Deception III: Dark Delusion
- April 24, 2000 00:00 AM PST
Give those intruders their dying papers in Deception III: Dark Delusion, the latest in Tecmo's unique trap-setting series. Dark Delusion continues Deception's tradition of strong improvement, embodying all the soul-wrenching strategy of the first two in the series while improving just about everything else.
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The original Deception was a breakthrough in many ways. You took the role of an angry spirit, and you developed traps, learned new powers and devoured the souls of those you killed. Deception II vastly improved the gameplay by making traps much easier to manipulate, and intruders began to fall like rain. Deception III takes the best changes from the second game and makes them even better. If you thought smashing folks with rocks was fun last time, then you might want to close the windows and lock the doors - you'll be making these fools scream well into the night.
The new Deception includes tons of great new features, like switches to set off certain room devices (falling columns, chandeliers, collapsing bridges, etc.) and an all-new trap creation mode, in which you combine existing traps with other items to come up with all-new methods of mayhem. Traps trigger much more smoothly, and combos come rolling like thunder as you lure the intruders into trap after trap. Even better, an awesome new training mode allows Free Training with any trap or castle you've seen in Story Mode, or you can complete the various tests in Trap License mode.
Third Time's the Charm
While Deception III looks like a PlayStation game in all respects, it's very nice-looking. Graphical resolution might not be so great, but the level design and sheer class of the textures amaze as you wander through these massive castles of death. Characters move with determination as they hunt you down, and the trap effects are wondrous to behold. Deception III suffers a bit from the PlayStation's aging hardware, but in general it's a tight-looking game.
You'll be amazed by the music and sound in Dark Delusion. The soundtrack is a pounding vocal and orchestral maelstrom, and the traps crush, pierce, or slice with bloody realism. The enemies' death screams are a little too bloodcurdling, but you'll eventually get desensitized to the screams of the dying. Perhaps this is why the game got its Mature rating.
Dark Delusion controls fairly well, considering that it's not a twitch-based action game. With but a bit of training you'll be setting traps with ease, and with practice comes innovative and crushing trap combos that your enemies could never expect. You can't attack without using a pre-set trap, so part of the strategy is to keep bad-guys away from you. This may frustrate gamers more used to blasting dudes away with shotguns, but it's this sort of gameplay that makes this series so intriguing.
The Pit and the Pendulum
Gamers with a definite dark side should take a look at Dark Delusion. If you've ever had a guest that wouldn't leave, or if you've simply wanted to drop a flaming rock on someone's head, then Deception III might just trap you in front of your TV for a long time.
