Developed and published by World Makers, Deceit is an online social deduction horror game where 4-9 players jump into a game of cat-and-mouse chase. Building upon the concept of Among Us but in 3D, in Deceit 2, you will need to deceive and lie to ensure your survival. The game allows you to take part in deadly Rituals where a team of killers will try their best to kill everyone else while a team of normal players will try to complete different tasks to collect souls and either escape with their lives or work with other players to find the killers hiding with a player-based in-game voting system. This is our review of Deceit 2 on PC via Steam in which we try to deceive other players into banishing innocents and then killing them off as well.
When you start playing Deceit 2, you run into a very obvious problem in the game. There is no tutorial or introductory mission in the game which introduces you to all in-game mechanics. There is only a QR code which leads to a video teaching you the ABCs of the gameplay, but this is a major flaw of the game because it features gameplay mechanics that are not very obvious right from the start of the game. I had to spend a few hours and waste my initial matches only because I was trying to figure out how to play with different character types and how you can become good at the game. Having some basic knowledge with a tutorial certainly reduces the amount of frustration that you might face if you are new to this type of game.
There are three main player types in every match. These are Innocents, Cursed, and the Infected. All players are Innocents in a game however at the beginning of each match, two players are chosen as Infected while only one player is selected as the Cursed. The goals for each player type are pretty straightforward. The Innocents must complete various tasks around the map to obtain souls and gain access to the escape key. The Infected players can turn into monsters, and they must eliminate all other players to win the game. The third and final type of player is Cursed which must try their best to deceive both Innocents and Infected players to take the upper hand and survive in the game. When you start a game, you are given one of these three player types randomly and while you can have a ‘favorite’ character model, these are sometimes switched randomly as well.
Each match takes place on different purpose-built maps which come in different designs. Each map offers certain elements that are useful for Innocents, Cursed, or the Infected players. Apart from the default design of each map, each player type can use different tactics to further enhance the map to suit themself, for example, the Infected players can block narrow passageways, or the Innocents can rig motion alarms around the map which alert them in an Infected crosses them. All players in the game are present on the map in the same dimension at all times. During the Reality phase, everyone must try to complete some random tasks, unique to each map, to complete their unique objectives.
These tasks are fairly simple and could be as simple as tuning a radio to as complex as joining wires to unlock a door. These tasks are not that complex so you can understand them easily while playing the game. If you are an Innocent, completing these tasks will give you souls which will add to the total Souls pool and once this target is achieved, you can purchase the Escape Key, unlock the Escape Door, and win the game. Once the door is open, all surviving Innocents can escape from it unless the Infected kill them while they are trying to escape. This Reality Phase is timed and once this is over, all players are pulled into another dimension called The Inbetween where the Infected players can transform into their Infected forms and start hunting the Innocents.
Deceit 2 offers two different types of monsters at this time; one is standard called The Experiment and is a human-like monster that can grab and slam Innocents to kill them. The other one is a paid DLC Werewolf, and it excels at speed and can jump and pound on escaping enemies to kill them with slashing attacks. Even after they are grabbed, the Innocents can try to escape from the clutches of death but if they fail, they are eliminated from the game. Once a player is killed, all players go back to the Reality phase and the Infected are transformed back into their human forms. During this time, players can come together and try to deduce and kick out a player they are suspected of being infected.
Any player can vote their suspicions and the remaining players will then get a voting option to kick them or allow them to stay in the game. This is a critical phase because sometimes Innocents can kick out other Innocents as well. Only a few activities in the Reality phase can allow the Innocents to determine if a player is infected. For example, I accidentally activated an Infected-only task in front of an Innocent who instantly reported me to other players, but I managed to survive as I only got two banishment votes. I had to quickly eliminate all eyewitnesses later. Infected players can take down Innocents during the Reality phase as well but during this phase, they risk losing their cover and if detected by other players, Infected players will be banished instantly. To give themselves an edge, Innocents can purchase different useful items as well such as pistols, cameras to flash the monsters, and many other items that aid them during a chase or alerting them to the Infected’s presence.
While Infected and Innocents have clear roles in the game, the third player type Cursed is a confusing one because its role is not clear from the very start. In each match, a single player will become a Cursed Player and it will be their goal to remain in the shadows and play both sides equally. They are equipped with a powerful Curse which allows them to gain an edge over the other players. They can transform into their Cursed form and use different curses to eliminate other players and come out to the top of the game. They can switch to different curses by leveling up their Cursed team and unlocking new items.
At this point, Deceit 2 feels more like an Early Access title because the content is not much in the game. There are only two types of Terrors and one of them is locked behind a DLC pack. The map choice is also not diverse, and you get nine base character models with a default asylum gown as a clothing option. Even the basic skins are not unlocked at the start. Deceit 2 is using a Season Pass system to add new cosmetic items like skins, loading skins and emotes to the game and additional Terrors, characters and maps will arrive in the game in the form of DLC packs like the current Werewolf Pack which brings a new Terror Werewolf, new item and Curse Role along with a new map. We can expect the world of Deceit 2 to expand in the future but currently, the game seriously lacks in terms of content.
Visually and technically, the game performs fairly well. The gameplay is much like Among Us but in 3D. The visuals are pretty decent, and the maps are designed well for a cat-and-mouse chase. There are plenty of opportunities for both Innocents and Terrors to exploit their strengths and weaknesses. The audio design is good as well and if you are playing with a headset, you can hear incoming footsteps, hear the Innocent whimpering, and much more. The frames remain pretty steady overall if you have a decent rig. There are some bugs in the game, for example, if someone climbs on top of a shelf and despite The Experiment reaching them with its long arms and tall height, they cannot be grabbed or damaged which is weird. Sometimes players get stuck in random spots as well which becomes frustrating especially when someone is chasing you.
Overall, Deceit 2 is a pretty decent and fun game and if you loved playing Among Us, you would love playing it as well. It lacks in terms of content, but the developers are adding more content to the game so in the future, we can expect it to become pretty beefy. The online servers are stable, and I do not remember getting disconnected even a single time or when it took a while to find a match. All the ingredients of becoming a solid online game are here and it now falls in the hands of the developer to further optimize Deceit 2 and add more content to it to make it even better.
Becoming a free-to-play title certainly brings its challenges like a more open community which requires more moderation overall, it also allows more players to jump into a game and at this point, Deceit 2 is alive with players only because it is a free-to-play title. It lacks in terms of content and still requires tons of optimization here and there. Even with these problems, I enjoyed my time with Deceit 2 because once you finally overcome the hurdle of understanding how the game works, you start enjoying playing it. In my opinion, World Makers should work on adding some quality-of-life fixes and additions to the game before adding new cosmetic items to the game if they want to retain the current player base.
Final Verdict:
Our recommendation? Bring at least 3 or 4 of your friends if you want to have a good time in the game. Otherwise, you will be stuck with a community that really likes to kick people and send them to the other world without much deduction. Deceit 2 may look like a buggy and unoptimized title on the front but underneath, it is a fun and actually good multiplayer game to enjoy with your friends. It also desperately needs a playable tutorial to retain fresh players who are just leaving the game out of frustration since they are unable to understand the mechanics properly. Recommended for players who want something along the lines of Among Us but in 3D and more detailed gameplay.
Final Score: 6.5/10
