Deceive Inc. from Sweet Bandits Studios and Tripwire Presents released back in March and it recently became Steam Deck Verified. After playing quite a few hours, it quickly became a favourite on desktop Linux and Steam Deck. Note: Gamesight provided my key.
It's a first-person multiplayer game where you (or you and friends) play against others in a game of deception. Each team is attempting to unlock a vault to steal what's inside and successfully exit the map to win. The problem is — you're all in disguise and you can change your disguise constantly based on any of the NPCs running around the map.
On Linux and Steam Deck it works great with Proton out of the box. I did have a brief moment where it suddenly wouldn't work on desktop but another Proton Experimental update solved that. Additionally, the Steam Overlay seems to not work with it on desktop for me. It has Easy Anti-Cheat but the developers have enabled it for Linux and on Steam Deck it's rated Deck Verified with Proton 8.
Pictured - cover blown, another player found me.
Imagine if Among Us was a first-person shooter with a tiny bit of HITMAN vibes wrapped up in a very colourful and inviting style, and that might give you a slight idea of what to expect. I was really impressed at just how fun it is, which is surprising that on Steam it doesn't have a big player-base but it does also have full cross-platform multiplayer with consoles too and there's never been trouble finding a game.
You run around gathering intel data from various little devices spread across the map which allow you to unlock doors into buildings and unlock mini safes for character buffs. You can swap your disguise between civilians, guards, waiters, special guards, technicians and a VIP. You'll need to change up the disguise too, as certain people are only allowed in specific areas and if you have the wrong disguise on they will start firing at you. If you fire a weapon, your disguise will disappear as well until you wait a bit for it to come back.
Pictured - gathering intel to open some doors.
Pictured - about to grab a disguise.
The thing is you won't know if someone is an NPC or a player unless you really watch everyone closely to see what they're doing to catch them out (or if they're clearly not an NPC jumping across rooftops). When you're disguised, other players won't see your head move or or what direction you're looking, so you could be gathering intel or opening a door while facing another way - it has some clever design to it. NPCs will also do random actions, so you never really know who is who.
It's all about studying your surroundings, and trying to quickly grab enough intel to unlock the vault and potentially escape — which is easier said than done. Once you manage to steal the special item on the map, it will periodically ping your location giving other players an idea of where you are and no doubt people will try camping the exit.
Video of it on Steam Deck with some words from me:
Direct Link
The gunplay in it doesn't feel anywhere near as good as some bigger games, you can definitely tell it's by a smaller studio but still good enough to be fun. Frantic in the team games where you're discovered by an enemy, but there's another enemy team that was also in the same area and — so much panic. Especially entertaining with all the different characters, each with their own abilities and weapons along with per-character progression.
Performance is absolutely not an issue on desktop Linux but on Steam Deck, you'll want to keep it on the Low preset as certain maps and action can drop it below 30FPS. Overall it still looks great on Low on the Steam Deck screen.
Quite a lot of fun and certainly something a bit different. Really worth picking up for both Steam Deck and desktop Linux. Been having a lot of fun in duos with family and a fair bit in the solo mode too.
You can find it on Fanatical, Humble Store and Steam.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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