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The Deed
Released On: Nov 23, 2015
Metascore
Available after 4 critic reviews
6.2
Where to Buy
Where to Buy
All Platforms
For its price The Deed is a surprisingly good game, but it’s ugly and its content is so scant that it doesn’t even last one whole evening. [01/2016, p.55]
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 23 User Ratings
6.2
35% Positive
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
48% Mixed
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
17% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 23 User Ratings
6.2
35% Positive
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
48% Mixed
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
17% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
I wasn't sure what to expect when playing The Deed. The game play is pretty simple, but the game isn't about all of the graphics and effects, it's more about 'getting away with murder'. You are confronted with a scenario where you are expected to commit a murder. The strategy of the game is all about picking up the right combination of items, and paying attention to details along the way. By the end of the game, I was clenching my fists in anticipation as I awaited the final verdict. Was I going to be found guilty? Or would I actually get away with murder?
Overall, I think The Deed is an outstanding idea for a game. I didn't get away with murder the first time, but I can always try again.
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PC
Nice little game. Atmosphere and music are great. Revenge is sweet. Gameplay is simple. 1) Choose a weapon which will best keep the suspicion away from you. 2) Plant a fake evidence to put blame on someone else 3) Interview with the investigator and convince him.
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PC
A neat little game about committing murder and trying to get away with it. I have to say, the original price tag maybe does not reflect the very limited amount of content you actually get with this game. In fact, it is very much an rpg-maker basic roleplaying experience and no matter what path you take in the game, it will always play out in a very similar fashion. However, it's still worth exploring the several different endings the game has to offer. If you can get it with a discount on Steam, try it out.
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PC
The Deed feels more like a proof of concept than a game unto itself.
You take on the role of Arran Bruce, a bitter, cruel, mean-spirited young man who is angry that his father has passed him over in favor of his sister getting the inheritance.
The solution is clear – murder your sister, and pin the blame on someone else for it.
The gameplay of the game is very simple: after arriving at your house and having a brief conversation with the maid, you can walk around the house and talk to the various other persons around the house, as well as witness a few flashbacks of the past. You can also pick up two items in the house – generally speaking, a piece of evidence, and a weapon with which to do The Deed.
For that is indeed your motive here. While you go around the house, you want to talk to the various people in the house and ask them questions which might incriminate them or others later, or plant the idea in their mind that someone else might be capable of murder, or have a motive for murdering your sister. Every conversation has 2 sets of 3-4 choices.
You quickly discover that there are various tensions between members of the household, and numerous bits of incriminating evidence which you can potentially plant later on to frame someone else, or at least cast the blame away from yourself.
After you’ve picked up two items, you are seated at dinner, at which point a brief three-piece conversation ensues which allows you to further cast aspersions on other folks.
After dinner, you can go plant your evidence, and then go in and murder your sister with a weapon (or your bare hands, if you’re feeling particularly brutal), and then run away (with an amount of time dependent on how stealthy your murder method was). Depending on which evidence you planted and which weapon was used, blame might be cast in any number of directions, and you can potentially incriminate anyone in the household, make it appear to be a suicide, result in the case being unsolved, or even be arrested yourself and thrown in jail.
The police are then called in, and you have the ability to speak to the detective about the murder. He questions you about your activities, the things you witnessed around the house, and what your motives were in returning home. Eventually, someone is accused of the crime (or the case is deemed inconclusive) and the game plays one of a handful of epilogues (dependent on who ended up being found guilty, and how strong the evidence was against them), and then you’re back on the title screen, ready to play again.
The first time through, you’re likely to examine absolutely everything and spend some time plotting out how to pull off the murder successfully, but after your first playthrough what is and is not significant becomes much more obvious, and getting all the endings (and using all the murder weapons) becomes much easier as you know how to properly manipulate things towards the ending you want.
While all of this seems reasonably clever, the reality is that your first playthrough is likely to be completed in less than half an hour – possibly much less – and subsequent playthroughs are vastly faster as you know exactly what to do, where to go, and the like. The whole game is very small and tight, and frankly is pretty much the minimum size for it.
Unfortunately, while the game is reasonably clever about some of the things, it at times felt a little too straightforward; you can’t really create any sort of convoluted plot where someone is trying to frame someone else to confuse the police, it is all very straightforward. There is a reasonable number of options – and the first time through, there is a real sense of discovery – but you’re looking at 20-30 minutes of that versus an hour and a half of achievement hunting, if you want to see all the text and get all the achievements.
Ultimately, the game was at its most fun on the first playthrough, and while it was neat seeing all the ways you could go about setting things up in your favor, after a while it all becomes fairly rote. The characters are all flat and pretty two-dimensional, and there just isn’t enough space in the game for them to really breathe as people. The overall idea of playing reverse detective to mess with the police and get the desired outcome is a very clever one, but the game basically has that idea and nothing else.
Is it worth getting? The game costs basically nothing, so it is hard to knock it on price, and it is an interesting concept. That said, there isn’t really much meat here, and I’m not sure how interested most people would be in how all the pieces fit together. As such, while the idea is neat enough, the game itself just doesn’t carry much weight; it is just “this is a cool idea, isn’t it?” and… that’s it. If that's enough for you, there are worse ways to spend a couple quarters. If not, you're not missing something important
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PC
Summary A keenly dark twist on the traditional murder mystery setting, The Deed is an Adventure/RPG game about getting away with murder. Arran Bruce, the rightful heir to Dunshiel House, returns to his family home after discovering that his abusive father has decided to disinherit him from his Will in favour of his sadistic, deranged young sist...
Platforms:
- PC
Initial Release Date: Nov 23, 2015
Developer:
- Grab The Games
Publisher: Grab The Games
Genres:
