Among Us was created by game development studio InnerSloth and released in June 2018 to low popularity. During COVID-19 that all changed. If you are like me you first started seeing Among Us on TikTok and Twitter. I had no idea what it was but I kept seeing that game. I was intrigued and decided to download it for my iOS. The game at first appeared dull and boring but after awhile it grew on me. Among Us is a fun multiplayer social deduction game for iOS, Android and Windows. This review focuses mostly on the iOS version but are all the same for the most part.
A game of Among Us will consists of up to 10 players on a spaceship. You are a crewmate working on a set of tasks with three levels to choose from. The levels of Among Us are The Skeld, Mira HQ and Polus. The Skeld is the most popular level. If you and your team finish all of the tasks then you win the game. However, one of the players is the imposter. The imposter is assigned to a player at random in every new game. For me it usually took about six games as a crewmate until I was picked as the imposter.
The imposter is tasked with killing all of the players so that they do not finish the tasks. No one knows who the imposter is and looks just like an ordinary crewmate. The imposter is not assigned tasks like the crewmates but does have the option of faking tasks so that you don’t look like the imposter. All players are each a different color with the option of wearing a “hat” like a banana peel or plunger on your head. Anything can be a hat right?
The imposter has the option of hiding in vents as well as sabotaging the level through various ways like depleting the oxygen or turning off the lights. If the imposter sabotages then the players have to rush over to, for example, the oxygen panels to restore the oxygen. If the players do not restore the oxygen in the time frame given then the imposter wins.
The imposter has to kill the crewmates in secret so that no one sees him do it. When a crewmate is killed then another crewmate, when seeing the body, has the option of reporting it causing a discussion among all remaining crewmates that are alive. A chat room pops up allowing you to use your keyboard to chat to help decide who could of done it. Voice chat is currently not in Among Us and you would need to use third party apps like Discord to use one.
Who is the imposter? If you think one crewmate is the imposter and he gets enough votes then he is sent out to space. If you are wrong then it will tell you and you go back to doing your tasks. When a crewmate is dead they then become a ghost which can still perform task on the spaceship. However, as a ghost you cannot interact with the remaining crewmates that are alive nor can they see the ghost including in the chat room.
If you are like me you will perform only some of the tasks and then walk around looking for who the imposter is. You may see the imposter hop into the vent, which a normal crewmate cannot do, leading you to rush back to the emergency button to call an emergency meeting to discuss the imposter. Among Us is essentially The Thing except the imposter cannot infect anyone. There is the option to have two or three imposters in a game but I think it is better to have only one.
Among Us is fun, suspenseful and goofy which is all I want in an online multiplayer game.
4.5 out of 5 cats
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