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.