If you’re anything like me, you were the type of person to play Among Us with a bunch of close friends, having a great time along the way, until the game became festered with children. The concept (imposter vs crewmate) of Among Us has always been a fun mechanic, but combining that power with young children ends in some power-tripping nine year olds that are simply no fun to play with. It also does not even feel that great being able to out-argue a bunch of kids. The real fun in the game lies in private parties of close friends.

Deceit takes all of the same concepts of Among Us, but instead applies to them a dark, gorey, FPS style game that feels a bit more mature than its predecessors. There are a ton of new inclusions as well as the gameplay was not just ripped, it was adapted. This results in a fresh new spin on the genre that still ends up with friends lying to each other, just as it should be. Without further ado, let’s get into the in-depth review of Deceit governed by the following attributes:

• Gameplay
• Items
• Maps
• Overall Review

Gameplay

For those who have not played a deception based game, the concept is simple. A set amount of players spawn into a map with a random minority of them being ‘infected.’ Infected players must secretly drink blood bags to be able to transform into a monstrosity at night capable of killing the crewmates. However, being spotted drinking a blood bag during the day often results in being voted out before even getting to transform. Thus, secrecy is an absolute must in Deceit. If that doesn’t work, straight up just lie to your friends. 

As you progress through the map, there will be less and less crewmates left making it more likely to be you that was infected. This makes the game even harder and only works to make you even more suspicious. Once the game reaches a 2v2 (two infected, two crewmates), take out the rest of the remaining players with your pistol as two votes will suffice. The best part of this game, that I honestly have no clue as to why it wasn’t implemented in other games, is a secret voice chat the two infected players can use. This lets them communicate together on when to kill and is a really nice quality of life for all of the stresses that come with being infected.

If you happen to spawn in as a crewmate, your only goal is to survive. To do this, you must make it to the third segment of the map and unlock an exit crewmates can take. The easiest way to do this is by simply voting out the infected members and running to the exit. However, figuring out who is infected is no easy task. You’ll have to use some intuition combined with some of the items scattered throughout the map to deduce who is infected and make it out alive.

“*You are Infected*

Sees Innocent guy standing by the blood pack

*Drinks blood*

*Scream in Mic*

"HE DRANK THE BLOOD"

*Shoots innocent guy*

*Innocent guy got voted out*

10/10 will frame again” - D R A K E on Steam

Items

Items are of utmost importance in Deceit. You’ll start out with a knife and a pistol, but everything else must be found within the map. There are a couple of different categories of items, namely:

Defensive:

• Camera - Uses the flash to slow down enemy terrors at night
• Torch - Used to keep a stunned terror in the stunned state, or stun it itself
• Body armor - Increases total health
• Antidote - Allows you to revive a downed player
• Trap - Stuns a terror that walks over it for a short time

Weapons:

• Shotgun - A shotgun, does a ton of damage
• Lethal injection - Literally will kill whoever you use it on, after being in a downed state for thirty seconds

Recon:

• Inspection kit - Used to inspect another player, reveals whether they are infected or a crewmate
• Tracker - Allows the player who used it to track another player through walls for sixty seconds, both at night and during the day

As you can see, there are a ton of different items scattered throughout the map. Oftentimes, the better items (like the inspection kit) require two players to work together to get the item. This requires a bit of trust as the person with the inspection kit could simply lie about the results. This is why communication is the number one weapon in Deceit. If you are a crewmate, I would recommend trying to find some sort of light source to defend yourself as well as the antidote as it drastically improves your chance of winning. For the infected, being able to convince everyone to allow you to take the inspection kit is a massive play. You can then either scan your teammate and call him safe or scan a crewmate and tell everyone they are infected. Big brain players could even tell the truth to garner even more trust from the crewmates, but I'd take the easy elimination.

“I was playing this game with my friend and he started lying to everyone that I was infected and got me voted out. I started crying and I fell into a deep state of depression and ate nothing but cheerios and wheat bread for 5 days until I was forced to go to therapy. Other than that the games alright.” - MrCheeseMuffin on Steam

Maps

At the current moment, there are five different maps within Deceit. These include the Arctic, the Asylum, the Forest, the Manor, and the Lumberyard. All of these maps play generally the same with the concept being three unique areas separated by a nightime terror rampage. That being said, the items spawn in different locations with different requirements being set to obtain items (different puzzles, essentially). This adds a nice bit of variety to the gameplay while not requiring players to learn a bunch of different maps as the concept carries itself across all maps. 

In terms of map design, I think that it makes sense given the game type. Some of the maps seem to have some useless areas that have no items, but they can always be used as a hiding spot. The graphics themselves are up to par but not anything you’ll be blown away by. It is essentially good enough to the point where you won’t be actively thinking of the graphics as bad, but not quite good enough to do the same in a positive manner. Graphics are best defined as the *meh* section of this game.

“A great game. It's based on how well you can lie and weed out other liars. I'm very good at this because I lie to myself every time I look in the mirror. Everyday.” - Perc Angle on Steam

Overall Review

First of all, this game is completely free to play. There are optional DLC’s you can buy that consist of extra terror types. This lets you transform into a different monster at night (if you are infected) with completely different abilities. I wouldn’t recommend buying the DLC unless you really enjoy the game and simply want to support the creators. They are priced a bit too steep for me to justify the purchase as the base terror model is perfectly capable of winning.

Considering it is free, I would definitely recommend giving it a download. Worst case, you simply delete it after trying. Best case, however, is that you find a fun new game to play with your friends. My friend group adopted Deceit and were hooked on it for a solid two weeks (which is quite a while in our friend group). 

Overall, I would recommend it!

“I thought I had friends that loved me and would never lie to me. This game proved all people are lying scumbags. 10/10 would question friendships again.” - Cool Anime Dad on Steam

Heading image courtesy of gamerant.com