Thank you Automation for sending us a review code! (Note: We received a code for this game from a time when it had to be purchased.)

It’s like Mario Party, but for adults—in the sense that you’ll end up with strained friendships, not the whole minigame virtual board game aspect. Deceit is the name of this first-person shooter. You’ll have to cooperate with your team or deceive the ones around you to escape out of the dark abandoned facilities, or slaughter the ones trying to escape. It is both a competitive and cooperative game at the same time!

Six players will start in a room, but out of those six players, two of them will be infected. In truth, the game is a 4v2, but the innocents have no idea who is an innocent, or even an infected—whereas the infected players know exactly who is who. Deceit plays in stages where the first stage, everyone collects supplies such as armor, ammo for your pistol, and special items to help you out such as cameras, flashlights, antidotes, and even a lethal injection. These items are unlocked through cooperation such as one person standing on a switch while the other person takes it or through minigames like target practice. Meanwhile, the infected players must collect blood bags from around the area without being spotted. Infected players also can collect all of the same items, which adds further into the whole deception aspect.

The second stage is the blackout stage, where the monsters come out and play. This is when the infected can turn into the Terrors, creatures who prowl the darkness, but only if they have a full blood meter (which takes either three full bags or six half bags of blood). Infected are vulnerable to the light when transformed, so this is the reason why cameras and flashlights have such an effect on them. During this stage, the innocents must run around and collect fuses to reactivate the power. Infected can halt the process by collecting fuses themselves as humans, or eliminate players as a monster.

After it loops again to the first stage after the blackout, it will then go into the final stage where any innocents left must escape and the infected are now enraged. Being enraged means they can transform no matter how much or little blood they have, and it becomes a last-ditch effort to kill the rest of the survivors. I sure hope all those items the innocents stockpiled throughout are of use. Infected players may have a disadvantage in raw numbers, but they make up for it by being able to kill innocents in one hit. Matches last between five and fifteen minutes, making Deceit quick to pick up and play.

The level-up system takes inspiration from Overwatch and similarly styled games. Every level gives you a token in which you can exchange with the dealer to gain various cosmetics. The process is rather unique as it is in the style of a memory cup game. What’s interesting is that if any of the cups are a rare or legendary cosmetic, they will glow purple or gold. The experience you gain through matches to level up also grants you a skill tree where you can purchase passive perks to give you a slight edge over everyone else. The microtransactions are pretty fair because the biggest purchase is around $35, and you level up fairly quickly, giving you plenty of opportunities to obtain lots of poses and skins.

The main draw of Deceit is the use of deception, feeling like a digital version of Mafia or Werewolf. Since this is a highly communicative game, you’ll want a working microphone or headset. Although there isn’t much depth in the game mechanics, the bulk of it comes from the way you deceive others. Sometimes, as an infected, you may want to help out others to take the suspicion off of you. When you take a blood bag, you can even use this trust that you gained from prior moments of teamwork to blame an innocent nearby and have them eliminated early. Trickery goes both ways; as an innocent, you can hide around in areas to see who picks up the blood bag or even ask information such as the distance to the exit (as infected players are unaware of this information). Since you have to constantly lie to get ahead, Deceit isn’t the most moral game out there and its probably best to avoid this if you’re uncomfortable with constant deceitfulness. Other warnings include the graphic violence, blood, and dead bodies all over, and that the Terrors are of supernatural elements, such as yetis and werewolves. There are also diary entries scattered throughout the levels that have blasphemy and harsh languages such as f**k and s**t.

Playing solo in Deceit is like taking all of the worst aspects of any multiplayer game and blending it together into one messy package. Regions and servers are not locked and anyone can join any region, so the language barrier shows itself quickly. Deceit holds a high Chinese and Russian audience due to its free to play nature, so more often than not you’ll run into someone that you cannot communicate with unless you happen to know Mandarin or Russian yourself. People without mics are also present and the only way you can communicate with them is with the chat or quick chat (voice commands). The chat is slow (and the added effect that they may not know your language) and while the quick chat bypasses the language barrier, it is also barebones and is only slightly better than being silent. A lack of anti-cheat system means you’ll run into your fair share of hackers, with the matches crashing every once in a while (any experience gained in the game is lost). Lower levels are plagued with people who refuse to communicate or trolls, while higher levels are filled with others that take the experience way too seriously—or trolls, leading to very hostile moments.

There also exists DLC for Deceit. With the nature of the game, one would think that it would simply be cosmetics. Unfortunately, the DLC is playable Infected: the werewolf and the vampire. The only way you can get them is by purchasing them. In free to play games, I never liked the form of DLC that gives paying players an advantage over others and it in itself is bad practice.

As of 2019, the original developer, Automation, closed their doors and a new developer by the name of Baseline Games took over. Only time will tell if Baseline Games can give the much needed supported Deceit needs. I would love to see a more robust voice system—something like HiRez Studio’s voice guided system (VGS), a huge list of preset voice commands accessed through a few keystrokes. Even with its flaws and lack of depth, Deceit is a fine game, but only if you play with your friends. The solo experience is for masochists only as there is just too much nonsense within and the whole state of Deceit doesn’t play kindly to a solo experience. If you have five or more like-minded friends, I’m sure you’ll have a good time working together and hoodwinking each other. There are only four maps (with the fifth one in the works), and a handful of items and Infected so this one is best played in short bursts. Be prepared to have someone mad at you at the end of the frightful night.