Deceive Inc. – Review by Thistle’Do Gaming’s Paul Tyre

Written by Paul Tyre (Thistle’Do Gaming)

Introduction

As an avid player of multiplayer games, I get excited to see something new and interesting hit the store. Competitive PvP games are my bread and butter, as I tend to prefer playing games with others, particularly with my wife and my friends. The issue in the current market of multiplayer games is that they are all too often centred around the same idea. Whether it be a shooter, a racing game or a fighting game, it is very rare to find something with a truly unique twist that strays away from the current AAA formula. This is where “Deceive Inc.” intrigued me. A new multiplayer game, with a fairly unique premise and what I hoped would be a lot of fun. 

What is Deceive Inc?

Imagine your favourite heist movie, a group of misfits all planning to execute a high-stakes robbery with the use of clever tricks, gadgets and their individual specialist skills to achieve their goal. 

Well, Deceive Inc is just that, a first person heist royale. Choose from a roster of 8 agents (you will start off with 3) and break into a vault, acquire the package and extract with your bounty, either solo or as part of a team. The twist? Because we all know that a good heist has a twist, right? It is that everyone is hiding their true identity behind a “Holographic Cover” that makes them look just like an NPC. Oh, and not to forget, the whole game leans into a 70’s theme. 

Tutorial

Starting off with a tutorial, you are introduced to the basic principles of the game. This gives a comprehensive description of the basics of heisting, your “Holographic Cover”, how to point and shoot and finally, testing your skills in the field. 

When you get into the field you are met by random NPCs walking around a room, where you are required to collect intel so that you can hack the doors and get to the next area. Following this you learn about how you can change your “Holographic Cover” into any NPC you might come across. This can be used to get into areas that your standard NPC cannot access, by mimicking an NPC of a certain status, such as a security guard. Anyone who has played WatchDogs Legion will know this strategy well. Different coloured rooms will require different disguises to ensure that your cover isn’t blown. You will have to navigate the risk of Ai players (bots pretending to be bots!?) trying to achieve the same goal as you but the real danger arrives when you acquire the main goal, the package. Not only will you now have to get all the way to extraction, but you will be highlighted to other players periodically, so you will have to be fast, smart and as inconspicuous as possible. 

Prepare for Deception

In the pregame menus you will have the option to use the “Field Upgrades” menu. This appears in the form of a deck builder and adds unique buffs to your Agent. You have the option of up to 4 decks to choose from so you can make a selection of decks for different situations. These upgrades will not be available to you at the start of a match and will require you to seek them out during your mission.

The 8 Agents to choose from each have unique weapons, expertise and passive abilities. This will require smart choices, particularly when playing a “Team” game as you may want to focus your Team towards a specific style of play. Furthermore, each Agent can be equipped with 2 Gadgets. Gadgets can be used in a variety of ways and are labelled under four titles: Defense, Traps, Deception and Recon. Each gadget will help you in a different way, so choose wisely as utilising these gadgets, abilities and Agents could give you the edge you need to win. 

Online Play

Now that the tutorial is completed, it’s time to select how you want to play. You have two options, play “Solo” to go for all the glory or select “Team” to join up with 2 others to take on the heist as a trio of misfits.

When entering a match you start in a pregame lobby filled with the other players you will be up against. Once everyone has joined, you spawn into the main game and suddenly you are surrounded by NPCs, anxiously wondering if the next person you come across is a real player. This adds a real edge to the experience, because not only are you at risk of exposing who you are at all times, you are also looking for any hint that someone is out of place, which in turn can expose you, and the cycle continues… In my first game, I immediately ran to the sound of gunfire in an attempt to eliminate my competition. This wasn’t wise, as not only will other players come in, running and gunning, but there are also those darn security guards who don’t hesitate to shoot you in the back! Death in a Solo match is the end of the game for you unfortunately, and very much like a battle royale title, there is no respawn. In a Team match however you can be revived once by your fellow heisters. The permadeath doesn’t feel problematic however, as you can jump into a new lobby very quickly to start the fun again. 

The aim of the game is similar to the tutorial level but there are more objectives to complete. You want to get into the vault? Then disable those terminals or survive long enough for other players to do so. It takes 3 terminals to be disabled to open the vault so be prepared to grab that prize and extract. Does that sound easy enough? It really isn’t and it can be quite hard to get the hang of everything you need to find. 

I managed to squeeze in a few Team games with my fellow Thistle’Do members which resulted in a fun but slightly different experience. We definitely needed more practice at sticking together but it was good to see how well you could play as a team and although we didn’t do very well, it was still a fun few matches and a great break from our usual games. 

One oversight in the gameplay is the lack of aim assist on console. It can be a struggle to outgun a target especially due to fast movement and people jumping around. As a regular player of Rainbow Six Siege, I am not shy of having aim assist removed from me but I have found it difficult to hit my shots at times here. This is only really an issue due to playing against PC players who will find it much easier to aim on mouse, and unfortunately if you turn crossplay off, you will be waiting around for well…I will update you when I find a match. 

Progression & Additional Content

As you play each match you will be awarded XP that will increase your individual Agent’s level, which is out of 10 and your Account Level which unlocks new gadgets. As your Agent gains more levels you will unlock a range of items including profile portraits, titles, mods for your character’s weapons, and abilities.

There are two currencies in the game and most of the cosmetics can be bought with in-game earned currency that you receive at the end of each match. All of the Agents can be purchased using the in-game earned coin too and it doesn’t take long to unlock them. The “Shop” has premium items similar to most live service games and there is an area for “Seasons” that states “Season Content is coming soon” so it looks like there will be some form of BattlePass available in the near future. 

I feel it is worth noting that although the premium currency is priced around the same as other titles with in-game purchases, the most expensive Shop items at the time of writing this, is less than £8.39, which is refreshing to see they are not overcharging for items.  

Conclusion

Deceive Inc. offers a fun and refreshing take on the multiplayer game genre. It is an eye pleasing game, with bright colours and well thought out design. If you like to play tactical shooters, or want to run about like a spy infiltrating a lobby of NPCs and players, it will be a joy of an experience. 

The only issues I have to highlight is the lack of aim assist vs having to play in crossplay lobbies against keyboard and mouse. It is a pet peeve of mine that developers continue to put PC and Console gamers in the same lobbies and although I understand them maintaining a player base, I think restricting it to only console to console crossplay, would improve the experience massively. It is worth noting that on the Steam Community page for Deceive Inc. the developers have said (March 21st) that Aim Assist will be coming to the console versions for controller, in a future update.