Review: The Deed

 Goutham Jayaraman

Ravencrow Game Review #21

 

The Deed

https://store.steampowered.com/app/420740/The_Deed/

Genre	RPG
Platform	PC
Developer	Pilgrim Adventures, GrabTheGames Studios
Publisher	GrabTheGames, Whisper Games
Playtime	1-3 hours
Date Completed	4/6/2021
Date Reviewed	4/6/2021
Overall Grade	B+

 

The Deed is a tiny RPG Puzzle game where you play as a scorned son returning to his family home after several years of separation. He has recently learned of his father’s intent to disinherit him and instead shove everything over to his deranged sister, and so takes it upon himself to arrive at his house under the ruse of attending a 50^th birthday party, but with the sinister intent to murder his sister and get at his father’s inheritance.

Right off the bat, the game does bring something new to the table. Normally, you are the detective trying to solve a crime, but rarely do you get a chance to plan out a crime, commit it yourself and try your best to evade capture. For that reason alone, this game is certainly worth an inquisitive try.

My first playthrough took me just about 30 minutes. Admittedly, the game is very small but that has at least allowed it to implement a good assortment of player choice. Basically, the gameplay consists of walking around the house, looking for a weapon and a piece of evidence to use for the purpose of incriminating someone else. It also includes conversations with other family members and gives you dialog options for each one. These dialog options not only matter but matter in a big way as they can make the difference between getting convicted and getting away.

What I liked

-          The concept was very appealing to me, especially being something that games very rarely implement

-          Having a  lot of choices and having the choices matter enough to lead to different endings

-          Getting to see backstory details and new items trickling in and weighing my murder options accordingly as I went along.

What I disliked

-          The short length of the game and basically how barebones it is. There is so much room for potential here.

-          Gameplay was a bit too simplistic

-          Having a blank inventory where items you had found could have at least been logged down.

Gameplay 14/20	Well, the gameplay was good, but also very basic. Being able to explore the house, investigate points of interest and formulate a plan were all interesting moments in the gameplay.   Having varied options to choose from for each dialog also made for rich gameplay. Being able to hear different responses can be a motivator to play the game multiple times all by itself.   However, there’s really only so much you can do. After conducting your exploration, you simply have to pick a weapon (or not), pick an item (or not), and then just commit the murder. This is fine, but it would have been nice to see additional mechanics like people moving about the house, certain rooms and items not being available depending on choices made and so on. (Imagine merging this game with Lucius!)   - Just feels a bit too barebones
Game Design 21/20	I would have to say that the game is well designed, considering how fluently the dialog options, items, weapons and characters are interwoven together to create a murder plot for you to construct and evade.   The vast number of options you have is also a testament to this, and you can tell that a lot of attention to detail was paid. I say this because you can craft your strategy based on who you plan to pin the crime on. For example, you can choose not to talk to a certain person which would make it appear as though you never went into that room. You can act very polite and attempt to throw suspicion off yourself as best as possible, or you can just be yourself and be as rude as possible.   Even despite the game’s short length, you can see that there is some level of depth there which was designed to make multiple playthroughs not just enjoyable but even rewarding.   That being said, there are QOL improvements that can be made, such as logging discovered items, discovered endings and giving the option to carry, plant and use multiple objects.   There is also significant room for expansion as far as the design is concerned. Bigger house with dynamic characters and rooms, randomization, items that interact with each other, options to conduct a silent or locked room murder etc. …. You can tell how much I like these kinds of games.
Graphics 12/20	+ Graphics are fine. You have good character portraits, and a good enough house to wander around, and a couple of cutscenes here and there.   - Some of the UI looks like standard RPGMaker assets   - Fairly small area   - Window refuses to go full screen, which impacts immersion
Audio 11/20	+  Ominous and atmospheric music accompany much of the playthrough. Sets the mood perfectly and even gives the feeling of an old 1945 house (In the mother’s room). - No voice acting, not that it matters - Needless to say, the soundtrack will be limited given the length of the game - Can recognize some sounds as standard assets
Story 10/20	The only real premise is that there is a boy who wants revenge on his family, wants to kill his sister and get away with it. There really isn’t much of a story here, but whatever little story that exists is more than enough to spur you into action.
Lore 18/20	The characters in the game work out quite well. They have backstories, even if they are never fleshed out all that much. The main character also has his history which pops up in nice flashbacks around the house. Overall, there is enough to provide the basic motivation for performing the deed, and for selecting a victim. Would have liked to see more in depth backstories and more interactions between the characters in the house. The characters seem to be well designed, but never get enough time to really impart in any way.
Value 18/20	+ Well, its $1, so you really can’t go wrong with this purchase. + You’ll want to play the game a couple of times to explore the different options and collect endings and achievements. It should give you about 3 hours of total playtime + Pretty unique gameplay, as far as I know, and there are also 2 sequels that slowly improve on this game’s mechanics. - Still can feel a bit shallow though, given how short a single playthrough is.
Overall Grade 13/20	B+
Score	73

 

Overall, I do recommend trying out this game, as well as the sequels (The Deed: Dynasty and The Deed 2) for some rather unique and interesting gameplay. Try and see if you can get away with it on your first try!

 

[NOTES]

-          Ominous and atmospheric music to start off the game

-          I like the concept of the game: You are a scorned son who wants to take revenge on your family and must find a way to murder your sister without arousing suspicion upon yourself.

-          You have plenty of dialog options in this game to pick from and get quite interesting responses to each one. The options also differ wildly in their tone. Do you wish to play the part of a decent well-mannered young man, or do you want to throw caution to the wind and make whatever snarky or rude comments the game allows you to? You do have that option and it can provide some added motivation to replay the game once or twice just to explore the possible responses you’d get.

-          The gameplay is fairly simple. You are left to freely roam around the house and explore all of its rooms. Your ultimate goal is to murder your sister, so you’ll need to find a weapon, of which there are quite a few to choose from. What’s interesting here is that I always found myself considering stuff like “Hmm.. I can use this weapon but that might get the maid into trouble, and I would rather leave her out of it”.

-          You can also choose to find a piece of evidence which you can plant alongside the murder weapon. Depending on the evidence used, you can directly incriminate another family member in the crime, or you can also just leave the authorities guessing, or you can just make it look like a freak accident or even a suicide. Its nice that you have all these options available to you and can think through them as you are exploring the house.

-          The house has plenty of interactible objects and some of them will give insights into the lives or backstories of your family members. Perhaps you’ll get additional incentives to harm one of them (or conversely to spare one of them) along the way. There are also little flashbacks that are triggered by certain items in the house that offer insights into your own backstory and shed some light on the problems you have.

-          You have an item and weapons inventory but all the items and weapons you have already examined aren’t recorded here. Seems like a waste to just have an empty menu here for just 1 item and weapon that you will eventually carry. Recording down all the things would at least have served as an overview that you can refer to and try to make your decision on what to use.

-          Kinda sucks that the window refuses to go full screen

-          All the choices you make will actually matter in this game, which is commendable, but much more manageable to implement given the game’s short playtime.

-          Each playthrough of the game typically lasts between 10-30 minutes. Given all the different dialog options you have as well as the choice in terms of weapons and evidence, you should be able to play this game several times and still enjoy the playthroughs. At the very least, I found it interesting to try out alternative options just to see what happens. There is also the possibility that you end up losing and have to try playing the game again anyway.

-          Overall, for $1, it’s perfectly fine. But this concept has immense potential for expansion and even randomization. For example, if we have a bigger house like a mansion, certain rooms could be randomly locked or otherwise inaccessible at the start. Some rooms could require certain actions to access. Items could be found in random locations and not just in one particular spot. Items themselves can be randomized to some extent, maybe selected from a larger pool. I mean, you get the idea.

-          There is also certainly room for additional narrative to be planted. While you get snippets of information that touch on characters’ backstories, they are admittedly limited.

-          I find it nice how everything in this game is interwoven. Like, if you wanted to make the crime look like a suicide, you would intentionally choose the dialog options that make you seem completely innocent and concerned like a normal boy. You would also obviously not plant evidence and use a specific weapon that allows for suicide. If you wanted to indict the maid, you would be nice to her at the start, but actually not talk to her at all when you enter the kitchen so it looks like you were never there. If you wanted to indict your father, you would make his anger take center stage and get the inspector thoroughly interested in that. Again, its all very well designed, but it would be nice if the game was longer and deeper.