Performance and Deception in ‘Hidden in Plain Sight’

Video games don’t often require the player to hide our true intentions. Even games with a stealth mechanic, the objective is to stay out of sight, only occasionally using deception as a way to distract a guard. Even then, deception is very rarely a truly fleshed out gaming mechanic. The obvious reason for this is that AI just isn’t advanced enough to make us truly feel as if we are fooling it in a meaningful way, rather than in a predetermined manner. When our actions feel predetermined, we no longer feel like we are being creative, sneaky, or deceptive, but rather just playing within the rules of a game.

Thus, Hidden in Plain Sight, a game completely ruled by deception and acting, does away with AI as an adversary and instead pits the player against other humans who share the same goal. The game, which features multiplayer mini-games in which all the players attempt to achieve a goal while remaining undetected, is a master class not in finding an optimal way to play (like most competitive multiplayer games require of the player), but in trying to deceive others through the process of play. There is no online multiplayer for this game, to play it you need every other player to be in the room with you, but that is what makes this game so interesting, the relationship between players.

My favorite of these mini-games is “Ninja Party.” Each player in this mode takes on the role of a ninja with the ability, of course, to punch and kill the other ninjas. Also, in the room are five statues. If a player either touches the five statues or kills all the other ninja players, they win the game. The catch? The room is filled with AI ninjas that kind of just wander around aimlessly, never punching or attacking. If a player attacks another player, they reveal themselves to be human and, thus, become an easy target for assassination. They can also reveal themselves to be human by trying to touch the five statues in an obvious way. Therefore, the player must act like a computer, fooling the other players into not attacking them. Luckily, violence isn’t a surefire path to loss, as each player has one “smoke bomb” which will cover a small area, allowing the player to blend back in with the crowd.

I love the multiple objectives that the player has to balance in this game. In a single moment, that player must monitor the crowd for strange behavior, must try to act like a computer, must try to touch all of the statues, and must avoid assassination. This balancing act is reliant on all players acting well and successfully deceiving one another. Ultimately, this is great fun. Catching another player acting too human and killing him is deeply satisfying, as is flying under the radar undetected. By avoiding conflict, I am able to capitalize on my opponent’s violence by achieving objectives across the small map. As with most couch-based multiplayer games, the smack talk is in full force for all players, yelling, taunting, revealing, or not revealing information. This also sets the player up for gaffes. During one game, I said aloud to the group, “I’ve got you now!,” as I punched a ninja, which turned out to be an AI. Moments later my friend touched the final statue and won.

In other art mediums, the viewer is obviously much more passive. When watching a movie, a person can be deceived, but they cannot participate in the act of deception. However, in Hidden in Plain Sight, the chief concern of the game is in acting one’s part. The emotions and investment that the player makes when trying to pull off successful misdirection in this game are inherently heightened due to the nature of playing with other people. It is one thing to outsmart or outmaneuver an AI, who follows predictable patterns that are often easily discerned. It is a completely different ball game when the player must contend with another human being, more skilled not only in the act of deception and in the art of acting, but also in spotting another actor in a sea of identical individuals.

The other mini-games within Hidden in Plain Sight are often more unequal in their approach to the roles that players play. In one, some players are snipers protecting a crowd of AIs, while the other players try to kill the AI. In another mini-game, half the players play as knights and the other half play as ninjas in a crowd of both ninja and knight AIs with a few AIs representing royalty spread around for good measure. The knights must protect the royalty without revealing themselves to be human, while the ninjas must get close to the royalty without alerting the knights to their intentions. While these games are simple, it is in their simplicity that the player gains agency to exercise creativity, specifically in performing as an actor, pretending to be something that they are not.

In all these games, the players are simultaneously trying to read and to react to the actions of player characters and non-player characters, but also to deceive their opponents, which is what makes them so fun. While an AI will run out of interesting strategies and moves to challenge the player, a human player will always be inventing new ways of deceiving and acting, learning while they are playing. Eventually, between friends, a metagame develops in which each player thinks that they know how the others act, so the players begin to act like each other or act in new ways in order to deceive those that are now supposedly wise to their trickery. Ultimately, a hundred rounds of “Ninja Party” would probably yield a unique strategy every time, solely due to the fact that each player is changing their approach, even if just slightly, every quick round that you play.

One last mini-game that I found especially interesting was perhaps the simplest, “Death Race.” In this game, each player takes on the role of a sniper and a non-combatant in a crowd of NPCs. The AI and players all begin in a line on the left side of the screen. If they press A, they walk right. If they press B, they run. The NPCs won’t run, but will walk randomly forward. The first player to reach the finish line on the far right wins. Each sniper has one or two bullets and can shoot to take out a character. Once again, sometimes an AI will jump far ahead of the pack and a player will waste a bullet on them. The player must delicately balance moving forward inconspicuously and reading the crowd for other players.

The most tense moments in this game come when only two players are left. A player may break into a run for the finish line with the hope that their opponent will miss their shot, or they may wait patiently for their opponent to reveal themselves before bringing home an easy victory. Ultimately, what makes these moments great is how, not only the players, but the spectators are in the dark as to who is who and how the game’s final moments will turn out. Once a player is eliminated, the game becomes no easier to read or to understand than it is when actively participating.

The mini-games within Hidden in Plain Sight are simple. There is no denying it. Some of their replay value may leave something to be desired. Their graphics and mechanics are mostly stuck in early 90s. Yet it is not the mechanics of the game itself, but in the people playing it, in their twists and turns as deceptive agents acting in peculiar, non-human ways, that this game becomes great. Not because of what the developer put into the game in terms of creativity, but in what he left out in giving the player autonomy to determine how to perform their role.