Glowstick Entertainment has quite the interesting team working on Dark Deception. Vinny's previous work was Dead Acres, while Nikson's previous work includes The Joy of Creation: Story Mode. You'd imagine with both of their programming prowess that this game could go off without a hitch, bumps, or scrapes... but that may not be the case. Then again, I may be wrong, since this review will be covering Chapter 1 as of October 22, 2018. Let's see if the experience in horror from Vinny and Nikson pays off!


More or less, the main story for Dark Deception is pretty straight forward. You, the player, did something horrible and are in a purgatory-like state to determine the outcome of your death. While this is only Chapter 1, we already have two characters that conflict with our ability to trust either one, so we'll have to see how these relations with the characters develop, and what exactly we did as the protagonist to get into this purgatory state of being.


Ever play Pacman? If so, then you know what to expect in Dark Deception... minus the enemies. You have three lives, you can earn XP and levels to use towards upgrades and abilities, and you have a map, but the enemies differ every map. They each have their own mechanics and means of dealing with them, which is always appreciated to give the game some variety. I can also respect the added challenge to include intelligent AI for the Murder Monkeys so you can't simply chain them. I have a few suggestions on power-ups within the current map, but that'll be discussed further within the review.


Coming from a character artist, I can dig the designs of each character and the foes you encounter in your playthrough of Dark Deception. With this said, I hope this trend continues with the expansion of maps and character designs to give the game that much more flavor. As a tiny knit-pick, for one, I wish the character animations within cutscenes would idle after so they aren't still statues. The other knit-pick being that Bierce has lip-syncing at times within the lair, sometimes not. Lip-sync would be nice, if it could be done.


All of the directional audio within Dark Deception is well done, simple as that. The voice acting is professional-grade and fits for the characters in question. The only thing I should mention is the almost unnecessary... light awkward noises coming from Bierce within her lair as she idles? I don't know, those idle noises just seem weird to me. Personally, I can't focus on hearing footsteps when I have intense music building up my anxiety to distract me, so I kinda had to turn it off. I don't think that's really important, but I figured it'd be worth noting when the team is working on future foes and their soundtracks.


As far as I'm aware, Dark Deception didn't have any bugs or glitches I came across within Chapter 1. Earlier I had mentioned how I have a few suggestions in terms of the current in-map power-ups. The power-up to see enemies should work to where there's a medium sized-radius that you can have permanently provided you don't die; it'd be fair/useful enough to get yourself out of a pinch to avoid getting cornered in a loop. As for the stun, I feel like enemies under the effect of the stun should create a blip on the map for a second or less so you can at least see where you have to go when they become active again. These are just suggestions, so feel free to comment on what you think of the current power-ups, or whether you like or dislike these ideas!


Dark Deception had quite the climb, going from the Unity engine to the Unreal Engine, and it's certainly improved over the years thanks to the efforts of Vinny and Nikson. With a horror-Pacman vibe and a potentially interesting backstory, the game deserves the award it earned. However, I would wait for the season pass before pressing to purchase the next chapter immediately in the worst case scenario that the quality degrades over the months. Research before you buy, I'd say, but don't let me stop you if you want to support the game; it's your call! With all of this said and done, thank you for reading my review, and I hope you have a lovely day.


Dark Deception was played on my channel, so why not watch little ol' me play it to see what my reactions were firsthand? Here you go: https://youtu.be/duwVzfz2m-s

[h1] INTRODUCTION: [/h1] Glowstick Entertainment has quite the interesting team working on [I] Dark Deception. [/i] Vinny's previous work was Dead Acres, while Nikson's previous work includes The Joy of Creation: Story Mode. You'd imagine with both of their programming prowess that this game could go off without a hitch, bumps, or scrapes... but that may not be the case. Then again, I may be wrong, since this review will be covering Chapter 1 as of October 22, 2018. Let's see if the experience in horror from Vinny and Nikson pays off! [h1] STORY/LORE: [/h1] More or less, the main story for [I] Dark Deception [/i] is pretty straight forward. You, the player, did something horrible and are in a purgatory-like state to determine the outcome of your death. While this is only Chapter 1, we already have two characters that conflict with our ability to trust either one, so we'll have to see how these relations with the characters develop, and what exactly we did as the protagonist to get into this purgatory state of being. [h1] GAMEPLAY: [/h1] Ever play Pacman? If so, then you know what to expect in [I] Dark Deception... [/i] minus the enemies. You have three lives, you can earn XP and levels to use towards upgrades and abilities, and you have a map, but the enemies differ every map. They each have their own mechanics and means of dealing with them, which is always appreciated to give the game some variety. I can also respect the added challenge to include intelligent AI for the Murder Monkeys so you can't simply chain them. I have a few suggestions on power-ups within the current map, but that'll be discussed further within the review. [h1] VISUAL AESTHETIC: [/h1] Coming from a character artist, I can dig the designs of each character and the foes you encounter in your playthrough of [I] Dark Deception. [/i] With this said, I hope this trend continues with the expansion of maps and character designs to give the game that much more flavor. As a tiny knit-pick, for one, I wish the character animations within cutscenes would idle after so they aren't still statues. The other knit-pick being that Bierce has lip-syncing at times within the lair, sometimes not. Lip-sync would be nice, if it could be done. [h1] AUDITORY AESTHETIC: [/h1] All of the directional audio within [I] Dark Deception [/i] is well done, simple as that. The voice acting is professional-grade and fits for the characters in question. The only thing I should mention is the almost unnecessary... light awkward noises coming from Bierce within her lair as she idles? I don't know, those idle noises just seem weird to me. Personally, I can't focus on hearing footsteps when I have intense music building up my anxiety to distract me, so I kinda had to turn it off. I don't think that's really important, but I figured it'd be worth noting when the team is working on future foes and their soundtracks. [h1] BUGS, GLITCHES, AND OTHER ISSUES: [/h1] As far as I'm aware, [I] Dark Deception [/i] didn't have any bugs or glitches I came across within Chapter 1. Earlier I had mentioned how I have a few suggestions in terms of the current in-map power-ups. The power-up to see enemies should work to where there's a medium sized-radius that you can have permanently provided you don't die; it'd be fair/useful enough to get yourself out of a pinch to avoid getting cornered in a loop. As for the stun, I feel like enemies under the effect of the stun should create a blip on the map for a second or less so you can at least see where you have to go when they become active again. These are just suggestions, so feel free to comment on what you think of the current power-ups, or whether you like or dislike these ideas! [h1] OVERALL? [/h1] [I] Dark Deception [/i] had quite the climb, going from the Unity engine to the Unreal Engine, and it's certainly improved over the years thanks to the efforts of Vinny and Nikson. With a horror-Pacman vibe and a potentially interesting backstory, the game deserves the award it earned. However, I would wait for the season pass before pressing to purchase the next chapter immediately in the worst case scenario that the quality degrades over the months. Research before you buy, I'd say, but don't let me stop you if you want to support the game; it's your call! With all of this said and done, thank you for reading my review, and I hope you have a lovely day. [h1] YOUTUBE PLAYTHROUGH: [/h1] [I] Dark Deception [/i] was played on my channel, so why not watch little ol' me play it to see what my reactions were firsthand? Here you go: https://youtu.be/duwVzfz2m-s