For the first critical play, I played Amongus. This game was created by Innersloth and can be played on mobile phones. It used to be popular 2-3 years ago during the pandemic and now it’s not as widely played. Most people who play it are young in their teens or twenties because of the technical ability needed with smartphones.
This game had 7 players but there can be up to 15. A player is assigned tasks as their objectives that they have to complete around the world where the boundaries are the paths in the spaceships. These are called the crewmates but there is one imposter whose objective is to kill the other players. A player can report a dead body and then the crewmates discuss to find the imposter. The imposter will win if they kill everyone and the crewmates win if they eject the imposter or complete all the tasks assigned. Each player is one their own so there are no teams or beneficial alliances.
Amongus is easy to play remotely which helps get people to play it together. The tasks are also little games which provide more interaction than just checking a box. There are also cool advanced features such as looking in the security cameras for suspicious activities. The best part is that it can be played remotely and provides a medium between using the devices and talking to the players. This game is more interesting because there is something to do during the rounds instead of Mafia where players close their eyes for example.
The game was fun because the group had not met together before and got to have fun playing the game together. We also tried to deceive each other to hide the imposter. Some tactics including keeping talking about what a player saw to ensue doubt among the other players. One of the imposters managed to kill everyone without getting a body reported which was impressive. Another time everyone was together in a group and then someone died but we couldn’t find out who the imposter was because everyone had an alibi.
Amongus could be improved by including different mods to the game because every round is the same. For example, the imposter could switch people in the round or people can team up. The tasks could involve multiple people or be more complex such as a game within a game. Overall the simplicity of the game is what makes it accessible to play and a fun way to connect with friends.
