In Dark Delusion, the player takes control of a character named Layna, upon the island of Alendar. The death of their beloved King Arcadia has plunged the land into uncertainty. King Fredric now has control over the island, and is attempting to control the residents as well.

In short, a young female's life becomes shattered after witnessing the brutal murder of her family by the order of an evil king. She's then imprisoned, but in time escapes by the aid of a kid who tosses her a "trap." She kills the prison guards with the trap and then escapes into sanctuary. The story progresses with a bunch of the king's men and mercenaries are hunting after her so she uses the traps to defend herself. That's essentially what happens in every level of the game. Of course, there's a little more to it than that but I don't want to get any complaints for spoiling the story.

The games graphics are fairly decent, but not too impressive compared to games like Final Fantasy VIII. There are also quite a few FMVs throughout the game but they aren't as spectacular as the ones that are out there right now. The game's 3D environments are just "average" for PSX games. The character designs could also use some work because they seem dull in appearance and sometimes they look completely blurry.

One of the game's worst features is the ridiculous camera angles and limited ability to rotate and adjust the perspectives. This many problems during battles because it's very difficult to trigger the traps from a distance and since timing is an important factor in the game, not being able to see where the enemy is leads to lots of frustrations. Also, another thing that's irritating in Deception 3 is the ridiculous, over exaggerated bleeding when an enemy dies leaving an unnecessary pool of blood.

The game's symphonic soundtrack is pretty good when you first start playing the game but because extremely repetitive after playing it for a while. The voice acting is below average because some of the characters sound really goofy and they don't match the personality. The sound effects are bit crappy too with some of them being muffled out and dull.

Instead of turn-based or simply hack and slash fighting, Deception 3 has a battle system like none other. Players can move around the room and strategically setup traps by using the floor plans of the level that is setup like a grid. You are limited to setting three traps at once, but you can reposition them anytime you want. The player can also run around the room or roll out of the way to dodge against enemy attacks. While this can be fun for the first few hours of the game, it gets extremely repetitive afterwards.

Deception 3 also features trap making and customization where the player can build their own traps using magic emblems, orbs, or rings on the basic floor, ceiling, and wall traps. Each combination of magic items and traps creates a different effect and can significantly influence the power of the newly created trap. While trap making can be fun, it gets old pretty quickly.

Although Deception 3 is very innovating, it fails to keep the player interested in the game because of repetitive gamplay. Also, the sound and graphics could use a lot of improvement. It is recommended that the game be rented first and played for at least eight or more hours before deciding to purchase it.

· · · Raziel