A sequel to the social deduction FPS Deceit has been announced that trends more toward an Among Us pace of action. Developer World Makers found a significant amount of success with the original Deceit, building an audience well before Among Us found its success in 2020. Now World Makers sees an opportunity to capitalize, creating a sequel inspired both by the successes of Deceit and the expectations social deduction players have from the genre where Among Us reigns supreme.
Deceit was originally released in 2017 and saw an immediate surge of success. The social deduction game places two Infected in a group of Innocent players. Innocent players seek to escape the Game Master's map while Infected hunt down blood bags to trigger a blackout and their murderous terror forms. At its heart, Deceit is a traditional social deduction game, but players are also given guns and are forced to shoot down other players in order to open a vote for their elimination.
The reveal trailer for Deceit 2 teases a significantly different experience compared to the original game, promoting more social deduction gameplay and careful decisions rather than gunfire-laden action scenes. Each round of Deceit 2 features between 6-9 players, a substantial increase from the first game, with the Innocent once again seeking to escape the map and the Infected trying to stop them.
While Deceit's horror aesthetic remains, gameplay has changed in some notable ways. Instead of collecting blood bags, Infected must seek to complete blood rituals in secret. Doing so will trigger the In-Between, wherein they can kill a single Innocent before having to do another ritual. This should slow down the action, and push Infected toward tricking their allies to vote against each other rather than rushing to complete rituals. Gunfire is still necessary to trigger a banishing ritual, but won't play a key role otherwise.
The teaser trailer for Deceit 2 captures how these changes will look in motion. One of the Infected begins attempting to perform a ritual, but is caught by an Innocent before they can complete it. They chase after the Innocent, perhaps to persuade them they were confused, but they're already talking to a third player. The third player, luckily, is the other Infected. They shoot the Innocent and start a banishing ritual, seeking to vote the Innocent out before they can reveal the Infected's secret.
There's a lot left for developer World Makers to reveal about Deceit 2. But if World Makers can maintain the frightening atmosphere and tense standoffs of the original Deceit while raising the social deduction stakes like Among Us, it could have a special game on its hands. Expect further updates, like testing plans, a release date, and whether Deceit 2 will be free-to-play like Deceit, in the months to come.
Deceit 2 releases in 2023 on PC.