There are three types: floor traps, wall traps, and ceiling traps. While the gameplay for a concept such as this should be interesting, it hits a few snags which break the formula despite their necessity. So, 5-10 minutes later, you're playing again…or are you? It honestly doesn't help when you have several strung together at once, because the game has to load in-between just about everything. Each playable scenario only takes a few minutes to complete, as you rid your residence of pesky invaders, but the cinemas take far longer. Shakespearean in spirit, as it might be, it's a little too long-winded and represents a problem for Trapt as a whole: the cutscenes are far too time consuming. If the intro sounds somewhat lengthy, it is. There she finds the mysterious spirit who unlocks her ability to lay traps. Though she has a few friends left at the castle, it's no longer safe for her there and so the princess seeks refuge in an old family mansion located out in the woods. Allura flees the castle with her loyal hand servant, pursued by the royal guard and any mercenary or warrior who finds the price on her head worth the risk. Suddenly, while observing the grave, the King is struck in the back with an arrow and the new addition to the family is quick to place the blame on our young heroine for his untimely death. She's Allura's new step-mom and seeks to steal the throne from the rightful heiress. In spite of this, he has apparently found the time to re-marry an inglorious wretch with delusions of grandeur. He hardly speaks, ignores his duties, and suffers from bouts of depression. As the game opens, the former Queen and Allura's mother has recently died the King a complete mess because of it. As Princess Allura, you're stuck in the Hamlet-esque world of royalty gone wrong where drama, deception, and intrigue are always afoot. All Deception stories are basically similar – you've got the ability to lay down traps in your manor/castle, people are out to get you, you lure them in and try to defeat them before they kill you first. However, I don't remember the series being much more than a cult hit, so explaining the "trappings" of the game, so to speak, would probably serve well. Which is a shame, because the concept is still fairly entertaining. History has not treated this series too well. Granted, the story is different and there are new and grand environmental traps, but over half a decade, you would think Tecmo could come up with better ways to improve the formula. Though it no longer carries the name of the franchise, it is the same game. This isn't a history lesson, but it does serve as a good standpoint from which to evaluate Trapt, the fourth Deception gaming, coming five long years after the 3rd (Dark Delusion) debuted on the PS1. A little refinement once developers got used to the new consoles quickly showed they knew what they were doing. They weren't bad ideas, per se, only bad design. Looking back on this particular era of gaming, a lot of the experimental titles turned out the same way, but because they were fresh and new, we'd play them through the night just to continue experiencing what they had to offer. As interesting as the concept was, it turns out to be a bit of a gimmick. It was billed as a game where you got to play the villain, offing do-gooders that had come to take your head. Tecmo (at that point, probably still known best by US gamers for Tecmo Super Bowl) came up with Deception, a new kind of action game that didn't have you swinging away at enemies with swords or your fists, but setting up devious traps and luring unwitting heroes into them like a spider weaving its web. There was a cool, little game for the PS1, birthed in the cauldron of experimental development that tagged along with the rise of the 32-bit generation.
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