Deceive Inc Review (PlayStation 5)

by Jim Smale · Published March 23, 2023 · Updated March 23, 2023

For this Deceive Inc Review, we go undercover as the world’s greatest spies in this tense multiplayer game of subterfuge. Disguise as anyone, deploy an arsenal of high-tech gadgets, or neutralize the competition. As long as you extract with the objective, no trick is too dirty when you work for DECEIVE INC.

Deceive Inc Review Pros:

Decent graphics.
5.76GB download size.
Platinum trophy.
The tutorial menu has – solo play, team play, training, and tutorial.
Controller settings – Invert axis and sensitivity sliders for both aiming and ads, toggle run/crouch/nav mode and rebind controls.
Colorblind support.
Portrait animations – on/off.
First-person view.
Four classes – Vanguard, Tracker, Scoundrel, and Disruptor.
Full stats screen.
Eight total characters with three initially available and then you unlock the rest with credits.
1960s atmosphere.
Cosmetics – costume, intro pose, inks, and calling cards.
Feels like a spin-off from Spy Party.
The game plays out that you disguise yourself and must infiltrate and steal the package and then successfully extract it.
You are in with other human players and Ai players.
PlayStation Plus is not needed to play.
Anyone you look at, you can take their disguise.
There is an order to things like staff can only go so far without raising suspicion, guards can only be in one place, etc.
When matchmaking you have a lobby area to run around and shoot.
Stay still to return to cover.
At any time you can shoot at someone you suspect of being an agent.
Pick up Intel by collecting it from laptops.
Intel is used to open things like security doors and safes.
Power-ups and abilities can be found and equipped.
It’s really hard to make out who’s who as the Ai does a really good job of being erratic and unpredictable.
The overall presentation is brilliant.
Nav mode allows you to see places like ammo vending machines, exits, and objectives, clicking one will have the game draw a guideline to them.
A living breathing world, it’s full of erratic and unpredictable people.
Solid gunplay.
When in cover you can look in full 360 degrees without your character’s head moving and raising suspicion.
The actual character model you see at all times is yours, the portrait in the corner shows what everyone else sees.
Spectate mode for after you die.
In training mode, you get access to all the characters regardless if you own them.
Really clever game.
The soundtrack is fantastic.
Ping system in play.
Push-to-talk voice chat.
Decks are the created set of field upgrades that will appear in your game.
Cross-play support.
Find key cards for doors so you can save Intel.
Every weapon has ads (aim down sights).
Opening flyover of the map is like the intro to a cop show.
Brilliant unique moments.
Fascinating to watch how other people play.
Big bright areas to play in.
Earn credits, account level exp, and mastery exp.
After a game/death, you can jump straight into matchmaking again.
Gets quite addictive.
Every game is unique and different.
Even if you suck and do very little, you always earn something to help push you forward.
Every character can carry two perks.
Tense yet fun gameplay.
Button prompts show for all interactions.
Level up to unlock new perks.
Each character has its own progression bar with unlocks at every rank up.
Sounds really dark to say but I love how defeated agents’ bodies just lie there on the floor.
Loot drops from defeated agents.
Public interaction spots let you blend in like sitting down, looking at a piece of art, or using the toilet.
Earn and set new titles for your character.
Deployable perks can be customized with inks.
Loot suitcases can be earned and give out three pieces of random loot.
All loot and abilities carry a rarity value from common to legendary.

Deceive Inc Review Cons:

When in the rebind controls menu you are still controlling (moving) your character.
The tasks are not always clear.
Button shortcuts for menus don’t always work.
A lot to take in initially.
In-app purchases for real money credits.
Takes a bit of getting used to.
In the extraction phase, the music gets really loud and overpowers the voiceover.
The game hard crashes at random times.
Couldn’t see a way to turn off cross-play.
The tutorial feels way too bare-bones and doesn’t adequately prepare you for how the game plays out.
The training mode is just running around the empty lobby alone.
Getting used to all the characters takes time.
It always feels like you are two steps behind everyone else.
Once matchmaking is initiated you cannot quit.
Ai can sometimes go too far and get stuck in an animation loop.
Matchmaking does take a while.
Small text in the game.
Getting credits for the good stuff is very grindy.
Costumes for each character are like 10 color variations and one actual new costume with an additional palette swap.
You can never play with just bots and no human players.

Deceive Inc:

Official website.

Developer: Sweet Bandits Studios

Publisher: Tripwire

Store Links –

PlayStation

8/10
Graphics - 8/10
7/10
Sound - 7/10
8/10
Accessibility - 8/10
8/10
Length - 8/10
10/10
Fun Factor - 10/10

8.2/10

Summary

What a fantastic game, do you remember or have you heard of spy party? In a game where as a sniper you had to distinguish and eliminate who was a real person and take them out before they complete their mission. Well, this is that but on a more approachable level Spy party is excellent it got so precise with everything that a slight movement out of place would be the end of you, it became far too smart and suckled the fun out of it for me. Enter Deceive Inc and you have a game like I say that is in the Spy party vein except the Ai are so erratic and all over the place that even if you ran around naked doing Mumm Ra chants you wouldn’t look suspicious, it’s because of that Deceive Inc is a force of nature. Every game is unique as you never get the same game twice. The game involves you disguising yourself as another character in the game and collecting Intel points from laptops and gizmos to then use that Intel to open safes for abilities and hack past security doors. Your ultimate goal is to do steps A through E and get the package and then escape. Along the way, other agents will hunt you down and you hunt them down, depending on your character and level depends what abilities and perks you have. My favorite is a woman who can teleport and change into another character from distance, and hack from far away plus if an agent comes out of cover I get a notification of their area. See you can change into any character at any time but just pressing down a button near them, you do this to be elusive nut also so you can go further, security guards, cleaners, and technicians are permitted in set areas otherwise you get booted out and lose cover momentarily so it pays to scope and plan areas accordingly. Just writing up this review has me wanting to go back and play it! It’s online and you can do solo or in teams of three what is excellent is that you don’t need a Plus subscription to play! Seriously cool. With voice chat and pi going in place, you can play how you want and have fun doing it. Regardless of how bad you are the path to new abilities, perks and toys are always progressing and this alone makes it a big deal, it won’t get too hardcore too fast and all players of all abilities can jump in and hold their own. I would say that the on-ramp is a bit tough with the tutorial being very basic and misleading. Learning all the icons, flow of play and each character is a tall order but after about an hour or a handful of games it starts to gel and you take it in. I’m hoping for a nice trickle of DLC and updates to keep it fresh with new modes or types of missions as I fear it could get a bit tedious especially due to the size and amount of steps in each location. Deceive Inc is a fucking riot of fun whether you are solo or team, the game lets you go all Rogue James Bond and is proper addictive! This is proof that Spy Party and Deathloop hooked up.