New immersive sim lets you steal company secrets as a dodgy freelancer
Deficit, a new indie-made immersive sim by Item42, seems to channel System Shock and Half-life as much as it does Condemned: Criminal Origins. It has you exploring a maze-like research lab within Hadrian's Wall, "concrete warrens and liminal installations" policed by officers of the Overnight Taskforce.
Your objective? To find and steal a device known as the interpolator for your shady client and use it to escape Hadrian's Wall. The interpolator is a reality-altering machine that lets you open wormholes into other dimensions. It seems familiar enough. Replace freelancer with a hacker and Hadrian's wall with Citadel station, and the similarities flare up.
The world and art design seem inspired by Half-life 2 with Citadel-like imposing structures and alien realities similar to Xen. But that's not all that Deficit has to offer. There appears to be a melee-based hand-to-hand combat system like Condemned: Criminal Origins that has you getting crafty with the environment and using all manner of hammers, weapons, and other utility tools to defeat your enemies.
The Steam listing says the game will have "an emphasis on chaotic close-quarters combat, creatively lethal tools and environmental havoc."
While there is no release date for the game yet, there is a promising trailer to tide you over till release. Item42 is a two-man indie studio that already has one release on Steam - A horde co-op shooter, Perish, that currently sits on a "Mostly Positive" rating.
