Deceit is a 2017 online multiplayer First-Person Shooter game developed and published by British studio World Makers.
You wake up in an abandoned mental asylum/an arctic facility/in a forest in the middle of nowhere, with a knife, a pistol with six bullets, and a mysterious voice blaring through speakers that you are invited to play its game. There are six people (including you), two of which are infected with The Virus. They must kill the other four people before they escape.
Here's the catch: The Infected know who else is Infected. The Innocent? They have no idea.
To make things more interesting, the Infected can only kill others by transforming into their Terror form. They cannot transform while the lights are on (since they are Weakened by the Light) and can only transform while enraged (which can happen if they stay in the dark for long enough or if they have drank enough blood).
Conveniently enough for both sides, the area is scattered with blood bags, ammo, and various objectives for players to complete in order to be rewarded with useful items. These include syringes (either of poison, to instantly kill another player, or of antidote, to pick up a downed player), flashlights and cameras that can weaken the Infected, shotguns, and scanners and trackers that can give more information on a player's whereabouts for a time.
After some preparation time, the lights in the areas go out. Blood bags are worth half as much rage, Infected who have drunk enough blood can transform, and fuses become visible and audible. The Innocents must bring the fuses to fuseboxes to get the lights on again, and unlock the next area (and, after the third area, the escape) without being killed by the Infected, who they can only stun. When the lights are turned back on, a choking gas begins to fill the current area, forcing them to move on.
The only way for an Innocent player to kill another is to knock them down (with bullets) when the lights are on, and then have other players cast a vote on whether to execute the downed player (with bullets). Anyone - even the Infected - can vote, and if the vote passes, the player is executed via electrical shock (not with bullets).
In short, Stealth-Based Game meets The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow.
Deceit contains examples of the following tropes:
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: When you level up, you gain tokens, which you can spend at the Loot Booth to get things such as new clothing, weapons or victory/defeat poses for your characters, after a quick shell game of course.
- Divide and Conquer: Ultimately what the Terrors should be doing- due to the nature of the game, players are often going to group up with one another during the dark phase. As this is the only time the Terrors can eliminate the innocents, it is in their best interest to sow dissension and split them up so they can be picked off one by one.
- Frame-Up: When an Infected player manages to get their hands on a scanner, they usually end up scanning an Innocent and then saying they are Infected. More brazen players will drink blood bags in plain view of an Innocent player before screaming that said Innocent drank the blood bags.
- Monstrous Mandibles: In Terror form, the Infected have as their default appearance a red-skinned skeletal monster, with two fanged and bone-spurred jawbones in place of the ordinary human lower jaw.
- Playing with Syringes: The origin of the Terrors is a Mad Scientist doing this in Alexandra Asylum.
- Purposely Overpowered: The second and third areas add in the scanner and lethal injection, respectively. Both items are deadly for both sides- the scanner can be used by the infected to make a false positive on one of the other infected, allowing them to drop suspicion. The lethal injection, on the other hand, can instantly kill a player within touching distance, and as a result is positively deadly in the final round, as a savvy player can eliminate the competition before they can even react.
- Refuge in Audacity: Trying to Frame-Up another player by drinking blood bags they are standing close to then screaming in vocal chat they just did it.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: If all the team decides on one person to vote out because he's the Infected, and the other infected runs into them and shoots but misses, they will assume that missing was too convenient. Sometimes, the other Infected really did graduate from the Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy and didn't even miss on purpose, he really tried to hit because he figured his teammate just became a liability. Same story when one infected is in Terror form and the other "conveniently" misses.
- Shell Game: The Loot Booth, which is this game's equivalent of a lootbox system, is this. After you give the man a token, he will put down six cups. Before the game starts, a cup will reveal the rarity of the item inside via a glowing light beneath it (No light for Common, Blue for Common, Purple for Rare and Yellow for Legendary). Then the man will constantly move the cups for about ten seconds before stopping and letting you decide what cup to pick.
- Shout-Out: Rachel's "Alrighty Then" losing pose is a reference to the spear scene from the second Ace Ventura movie.
- Social Deduction Game: The hidden faction is the Infected, who have The Virus and whose goal is to convert or kill the other players, who must survive in this desolate area by picking up supplies. At night the Infected can turn into monsters and pick off the others. Innocent players can deal with suspected Infected by shooting them during the day, but they must still convince the rest of the players during the succeeding vote.
- Species Loyalty: Arises in each Terror due to integration into the Hive Mind.
- Suspect Existence Failure: If someone requires the use of an antidote before reaching the last area, it means they're innocent: Antidotes can only save those who are mauled to death by an Infected or those who received a lethal injection which is only available at the last area. Downplayed Trope, as if they are properly antidoted, they don't die (yet)
- Transhuman Treachery: Anyone who becomes a Terror wants to kill or convert other humans, regardless of what their beliefs prior to becoming a Terror were.
