Deficit: Tactile Stealth Sim with Butcher Bay-Style Brawling

What the report says

Immersive sims like Deus Ex and Dishonored are among the hardest kinds of games to make, so I always try to be supportive when an indie developer takes on the absurd challenge of creating one. Yet while there have been some good examples in recent years like Skin Deep and New Blood's early access Thief-like Gloomwood, a lot of the experiments in indie imsim design have been simply too janky for me to enjoy. Part of the problem is I'm a highly tactile player, and my primary concern when playing any game is whether it feels good beneath the fingers. This physicality matters immensely, as even minor inconsistencies can disrupt the experience.

Deficit, developed by Item42 (known for the cooperative shooter Perish), offers a dystopian infiltration experience where you act as a freelance spy tasked with stealing the Interpolator from Hadrian's Wall—a sprawling fortress. The game’s premise channels Deus Ex’s narrative depth while drawing heavy inspiration from Escape from Butcher Bay’s chaotic brawling. Your character’s melee attacks, featuring wild fist swings and overhand knife jabs, mirror Riddick’s signature style, but Deficit’s physics-driven impacts—like shuddering arm vibrations when hitting guards—create a more visceral, tangible feel than the original game.

But Deficit's more specific inspiration is The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, the surprisingly great tie-in game to David Twohy's mediocre Pitch Black sequel. Your character's melee attacks, which include wild swings of your fists and overhand jabs with makeshift knives—are hugely reminiscent of Riddick's brawling style in Starbreeze's cult 2004 hit.While I'd need to go back to Butcher Bay to verify this, Deficit's brawling seems more physical than that of Butcher Bay. When you thwack a guard with a hammer, you can almost feel the impact shudder up your arm.

Key details

Enemies are pleasingly reactive to being mercilessly beaten about the head too, stumbling and staggering before eventually collapsing in a pile of physics-powered limbs.There's more to Deficit than just fisticuffs, though. You can throw objects to distract or damage guards, use batteries to activate and deactivate objects like doors and robotic sentries, lay traps using mines or laser tripwires, or shoot enemies with 3D-printed guns. The world is highly reactive too. Nearby explosions won't just hurt you, but physically push you around, as I discovered when I got blasted backward through a doorway that I didn't know was behind me.

Moreover, when I accidentally threw an object at a nearby wall, it bounced back, hit me in the face and dealt damage. Immersive sim confirmed.Deficit definitely has potential. But there is one big problem—stealth. I can't tell whether the stealth system is broken or just incredibly hard to read, but I was constantly being spotted by enemies without really understanding why. They seemed to see me regardless of elevation and sometimes rumbled me despite there being an obstacle between us. As far as sneaking goes, Deficit needs a lot of work.The good news is that Deficit is fun even with busted stealth, because playing aggressively is viable and satisfying to boot.

There's no release date for Deficit at present, but you can play the demo right now, and I imagine we'll see the full version sometime next year.2026 games: All the upcoming gamesBest PC games: Our all-time favoritesFree PC games: Freebie festBest FPS games: Finest gunplayBest RPGs: Grand adventuresBest co-op games: Better together