Deceit 2 review: A barebones experience

Deceit 2 has made its debut with the brave choice to step away from the original title and head into an experience teetered more towards social deduction, drawing inevitable comparisons as a mash-up between Among Us and Dead by Daylight.

In Deceit 2 you play as either a Truth-Seeker, one of the unlucky participants of an experiment, or a Terror, a monster infected by Eldritch energy, set loose to stop the innocents from escaping Millhaven Asylum.

If you're on the hunt for a new multiplayer horror game and enjoy social deduction and the chaos it can sow among friendship groups, the game lacks some of the features that made Among Us an instant classic, but offers an unsettling experience all the same.

• You can also check out our interview with Deceit 2 developers here for more information about future roadmap plans

Welcome to Millhaven

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As of writing, there is only one map (with plans for more to be released in future updates). The Millhaven map is an asylum filled with tasks for the truth-seekers to complete in return for 'Souls' the currency with which you can buy upgrades, weapons and ultimately, the key to escape.

These tasks vary from chess, unlocking safes, completing picture puzzles, finding the code to the inspection machine and more.

Set underneath the backdrop of suspicion as the Terrors hide amongst the Truth-Seekers during the day, the only way to win (other than with the escape key) is by rooting out the infected and exorcising them, which is this game's version of voting out suspects.

The Terror of indecision

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You can also cast votes after every night spent in the In-Between. This is where Terrors are allowed to transform and hunt the Truth-Seekers, using the full capabilities of their Eldritch powers.

Unfortunately, the voting process is usually rather chaotic, overlaid with a death screen most times, with little time to gather an argument from your party.

This seems like a huge oversight, especially from a game looking to dip into the social deduction market. The best part of these games is usually the furious debate that precedes, or follows, any kill.

I'd have liked to see a longer voting window, or parties having the option to set the timer themselves so they can benefit from a full paranoid discussion following the In-Between chaos.

The true horror is the friends we made along the way

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The game is capable of hosting parties of six to nine. As such you'll often be thrown into lobbies with public matchmaking - a necessary evil.

The community for Deceit 2 is particularly toxic, often matches devolve into sexist name-calling and players manipulating the exorcism process to simply boot out people they don’t like.

Although the developers can do little to help this (there is a report option in the settings if you wish to flag a player), a notable improvement would be a process in which you could blacklist a player from being matched with you via public parties as bumping into the same people is more common than you'd think.

Luckily, as per a recent update Deceit 2 developer, World Makers has seemed to listen to public feedback and has made a demo version of the game available for free, for players.

This means that as long as one person has a copy of the game, friends can join their party via the demo. The demo is somewhat restricted on access to certain upgrades and custom options, but this is still a great concede to players looking to solely play with friends and avoid the interesting people of the internet.

Teething problems

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The premise of Deceit 2 is solid enough but with the franchise moving away from free-to-play and issuing a low-cost entry price, just one map on release is slightly disappointing.

After a few games, there is a danger of it becoming repetitive and there is also a noticeable lack of skins for the Terrors and Truth-Seekers.

With plans to release more content going forward, the next of which will be a Werewolf DLC, it is a shame there wasn't more content on release.

Beyond this, there is a noticeable issue with balancing in the game. Nine out of ten times the Truth-Seekers will win, with the Terror's powers feeling lack lustre.

For a large Eldritch monster, you don’t feel powerful and can get stunned or parried a little too easily. The In-Between time you have in Terror-form drains very quickly and you're often left fumbling around.

Once Truth-Seekers get the escape key, every game devolves into a racing match at the end. Once that triggers, the Terrors will almost always fail, unless they manage to luck out and kill the person with the key.

If just one innocent escapes, it counts as a team victory. Perhaps a way around this would be to rejig the balancing to improve the Terror's powers and make victories conditional on more than one person escaping.

Tools of the trade

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One of the key differences between the original and Deceit 2 is the presence of the mysterious Peddler. Exchanging souls with him can get you interesting tools to use in your fight for survival.

Starting with a basic offering, the more you play the game, the more items you can unlock. Of these, there are some interesting gameplay additions like the Mask, which will disguise you as another player for a short amount of time.

These items offer an interesting change to gameplay tactics, and I would like to see more in future updates.

The role of 'The Experiment'

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Other than hunting down Truth-Seekers, Terrors have other abilities via their action wheel in-game.

They can choose to destroy repaired walls, hide identities, defend against light or rage and drain Truth-Seekers' sanity. Further mutations and abilities have been promised but have not been announced as of writing.

Currently, there is only one Truth-Seeker role, The Guardian, which can protect a character against one Terror execution at night.

As we've seen through the success of Among Us and their implementation of roles, this could be a great way to diversify the gameplay further with the release of additional Roles post-release (due in an October update).

The Verdict

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Unfortunately, Deceit 2 launched with great expectations from its core fanbase but has arrived lacking a lot of core features.

Whilst the game plays around with some interesting ideas such as the Eldritch horror theme, The Peddler NPC and the various occult items you can collect to progress in the game, it falls short in terms of balancing issues and a lack of time for social deduction.

Offering a free demo for friends to party together is a smart move, it is a shame, however, that it was needed.

Overall, there are better games that achieve the same and more. Deceit 2 is worth picking up perhaps, once there have been some balancing adjustments and once more maps, Terror mutations, roles and skins get introduced.

2/5

Code provided by the publisher. Reviewed on PC.