The Game without the Golden Gun
Multiplayer games are quite literally at this point ‘a dime a dozen’ in the gaming world. It seems that every day we get some new announcement about a new multiplayer game that involves battle royale, shooting or some other sort of contest. It has gotten a bit one dimensional out here in these gaming streets, and I guess the developers at Sweet Bandit Studios was feeling the same way. Because they have certainly shaken up the ‘same ole, same ole’ formula with multiplayer shooters in their new release; Deceive Inc.
MSRP: $19.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, PC
Price I’d Pay: $19.99
Deceive Inc is something altogether new in the multiplayer gaming space, at its core it manages to strike while the iron is hot with its use of the extraction phase which is all the rage right now. Deceive Inc drops players into the stylish world of spycraft in the 70’s, where the the color palettes are as bright as the sun and all the selectable characters look like they stepped right off the set of a spy flick. The loop to Deceive Inc is an easy one, each agent is spawned in disguised as an NPC with the objective to act as normal to blend in as long as possible. All the while looking around for clearly marked hackable intel which can be used as currency to gain access to locked areas. It is possible to remain as a civilian the entire game but to get to the objectives it will require the use of gaining access to facility areas. These areas are color coded in nature and have a hierarchy. A ‘green’ staff person could draw attention in a ‘purple’ technician area which will cause the guards to escort the player out and put their ‘cover’ meter in danger of breaking.
The objective of each match is to be the first to extract the valuable object in the vault. Players gain access to the vault by first disabling three locks which are scattered around the map. Some of them are fakes and will just waste time; the game makes good use of the subject matter. It’s possible to never touch a vault key and just take out the players as they do the dirty work for them. The gameplay loop is quite engaging and leads itself to almost any kind of playstyle. There are devices that players will unlock as they progress that will allow them to scan an object and then mimic it. As funny as it was to see a toilet in the middle of a hallway, it was a dead giveaway that it was in fact an agent in disguise. But for the extremely clever the game has all sorts of ways to fake out the opposition and escape them with the goods.
The real issue I have with Deceive Inc is the best part of the game which is the hiding and deception all melts away in the final phase. Once someone has the package they have to escape with it, the player who holds it will give off a ping every 10 seconds or so that other players will see. This can be used to give a false trail but when enemy agents inventible catch up its going to devolve into a duel of gunfire. The combat just feels uneven and whoever shoots first will end up winning. There are no health packs but instead players can look around for food items and drinks to regain health, which just leads to the frustration of being caught by an AI guard after finishing off two enemy agents.
Deceive Inc has a new and unique premise and an engaging gameplay loop but its lackluster combat which is going to be inevitable in each match just pulls this otherwise killer spy simulator and sends it out to Die Another Day. While it has the benefit of being unlike any of the other hum-drum deathmatch games out there at the moment, I just hope that it can find a large enough player base to stand the test of time.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
