Despite being released in mid-2018 and receiving little attention at the time of its release, the now-popular game Among Us has garnered a great deal of attention in the past several months. This surge in popularity can be attributed to an uptick in streamers on platforms such as Twitch and YouTube playing the cute-yet-dark game.
InnerSloth, the game studio behind the hit game, designed the game to be relatively simple. You, the player, are either an Impostor or a Crewmate, on a ship rattling through outer space. Among Us is a multiplayer game, requiring four to 10 players, so many people invite their friends to play along, not realizing what betrayal awaits. If you are a Crewmate, your duty is to walk around the map, completing simple tasks. If you are an Impostor, however, your job is quite a bit darker — you are to kill all of the Crewmates, leaving only yourself and any other Impostors behind. The Crewmates win the game when they complete all of their tasks, or discover who the Impostors are. If a dead body is found, the players may gather to decide who to ‘vote off’ the ship. If all Impostors are voted off, the Crewmates celebrate a victory.
It doesn’t sound too complicated, and it’s really not. But many players find themselves vehemently debating whether or not to vote off a close friend — ejecting them into space, never to be heard from again. Those who are ejected from the ship may also find themselves cursing their friends who chose to name them as an Impostor. Ties between friends loosen as the game plays out, and divisions grow deeper.
It’s easy to see why the game has grown to become so popular — the controls and the objectives are simple, but the emotional turmoil is complicated. The reception of the game has led to high praise among players, and even a promise of a sequel, Among Us 2. However, the sequel was recently cancelled, so that the developers at InnerSloth can focus further on the original Among Us.
The game is available through Steam on Windows computers for $5.00, or for free on iOS and Android. One may wonder why everyone wouldn’t choose the free option, and the answer is a resounding difficulty in playing on one’s phone. On the phone, it is difficult to control one’s character, and something I have learned while playing is that, if you’re not moving, you’re assumed to be the Impostor. Just as well, if you choose to play through the online function, with people you don’t know, the chat function is much harder to use. So, some may consider $5.00 a worthy cost for more streamlined controls and a better chance of not being ejected.
While there may be no Among Us 2, Among Us will be a game that goes down as a quarantine great. Overall, I would highly recommend Among Us as a socially-distanced game to play with friends. Just be prepared to do some damage control within your friend group after you’re done playing.
