Deceive Inc.

Deceive Inc. was provided to us by Tripwire and OnePR for review. Thank you!

Deceive Inc. is a multiplayer game where your mischievous side can come out. Choose your agent, each with a unique weapon and skill, and blend in to hack your way to get a briefcase and escape. Though beware, other players will be trying to do the same thing and take you out. Blend in and deceive others, using your abilities, items, and weapons to take them out. Will you be the last agent standing and escape?

Let me just say, Deceive Inc. is a ton of fun! While I didn’t use special abilities as much, though they probably would have helped, I had a blast running around, finding keycards, gathering intel, and figuring out who was a NPC and who was another agent. The agents all feel pretty unique, which I enjoy, and come with customizable options like their color scheme, intro poses, and more. You can play solo, but you can also team up with a friend to Deceive together!

While I do really enjoy the game, and see a ton of potential with it, it does feature microtransactions. It appears to be all cosmetic, but there is a separate currency from the regular one you get after each match that you can buy with your money. The game also appears to be getting seasonal content too, which could be really cool! For what the game is offering, it’s a really enjoyable experience and I was able to win a match, which is quite an accomplishment for me! And while the game is playable on the Steam Deck currently, there will be some compromises.

After some testing, the game is a little rough around the edges when playing on Deck, but it’s do-able. Most of the areas in a lot of the maps can actually hit 40-50 FPS, with some even hitting 60, but there are more open areas that do dip heavily to 32-38. This was also all on the lowest possible settings, with higher ones dipping further. I also had a TDP of 9 on, but increasing this still had some dips and drained the game significantly faster.

The good thing is that 30 FPS and low settings still plays decently well and looks passable. And the fact I was able to win a match while playing like this makes it that much more apparent! I did get some lag when playing, but it appears to be from my network and not the device limitations.

The only other gripe I have is the controls. In-game, the controls work extremely well, but when navigating menus, it alters between using the Dpad and moving a cursor around with the left joystick. This doesn’t break the game and how it plays, but it is a little obnoxious to switch between using the Dpad to go through the menu and then needing to control a cursor.

If you’re looking for a new multiplayer game, this should definitely be on your list. Playing solo is a really fun experience and I love the gameplay loop and how accessible it is. I do wish it ran better on the Steam Deck, but I have hope that the shader cache will help! We will update this review once the cache is out.

Deceive Inc. Screenshots:

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

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