Millions of gamers have played at least one social deduction game. Town of Salem comes to mind as one of the first examples I got really into growing up, and Among Us is also extremely popular and gained major traction during the COVID-19 pandemic. While many enjoy these games, I also like seeing how different developers try their hand at this genre. That is part of the reason why I tried out OCTOPinbs, which offers an interesting twist to the core gameplay of the genre.

From the developers at the Star Ocean series at tri-Ace and Fate/Grand Order at Lasengle, OCTOPinbs is a brand-new online multiplayer social deduction action game where 3 to 10 players must work together to either put out a fire or burn down the building entirely. You will play as an octopus or squid; the octopuses are firefighters, while the squids are artists who just want to watch it all burn. The interesting part of it is that firefighters don’t know who is or isn’t an artist. This is a strong premise for a social deduction game, and I was very interested to see how it would play out.

Putting Out Fires in OCTOPinbs

In OCTOPinbs, figuring out who is who is vital to success, and the matches don’t typically play out how you might expect if you’ve played Among Us. While most social deduction games have you vote and cast out the suspects, that isn’t how you deal with them here. Instead, you fight each other and hope the person you just knocked out wasn’t on your side.

When you suspect someone isn’t on your side, you have a couple of ways to stop them. The easiest way is to do a single jab or spray your hose. When you run out of health, you will transform into your sea creature form, but you aren’t out of the woods yet. If you make it back to the firetruck, you can revive yourself, but just know that there’s a cooldown. You can also be captured in this form, and it takes a lot of button-mashing to escape. There are also special containers in the map called Octojars that will reveal your role and stop you for good.

While dealing with fighting each other, you will also have to focus on the fire as well. Both firefighters and artists can spray water to put it out, but artists can also start fires in secret. Enemies will also spawn from the fires and cause problems. There is also the chance of a boss enemy appearing, and you will only have a minute to deal with it. If you beat it, you get health and items; if not, everyone loses all their health. There is a lot going on in this core gameplay loop, but it fizzles out really quickly.

The core gameplay feels unbalanced. A single jab or spray from the hose will stun lock you easily, and it becomes a game of who pressed the button first. If you button-mash out of getting caught, you’ll be quickly picked up again, as there is barely any stun present when you escape. The artist has a transformation that is supposed to make them stronger, but it is easily beaten by the hose. The games are at least short, so these problems never get too annoying. Even with the balance issues, the game can be fun, but it just doesn’t stay that way for long.

Quite the Artists

There’s still some aspects to praise about about OCTOPinbs. I think OCTOPinbs has a great lobby system, and and the matches themselves are pretty customizable. The lobby is fully explorable and includes sections for the tutorial, cosmetics, and even a small area where you can start or put out fires. They even let you fully customize the match itself, letting you adjust different items and attack rates. It also ran pretty well, and my online connection never dropped.

Another aspect I have no issue praising is the game’s setting. It’s set in this interesting world where sea creatures can take on human forms based on the jobs assigned to them. The game only has squids and octopuses, but they look great, and I would be interested in how the developers could tackle other animals. All the designs are really solid, and it makes me wish this game utilized its interesting premise more. An opening cutscene or interactive lore book could do wonders here.

An Empty Package, For Now

My biggest criticism of OCTOPinbs is the lack of content. It has only one game mode and is online-only. That game mode also only has two maps that feel similar to one another. Each map has three different sizes, but that doesn’t do anything besides add more rooms. You will see everything this game has to offer in just a few games. The character customization is also lacking, which is a shame because characters have some really fun designs. I hope there is a post-launch plan because right now, the game feels pretty barebones. 

Another problem I have with it is the social deduction gameplay. Despite it being a major selling point, it doesn’t feel utilized at all. The squids have a couple of abilities meant to confuse others, but they never felt good to use. In the games I played, I never focused on finding the artist; instead, we just focused on putting out fires, and eventually the artist would reveal themselves. The social deduction feels like an afterthought, which is a shame because this is an interesting idea. 

The OCTOPinbs Clock Out

I wanted to like OCTOPinbs. The mix of social deduction and action gameplay is novel and could work. Sadly, the social deduction isn’t fully utilized, and while the gameplay can be fun, it quickly gets old due to the lack of content and maps. Still, I can’t say I didn’t have some fun. I was never bored, and a lot of my issues can be fixed with updates. In its current state, OCTOPinbs is hard to recommend unless you can get a few friends to buy it too at the $9.99 MSRP. There’s potential, but it’s untapped for now.

Disclaimer: tri-Ace, Lasengle, Inc., and Aniplex provided Steam keys of OCTOPinbs for review purposes.