Deceive Inc.

The Good
As a first-person shooter battle royale game, I'm intrigued by the gameplay and visual style of Deceive Inc. Its retro spy visuals make me feel a bit nostalgic, and the diverse character roster is exciting. The focus on deduction and a heist is especially entertaining to me.

Gameplay is a wee bit confusing at first, even with the tutorial, but if you're familiar with typical first-person shooter schemes, you quickly get acquainted with the various buttons. In the game, you spend a lot of time gathering intel to unlock doors and interacting with other objects, but this didn't necessarily feel like a lot of time to me.

The game uses an unlockable character system, where you may use credits earned in-game or through purchase to unlock a new playable agent. You obtain the in-game currency quite fast, and I feel like new options are never too far away, such as in some other games with similar systems, like the battle royale Apex Legends (2019).

The various characters have unique quirks and abilities. My favourite of the ones I tried ended up being the reporter Chevalière, who has the ability to track down where enemy spies are. I also quite enjoyed Ace and Squire – the first of which has a sniper rifle and the ability to follow a target's footsteps, and the latter has the ability to scan for nearby valuables.

As a neutral thought, there are loot boxes present in Deceive Inc., that you get through levelling. As far as I could see, there was no option to purchase these with real money. They feel unobtrusive, and contain various types of cosmetics for any agents or gear.

The Bad
I find the gunplay to be just fine, though I find that it feels a bit unresponsive. The bullets fly, but I could not sense whether I hit or not, or how effective they were. The same goes for when my player character gets shot.

As with some other "PvPvE" type games, like Hunt: Showdown (2018) and Dungeonborne (unreleased as of writing, alpha test in 2024), players seem somewhat incentivized with waiting it out. Instead of actively trying to complete the main goal (the heist), it can be beneficial to wait for other players to finish it, only to mow them down at the finish line.

One of the core mechanics of Deceive Inc. is being able to disguise yourself as the various non-player characters (and other player's disguises) in order to fool other players and to access areas requiring a higher clearance. Once you get a disguise with a certain stage of clearance, which frankly doesn't take long, there isn't much reason to play around with disguises. The relevant characters wander around where players are, either way, so you don't have to fear standing out, unless you have the one special character as a disguise.

The tutorial does not mention certain things, such as being able to crouch and the interchangeable passive buff system. I also wish there was a more thorough explanation of agent levels, as they seem to unlock various objects and abilities through such.

Some of the text in the game's user interface is occasionally difficult to read. This includes text of a similar brightness to its background. I also see a discrepancy in which decimal marker is used, where there is occasionally both a period and a comma used on the same screen.

The Bottom Line
I have played the solo mode, where you're up to 12 players against each other. There is also a duo mode (teams of two), and a trios mode (teams of three). The various agent ability texts mention having interactions with friendly players, which I imagine can add to the complexity.

I am occasionally fond of games featuring deduction, like Among Us (2018) and Project Winter (2019), and this was one of my favourite aspects of Deceive Inc. It is a blast trying to spot where enemy players are and who they are disguised as, though it usually ends in a pretty average gun fight.

I think that Deceive Inc. is suitable for players who are looking for a slightly different first-person shooter battle royale game, and though I think the gunplay and the disguising mechanics can use some work, I think that it can also be a fun entry for a couple of friends or even players new to first-person shooters. While the tutorial is lacking, it doesn't seem to have an overwhelming amount of depth to it.

I would give it half a star more if I could.