Among Us

The era of COVID-19 has given rise to the importance of low-cost, socially-driven indie games. One of the most impressive titles of this kind, though, stemmed from 2018 release Among Us. Though InnerSloth LLC released prior to the pandemic, it was only during 2020 that the game truly started to take off as a social marvel. Why, though? What makes a game about a few low-poly blobs running around the screen so fun? Let’s take a look.

Cluedo without the clues

If you have ever played classic board games such as Cluedo, you’ll feel right at home with Among Us. The premise is simple – you are based on a ship or platform of some capacity with other players. The only difference? One of you, or more than one, is an evil murderer. Those who are ‘among’ will spend their time sabotaging the place, killing other players, and trying to win by murdering everyone else or sabotaging the ship.

The other players spend their time trying to complete tasks trying to get the ship up and running again. Nobody knows who the ‘bad’ player is; it could be anyone. And when things are discovered, such as said sabotage or a body, a conference can be called where players can accuse other players of negative actions. Then, the groups gets to vote on the action – will you all pick the right person? Or will you sacrifice someone else whilst the killer remains?

A legendary social time

The main thing to note about Among Us is how addictive it can be. When played with friends, it is a truly special time. Being able to converse with one another on voice chat and get really into the role playing element can make a game of Among Us tremendous fun. The biggest issue with the game arguably stems from the fact that you can spend so much of the time trying to find a partnership – if you play with random players, it is nowhere near as fun.

However, with an addictive and easy to master gameplay loop as well as fair rotations on who is ‘Among Us’, you get to enjoy a really enjoyable and satisfying experience. It is definitely the kind of survival game that can be fun for everyone involved, especially if you can get into the role playing aspect and play that out with any enthusiasm. Knowing that your failure or success stems from making the right call on who is or not the villain is a lot of fun, that is for sure!

Pros

• Great quality social experience, ideal for lockdown
• The actions and consequences are 100% player driven
• Easy to play for anyone with an interest in gaming

Cons

• Needs to be played with a group of friends for the best experience

It's strange how hit games can come from the most unexpected places. Among Us is proof that you don't have to be a super developed, triple-A title, to do well in popularity. And this happened two times in the past couple of months, when Fall Guys, a simple 3D game made better in selling than The Last of Us: Part 2. It's basically proof that what you truly need for a game is to have a good idea and deliver just that. So, what's Among Us about?

Back to the basics

Among Us doesn't get into any complicated game mechanics or complex gameplay either. It's all about the player's interaction with each other. The idea of the game is pretty simple, you play the part of a member in a small crew on a spaceship. The main goal is to get to an objective location, but there is an impostor among the crew. Find the impostor and make sure justice is served.

Half Party Game, Half Mystery

One of the interesting things in Among Us is that it takes back the party game genre. There's no way to play this game in single-player mode, and it is encouraged that you play with your friends to have more fun. Of course, you can play online with random people and there are even fewer chances of someone cheating that way. Solving the mystery of who's the impostor will require you to think fast, always keep an eye out, and be able to convince other players of what happened.

Teamwork leads to success

At the beginning of each game, it tells you whether you're the impostor or a crewmember. Depending on what you get your gameplay experience will change, as a crewmember you get a list of tasks to complete. If the crewmembers complete enough tasks you win and reach the destination. As impostor, you have to sabotage the ship and kill the crewmembers, while convincing everybody that you didn't do it. There can be up to three impostors on the ship at the same time, and you also have to do some teamwork to succeed, especially at the accusation part.

Among us is a fun and addictive game, playing it online is already super fun, but playing it with your friends is especially cool. It feels as if you somehow made Danganronpa a multiplayer game, and then turn it into a party game.

There are some cool animations for the killings and even some customization for the characters in Team Fortress 2 style (that means tons of hats). Its simplicity is key to attract a bigger audience since anyone can play this game. It's available for free on smartphones, with in-game purchases available, and you can also buy it really cheap on pc. The tasks are easy to complete, and they better be, since you can get killed while performing them.

Pros

• Fun to play
• Enjoyable
• Nice designs

Cons

• Servers could use improvement