Don't think for one second this woman could be a friendly face...
Web of Deceit is a hidden object game series developed by Blam! Games and published by Big Fish Games.
The first game, Black Widow, takes you to Andville, where the town is at the mercy of the vengeful Black Widow. Following the trail of clues and dead husbands, you scour the town as you get to the bottom of what drove a woman to her lust for revenge and the power she claimed.
The second game, Deadly Sands, takes you to the remote village of Transvaal after receiving a distressing message from your uncle. Apparently, he had been on the hunt for a woman called Morgana. As you search for him, victims start piling up with strange bite marks dripping with venom.
Web of Deceit captivates these tropes:
Black Widow
- All Webbed Up: The unfortunate fate of anyone targeted by the mechanical spiders. Thankfully, the protagonist rescues the girl who they met briefly on the train.
- Animal Motifs: Spiders, fitting for Morgana's affinity for them and her reputation as the Black Widow.
- Asshole Victim: The two bullies who made her childhood a living hell, having grown to adulthood and not recognizing her, end up used by her for their resources and then killed.
- Black Widow: Morgana. It's also the title for the first game.
- Closed Circle: Trapped in Andville because of cobwebs detaining the train, the protagonist must brave the spider-infested ghost town to investigate what happened there and who was the mastermind.
- Cobweb Jungle: There's cobwebs spread all over the town of Andville.
- Establishing Series Moment: The protagonist waking from a dream meets a young lady who doesn't get the chance to talk to them before being captured by mechanical spiders.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Morgana's childhood consisted of her mother growing increasingly mentally unstable and abusive to her daughter, being bullied by the town boys all the time because of her love of spiders and her problematic life. When she helped a giant spider, she was rewarded with powers tied to spiders and the ability to command any and all spiders.
- Ghost Town: Andville
- Giant Spider: Morgana encounters the master of the spiders and helps him recover with resources from her hometown.
- Hope Spot: In one of Morgana's journal entries, she speaks about how, out of all her three husbands, Santos was genuinely friendly to her and felt some measure of affection for him. Unfortunately, he wasn't too keen on allowing her to enact her vengeance plan with his research, which lead her to kill him.
- Older Than They Look: Morgana has the appearance of a young and beautiful woman, but that's because the spider's gift lets her retain a youthful look and never age.
- Rule of Three: Morgana married and killed her three husbands to acquire resources for her revenge.
- Spider Swarm: Whether natural or mechanical, hordes of spiders are Morgana's to command, even gathering to rescue her when she is in danger.
Deadly Sands
- Clip Its Wings: The protagonist's plane gets struck, along with part of the wings, because of a sandstorm.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character: The protagonist in Deadly Sands is the nephew of Uncle Sam, who happens to be the protagonist of the previous game.
- Daddy's Little Villain: Morgana now has a daughter who is just as malicious as she is.
- Distressed Dude: In the bonus chapter, Uncle Sam gets kidnapped, and the protagonist has to rescue him.
- Enemy Mine: When Morgana finds herself unable to control her mechanical spiders as she used to, she reluctantly works together with the protagonist to save their uncle and stop the destruction of the dam.
- Evil Cripple: When Morgana is seen again, she is confined to a wheelchair (which has mechanical spider legs) and needs her daughter to acquire what she needs to cure herself.
- Find the Cure!: The protagonist has to help their uncle get to Dr. Klausevitz and acquire an antidote for the poison affecting him.
- Humanshifting: Emma can change her form into a man or woman at will to catch her targets.
- The Mirror Shows Your True Self: Emma meets her downfall when she is lured into the House of Mirrors, causing her shapeshifting powers to crumble away until only her true self remained.
- Sand Blaster: Emma can also manipulate sand at will.
