Among Us, InnerSloth LLC, played on iPhone
Target audience: Anyone who enjoys mystery games. But also younger kids since there’s a ton of current pop culture customization and you don’t need to actually talk, the game provides pre written chat sentences for you to send w/o having to come up with anything on your own.
Notable elements: This game is pretty large. I was in a lobby with 14 other players, which is impressive. The map is also really large. I was impressed though since the game does a great job at making navigation and map traversal really easy and intuitive (for someone that had never seen the map before). The task system is pretty neat and keeps players occupied. However, each task itself is pretty menial. They mostly involve one, simple action that takes less than 10 seconds to complete. There’s no skill involved. Anyone can call an emergency meeting or report a dead body at any time. This led to some annoying things including people spamming the meeting button when we had no knew info, which was just a waste of time. Everyone is acting out of their own self interest, which leads to some fun dynamics since all the crew members are supposed to be on each other’s side against the hidden imposter.
Similar Games: Mafia, in my mind, is the clear comparison. The only difference is that Among Us makes the “night time” in mafia actually playable, instead of having it be a time where everyone just has their head down and you either live or die. In my mind, that makes it better. It is more interactable and engaging than mafia since you are completing tasks during the “night time”.
Fun?: Yes. I thought it was pretty fun. Surprisingly, this was my first time playing and I thought it was great.
Success/Fails: I ended up completing all but one of my tasks in one game. I was on my way to complete my final task after making it through several rounds of emergency meetings and reported dead bodies. When I arrived to complete the final task, there was another player that ambushed me and killed me. I was doing so well so I was bummed to got bumped from the game right at the end, but honestly Among Us can still be played and appreciated without winning. I still enjoyed it even though I “lost”.
Improvements: I would add more communication options on mobile. Maybe there were lobbies that were using their mics, but in the games I played, no one was talking and everyone just used the preloaded chat options. That definitely diminished my experience. I would have loved to try and accuse people/defend myself over the mic!
