Decieve Inc is a social deception game. You and several other spies are thrown into various stages with a singular objective – escape with a precious item in the vault. The only problem is everyone, and anyone is a target. It sounds like a very promising premise, continuing the social deception genre that was made popular by Among Us back in 2020 and followed up with similar titles like First Class Trouble, Decieve Inc is a game that a few will like, but the complex nature of the game can turn others off. In our Decieve Inc Review, we’ll take a look at what it has to offer.
Cloak and Dagger – The Main Objective
Similar to Pay Day and other heist games, the game follows a series of steps that you, as the player, must fulfill with each mission. You will enter the game world as an agent, take on a disguise, and from there, you will have to blend into a slightly open-world setting, navigating to the places where you will have to deactivate three vault consoles.
However, it is worth noting that you are not alone in your mission. Other enemy spies are out for the same objective and will gun you down if they can tell you apart from the NPCs that also inhabit the world. The game reminds me of the Multiplayer of the early Assassin’s Creed games, as you can take on the disguise of any person you wish, but to access some areas without causing a problem, you can also steal the appearance of a person that belongs in that room. These range from security personnel to building staff, making your disguise all the more difficult for other players to see.
Once you or the other players have deactivated all 3 of the vault’s safeguards, you have to escape with the item in the vault; however, doing so also makes you a moving target on the map and makes you open to attack from every other spy. You have to reach the extraction point and stand there for a few seconds to trigger a successful escape.
I Think I’ll Die Another Day
You will have to keep a keen eye on other players. They are usually the ones running around, or if you see someone change appearance before you, they are a player. You can safely gun them down to reduce the competition.
Firing your weapon, however, also means you lose your cover, the disguise you are using. To restore it, stand still for a few seconds and you will be back to what you were before taking the shot. However, it’s always best to change your disguise after a kill.
All of this sounds simple, right? But a very convoluted system holds it back, and for some reason, playing on European servers with a laptop on Ethernet, I was met with lag. Even after playing the tutorial twice, I didn’t have a full grasp of every mechanic and gameplay system. Paired with the uneven gunplay, which can possibly be attributed to the lag, I was confused about how I was getting similar lag that I was when living in Asia to what I am getting now in Europe. There is no option to change the matchmaking region, which further fueled my confusion.
You’re Your Own Bond, M, Q, and Everything
While the above explanation talks about the objectives you must complete to win a game, there are many more. Every spy acts like a class with unique abilities, skills, and gadgets, suiting each player’s playstyle. However, in the beginning, you start with binoculars that allow you to hack a device from a safe distance and a device that launches out bounce pads for you to reach higher surfaces around the world.
By playing the game, you unlock a wider variety of gadgets and more, but all of this requires you to either win the game or survive the end of one. Winning a game gives greater rewards, but there are also situations where you finish and still get enough points to buy a new gadget and hope it helps you win the next game.
You basically have to choose the agent that fits your play style. Trackers can find enemies more easily. Vanguards are more oriented to fighting back and getting back in cover after the action, Scoundrels live up to the name and use deception to get ahead in the game, lastly are Disruptors who specialize in their namesake of making the game harder for other players by interfering in fights.
The Spy Who Shot Me
My biggest complaint about the game was how overwhelming it was. I would follow the objectives to the designated letters and either had to figure out how to get past a wall that the objective was supposed to be under or behind or try to figure out if I was even at the right objective. Sometimes the game’s navigation is a little tricky to understand, and it can lead to you doing circles.
When you come face to face with another spy, it’s a do-or-die situation. You will either have to go through a very frustrating gunfight or outrun them enough to dawn a new disguise. This is also a place I have a complaint. In my playtime of the game, I found these moments to be a toss of the coin or pure luck. I would land a few good body shots at the spy and preemptively fire, but I would always lose the battle. Do I blame lag or skill? Unfortunately, losing enough gunfights never got me the answer to the question.
Making The Game Last – Spy vs Spy
A typical game can last you anywhere from 10 – 20 minutes in length. This depends on several factors, such as how many spies are going for the same objective, hunting down other players, or are going to let others do the work for you. You just patiently wait at the vault to grab the prize and run for it? There are many ways to play the game, but ultimately, this is a game that you will either spend a plethora of hours in or you will play for a bit before dropping it.
The game was initially fun, but frustrating gun fights, even when I shot the enemy several times in the head, completely threw off my experience of the game. Add in the long queue time for matches and the persistent lag of being on a wired internet connection with nothing else taking my bandwidth further soured my experience.
Conclusion
All in all, Decieve Inc is one of those games that you have to watch a lot of videos on, the Twitch channel of it, and it’s best enjoyed with friends as well. To its credit, the game requires someone who is okay with not consistently winning and having fun while playing alone or with friends.
Personally, the lengthy matchmaking times and the lag were reason enough for me to cut my review short and say that the times I did enjoy the game, it was a delight. Still, the uneven matches, and a lack of reason to play by myself, means that this is a game I will wait for my friends to buy and then try again, but otherwise, this is one of those “to each their own” types of games.
What did you think of our Decieve Inc Review? Share what you think about it in the comments below.
This review is based on the PC version of Deceive Inc. The key was provided by Tripwire Presents.
