Reviews from

in the past


When I first bought this game it said “Battlepass coming soon” and I said “nah”

I’m willing to buy a multiplayer game with an interesting idea but I’m not gonna get invested if it will shut down months later because I didn’t get scammed for FOMO skins

Deceive is one of those games that just suddenly showed up and hooked me and my friends for a couple of months. Hiding in a world like NPCs while everyone is sneakily trying to steal the same thing is a lot of fun, and there is a lot you can do to surprise or trick your opponents.

The game allows for a lot of silly and unique strategies which create lasting memories and good times. Getting first to an objective, then disguising as props until an unsuspecting player comes in, free for you to kill the second they start the hacking, or quickly killing someone, then disguising as an NPC before their teammates are able to come for back up. It's all a lot of fun.

The game also offers a lot of ways for you to express your skills, whether it is by choosing your battles wisely, using abilities and your aim to win battles where you have the disadvantage, or tricking your opponents into your traps. This creates for some tense games where you're always at the edge of your seat.

That said, the game has a bunch of problems. Doing the smaller objectives is not that important in the grand scheme of things, and defeating opponents can be a lot more powerful. This means that if you have the opportunity, it's more optimal for you to make sure that player you just kill doesn't get to play anymore.
You kill 2 out of the 3 players on a team. If you already have the gear you need, you might as well just camp. This becomes more prevalent the better your opponents are. I am also guilty of this. You sit there, do nothing for 5+ minutes. The last opponent can never win, and you want the game to time out, or you wait for them to do the main objective, at which point you can just kill them and win for free.
Killing NPCs had almost no penalty, meaning you can freely kill them to "check" if they are a player.

If camping isn't your style, you can often just ignore the main aspect of the game, the "deceive" part, and just go full rambo and hunt players down. You are not punished for this, in fact you are often rewarded as you get all the loot the more stealthy player stole.
Having multiple playstyles isn't wrong, but it sometimes can feel like the most efficient way to play is the most lame way to play.

I think the devs quickly learnt that "given the chance, a player will optimize the fun out of a game". They need to find a way to make the most fun way to play (disguising, trapping, being clever) the most efficient way to win.

While the devs have been on top of these issues and addressed a lot, the big elephant in the room is the lack of content updates. Game dev takes A LOT of time, and the patience of a playerbase is fleeting. If a live service game can't drop new maps or change up the game, players will get tired of playing. That's what happened to this game. Players just left, and the player numbers hit the ground.
While new players sometimes join through free weekend, humble choice, or whatever their next plan is, the issue is that these new players will be welcomed by players who already mastered the game. They will be destroyed, and they won't have fun.

I will rate this game 4 stars, because it was truly a lot of fun when it released. A unique concept, with a decent execution, unfortunately suffering the same fate as a lot of indie live service games. I hope this game can bounce back and be what it deserves to be. In a sea of mediocrity this game can truly stand out.

Interesting concept with a lot of style and charm, but execution that fails to achieve the desired gameplay loop, as the game ends up being a battle royale more than anything relating to subterfuge. Yet I still have fun playing.

This game is straddled as "game I love but would never recommend to anyone".

If you hate losing and being thrown into matches with people who know the game better than you right off the bat avoid this game. If you're okay with smashing your head against the wall a couple of times to learn the game, might be worth it.

I like all the silly animation so I got my mileage out of it. Even if there is NOTHING worse than the feeling of starting a round and level 400 player sprinting to the spawn points they've memorized and blasting you to shreds 3 minutes into a round.

Delivers on the promise of tense, stylish spy action. There's a bit of a steep learning curve in how the matches play out and figuring out the best ways to stay under everyone's radar but once it clicks the rounds get really fun. There are a few balancing issues and only a handful of maps at the start, but these are minor problems that if handled correctly are very fixable, and the developer seems keen on listening to the community. The base game is strong enough to be very encouraged that Tripwire will be able to build something special off of it.

Very fun, underrated game. Needs more advertising so it isn't just level 300s and people who are already amazing destroying everyone else.


This game is currently in the Humble Choice for September 2023, and this is part of my coverage of the bundle. If you are interested in the game and it's before October 3rd, 2023, consider picking up the game as part of the current monthly bundle.

Multiplayer spy game.

Deceive Inc.’s idea is that multiple groups of spies are trying to get access to a secret vault. Players will go undercover to search for intel, hack into systems, and find the vault. It’s a bit of a deduction game where you have to figure out who is a real person, as well as a combat game once you identify an enemy. The NPCs act believably, I’ve even seen them start running out of nowhere, so it’s possible to mistake them for players. The player base appears steady at about 300 active players at any time on Steam Charts.

However, at the end of the day, the game itself feels limited. It’s just going around and hacking multiple locations, and hacking is holding X. There are gadgets and some good ideas, but overall there’s very little “Spying” or deception, and with everyone working towards that same goal, it’s a lot like a Battle Royale, with only one team or person winning, and a smaller lobby.

Of course, there are also season passes and Microtransactions and the prices are out of whack. 10 dollars for a premium-only legendary skin or a battle pass? Like a skin for characters, no one will see 99 percent of the time? I also saw a few full black outfits on different players which probably has a competitive advantage as well.

Pick this up if you want to play a multiplayer spy game, but there's no deception here. I’d go play Town of Salem or Throne of Lies. The art style is ok but the gameplay just never got me that excited, though I was glad to win a gun battle. Overall this left me feeling that it was lacking something.

If you enjoyed this review or want to know what I think of other games in the bundle, check out the full review on or subscribe to my Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/BxErSXqL82A

gameplay cycle gets boring after 1 hour

Joguinho bão, divertido, atualmente não tem tantas coisas mas acredito que com o tempo eles adicionem mais conteúdo, sejam personagens ou eventos, modos novos, mais mapas, tudo isso pode ser adicionado com o tempo.
Único defeito na minha opinião são as skins, apesar de poderem ser desbloqueadas totalmente de graça, com o dinheiro que você ganha nas loot crates, ou até mesmo dentro dessas caixas, que você ganha todo nível upado, o jogo também tem um sistema de passe de batalha pago, isso me irrita profundamente mas da pra jogar o jogo normalmente e ganhar skins, então acho que não tem problema.
Se vc quer diversão, pegar mais dois amigos e comprar esse jogo, vc vai ter o que quer, até mesmo se vocês não quiserem jogar "sério" esse jogo te promete risadas.

Was fun when populated..... not rly anymore, lacks variety.

Just an absolute fucking mess on all accounts. In my brief experience with the game, I've found it to be an absolutely user-hostile experience with no intention of actually gathering a playerbase - as is evident by the playcount. The menu is an overdesigned disaster, the shooting is incredibly clunky, and the stealth mechanics are dubious at best. The tutorial only explains the bare essentials, and trial-by-fire is the only other way to find out anything. All I found out is that the game is not fun, not designed to be fun, and likely never will be fun.

EDIT: in my rage, i forgot to add - microtransactions and a battle pass in a paid game. How incredibly bold of them. If I didn't get this in a humble bundle I'd be actively offended.

I give the servers a year at the absolute most.

This game is such a blast and I really hope the team continues to add more and improve upon the game.

Deceive inc is a Spy x Hero shooter game where you spawn into a map with other players all disguised as NPCs. You walk/run around the map trying to find rooms that will have a machine that will allow you to unlock the final room. This all sounds simple BUT this is where the fun starts and lord is it very fun. While you are running around you will be in the same areas as the other real players but you never know who is who unless you catch a real player acting weird in which you can shoot them and see if they are real or not. If it is another player you both will go out of disguise and into the agent you actually chose and fight. If the person you shot isn't a player but an NPC you will go out of disguise just being ready to be jumped on by other players.

Its such a simple gameplay loop but its weirdly addicting since the gunplay is very fun and it is extremely fun trying to sneak your way around the map not wanting to get caught or catching out other players. Each agent is equipped with their own skill set and weapon that is specific to that agent alone and there are agent gadgets you can as well equip to each agent.

Honestly as of right now I don't really have to many negatives with the game past balancing issues with some agents and agent gadgets. I really hope this game does well enough to allow the dev team to show continue support because I really do think this game can form into a nice little online game as updates continue to roll out.


it's so fun to play it on stream! it's definitely a twitch game, i didn't get to experience it with friends yet but for solo i can say that at maximum 20 hours i'll be bored, right now it's repetitive. the first few hours are very fun but it quickly gets old. still definitely recommend it if you're looking for a different fps

This game was a blast with 2 other friends for a while, unfortunately there wasn't enough players and overall content to keep the game alive.

Pretty fun and interesting. Is fun with friends, but needs more balance so that players more focus on the secretive aspects of it rather than the combat.

This one had a really enticing premise- teams of spies sneaking around a little playground of NPCs, trying to blend in and discreetly hack and score points. The game itself only somewhat accomplishes the fun potential of that.

I liken this a bit to my experience with the Assassin’s Creed multiplayers. It’s a nice thought to sneak around acting like an NPC, but real-life players who have spent a lot of time with this will generally know what to look for and it turns into a messy shootout more often than not. It’s hard to act that discreet when you’re trying to accomplish your hacking goals.

Deceive, Inc. attempts to spruce up its multiplayer loop with some goofy gadgets and character unlock system (which unfortunately leans heavily on a battle pass even though this isn’t free to play). However, nothing here was enticing enough to keep my friends and I around long enough to really get good at this and understand its intricacies. I still really like the cartoon spy style of the game, but it doesn’t really capture that stealth espionage feeling I was hoping for.

Cool concept but devs refusal to stray away from the generic shooter formula wasted its potential

A fun game to play with friends! You can play duos and trios.

You have a variety of characters (Red is mommy), weapons, abilities and load-outs to play with. You can pick disguises and act as an NPC while doing objectives and picking items. To win, you either have to kill the other teams, or get the briefcase to extraction!

The game takes very little time to learn, after a few matches you get the hang of it!

game is fun. not much else to say.