Deceit, a game that takes you into a social nightmare.
4/11/2017, By: Ryan David Bush. Communication is key in this game, and this above and beyond, is the most sociable game available on Steam. I found this game, and at first, was a bit reluctant to make the purchase due to the lower price of 15$. But, after I was watching a few streamers play the game, I decided I’d give it a spin… and now, it remains one of my top 5 games of all time. It’s charming graphics, and fun playstyle make this one extremely unique. You are thrown into one of two levels (with a third level on the way soon) with up to 6 other players. Out of these 6 ‘test subjects’, 2 of them have been infected with a nasty disease that turns them into ‘Terrors’, zombie vampires that eat the faces off of other players. When you spawn, you are either an Innocent or an Infected. If you’re an Innocent, your sole job is to simply survive the whole game and not die.
Of course, finding out who the two infected players are greatly improves your chances, and there are a slew of helpful tools to help you find those nasty infected. You’ll be given a tracker that you can use to track players you find suspect, an antidote to revive fellow players who have been taken down by a Terror, and a camera that you can use to stun the Terrors with. And, you can even get a scanner that directly tells you if the person you are scanning is infected, or innocent. But keep in mind, the infected players can also use these tools, and lie to the rest of the group, making things a real conundrum. Also, the infected also have tools to help them. There’s a timer during each round, and when it ticks down, there’s a “blackout” period, where everything turns completely dark and the infected players then can transform into their Terror form. During the round, the infected can sneakily drink bloodbags that are laying around to become more powerful, making instant kills possible during the next blackout period. This is a game of trust being earned, or lost. One false move as an innocent, and you’ll find the rest of your team eager to vote you out of the game. It’s very common for an infected player to be given the scanner, and falsely accuse an innocent player of having the infection, which makes the game really interesting and fun. The last time I played a game that was this social, with this fun of a community, was when I played Quake 3 Arena on the Sega Dreamcast. Rarely can a game capture the kind of magic and make the kind of friendships that this game can. If you need something fun, that’s not an energy drainer, this is your game.
Despite only having two maps in the game, you’ll quickly find yourself coming back for more, because no one single game ever plays the same. Every experience, every game, is completely different based on the people you are playing with online. If you want something that’s inexpensive and will keep your interest for awhile, and is even fun to watch when you are voted out of the game, this one is meant for you. Built by a small studio called Automaton, it’s a passion project and a direct love letter to survival/horror gamers. This indie developer has come up with a great online game that is fresh, interesting, and extremely fun to play. If you’re a survivor or an infected, you’ll really love the rush of trying to down every survivor or trying to simply stay alive every game you play. And that brings me to the pace of the game: It can go really, really fast, or slow down. Again, it all depends on the people you play with, and the game caters to either playstyle very, very well. While the game still does have it’s share of bugs and crashes (like any small indie game) the developers are very communicative in their official Discord server with the players, and implement the feedback they hear directly into the game far quicker than most developers of other games. And with a slew of constantly updated content (they’re going to be implementing traps and air ducts you can crawl in if you’re infected!) this game looks to constantly change to challenge the player. I give this game a solid 9/10, and the only reason I can’t give it a 10 is because it still isn’t fully optomized yet. But I have been assured that full optomization is a priority, so the game should run smoother and smoother with each update released. I definitely recommend everyone to give this game a play. It caters to all types of players, strategy gamers and FPS gamers will enjoy it thoroughly. That being said, let me get into the nitty gritty of my review:
*Graphics: 10/10. The artists from Automaton have really put a lot of love into the characters and level design. The way everything lights up at night is super pretty for a indie developed game, and you can see it. Characters have an immense amount of detail, from cuts and bruises on them, to being able to see each individual blade of grass on the level. Very well done, and the attention to detail is very impressive for a game such as this.
*Sound: 10/10. The sound is very well done, from the gulps of blood bags the infected feed on to get stronger, to the doors opening and closing in the level. If you’re using a surround sound headset, you’ll really get a kick out of this one as you can hear everything… and when the blackout period happens, you’ll require your ears to alert you to danger.
*Gameplay: 9/10 The gameplay is phenomenal. Being able to strategize with a fellow infected player and troll survivors is a good time like no other. Nothing is more satisfying than taking out an entire group of survivors, or watching them shoot each other down because you caused a ruckus. The optomization still has some things to be desired, but since their latest update, the game does run smoother. I do hope to see the game exeprience less crashes and bugs, but of course, with any indie studio, this will be handled in due time. Especially with a very open development team that actually listens to their player base and makes them a priority.
Final Verdict: BUY IT! This is a must have game in your Steam library, and the community continues to grow exponentially every single day.