You can listen back to the exact moment Ubisoft coined the term ‘social stealth’, onstage at E3 2006, on YouTube. But the genre kickstarted by Assassin’s Creed has since been largely abandoned by triple-A studios – bequeathed to indie developers who have begun to explore the multiplayer potential of hiding in plain sight for themselves. Deceive Inc is the latest development in that story. Created by a team of former triple-A hands, it carries DNA from extraction shooters such as Hunt: Showdown, while also embracing social stealth as its core mechanic in a way no big-budget publisher would today.

It tasks you and several other players with competitive corporate espionage – infiltrating the vast vault of a swanky mansion, underwater hotel, office tower or tropical holiday resort to steal a briefcase and make your getaway in a flying car. Since there’s only one briefcase, it’s not just the defences of the vault you’ll have to contend with, but your rivals, who reveal themselves now and again for messy firstperson shootouts.

Most of the time, though, you’ll be acting a part: nonviolently navigating a sprawling indoor environment disguised as a partygoer, guard or staffer. Going unnoticed requires you to mimic the jolting cadence of the NPCs around you: walking a while, pausing to stare into the middle distance, and then heading off in another direction. Perhaps you’ll sit on a chair, or wash your hands at a sink. Sweet Bandits Studios has done a marvellous job of muddying the waters by teaching its AI to err in human-like ways – you’ll see guests break into jogs, and walk into places they don’t belong. A single slip-up is not the smoking gun you might expect.