Hadrian’s Wall… no, not that one. A concrete labyrinth filled to the brim with ruthless robots, mad science, and an army of security goons itching for a head to cave in! 

Guess who has to break in?

Codename: Carrie.

Mission: Infiltrate Project Sidereal and steal ‘The Interpolator’.

Oh, and don’t forget to make it out alive! Armed with your wits and whatever you can 3D print or get your hands on, your corporate espionage gig will take you all over Hadrian’s Wall… and further!

Cover identity uploaded. The rest is up to you.

No Deficit of Options

DEFICIT is a first-person action stealth beat-em-up made by ITEM42’s Bret and Regan Ware: two brothers, one awesome game! As mentioned above, the story is deceptively simple. Break into Hadrian’s Wall, collect the mysterious ‘Interpolator’ device, and escape with your head still attached to your shoulders. Along the way you’ll tangle with a cornucopia of threats, but DEFICIT gives you plenty of tools to work with! 

Like Starbreeze Studios’ The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay, DEFICIT can be played in many ways. There’s the tried-and-true method of socking your foes in the mouth, but if the odds become uneven you can bring a wrench to a fistfight… or a fire extinguisher! More of a creative type? 3D Printers can spit out all kinds of goodies: firearms, explosives, and even tools to whack your foes with! If you’d rather avoid confrontations, however, you can usually find a vent to pop into. You can even turn turrets and other security countermeasures on their owners… gotta love technology!

DEFICIT isn’t exactly an immersive sim, but it’s getting there. Some areas of the demo are more linear than others but based on what I’ve played I have high hopes for what DEFICIT can bring! Visceral combat, a story that shows, not tells, and a boppin’ soundtrack to boot! What more could you ask for?

I Saw the Demo Glow

Despite making a good first impression, DEFICIT could still use a little work. Considering this is a demo pieced together by two people, take everything I say with a Hadrian’s Wall-sized grain of salt.

At the present, DEFICIT looks like the lovechild of iD Software’s Doom 3 and a Laser Tag joint. Almost everything glows in this game, and while that might be exciting for moths and gnats, it makes it hard to locate doors and items. Like finding a glowing needle in a glowing haystack, it’s easy to glance over a keycard attached to a defeated enemy or an interactable vent in the back of a glowing supply closet. Luckily the game allows you to ping important devices from certain computer terminals, but otherwise you’re on your own.

Operating at a Deficit

Speaking of fights, while DEFICIT makes beating the snot out of corporate stooges fun, it’s almost too easy at times. That’s not to say the difficulty is flawed so much as the enemy AI is, well… a little dull. Though DEFICIT gives you so many options, the most effective solution seems to be leading your foes into a tight corridor and lighting them up with a pistol. This becomes extremely evident in the demo’s shootout segments. Even when armed, the concept of taking cover is foreign to your foes. While they’re busy plinking away without a care, you can just duck behind a crate and dump your magazine into them! Again, it’s a demo, but if the game plans on thrusting you into combat sequences it might want to revisit how enemies fight. I don’t need F.E.A.R levels of intelligence here, but a bit more self-preservation wouldn’t go awry!

In conclusion, the game might be called DEFICIT, but it left me with a SURPLUS of anticipation! Though the game could still use a bit of work, it’s amazing what the Ware brothers cooked up… this is one demo you won’t want to skip!

DEFICIT is featured on Steam Next Fest: June 2025! No release date is set yet but watch the space… and DEF play this demo!