shootout, and the operatives who rely on stealth will be at a disadvantage compared to their more combative teammates. The firing is also sloppy and inaccurate, which makes chaotic deathmatches entertaining but frustrates during situations that call for pinpoint accuracy.
Even if the actual firing doesn’t satisfy, the firearms themselves are works of art. The firearms are unique and entertaining; for example, the hand shotgun can be reloaded by inserting a small tube into your wrist, and the dual pistols can be reloaded with a showy twirl. There isn’t much here that you haven’t seen before, but the attention to detail in these firearms makes them shine even more than they would in a top-tier AAA game.
Close-quarters fighters among the spy network? They have access to a variety of weapons that make the going a little easier, but using them requires reaching a certain degree of agent mastery, which can take multiple playthroughs. As a well-rounded squad, three friends may have to put in a lot of time to unlock what they need to be competitive, especially if they are playing as new operators, which requires a lot of in-game credit.
Deception Inc. thrives when it lets you loose with the toolbox and invites you to mess with the world and the opposing players within it in fascinating ways, but the game’s numerous progression systems are a mistake. If the game would just get out of the way and let players do that right away, everyone would have a much better time.
Even so, it stands out as a fun and novel online option. In a just society, everyone would give Decieve Inc. a shot to see if their rapid-fire deception would pay off. Unfortunately, many won’t, and another superb multiplayer game with a novel premise will have a hard time breaking through the noise of the live service distraction market and finding its target audience.
