Among Us, while a popular game, is one I had never tried before. My only exposure to Among Us was through memes and jokes, so naturally I thought the game was probably very silly. And, while it is in some ways, it was surprisingly riveting and fun to play.
Among Us is a game for people of almost all ages, given that you are old enough to see blood and very cartoonish killing. The idea for Among Us was originally given by Marcus Bromander, the co-founder of Innersloth, the game studio that developed and published the game. Among Us can be played on virtually any platform, including mobile, desktop, and console.
The game separates players into two roles, crewmates and impostor(s). The crewmates run around the map, completing tasks, investigating any suspicious behavior, and reporting the dead bodies of fellow crewmates. The impostors do not get to complete tasks, and can kill crewmates. The crewmates win if they complete all tasks before the impostor kills enough crewmates, or if they vote out the imposter. The impostor wins if they kill enough crewmates before either of the winning conditions for the crewmates are met.
The game emphasizes social deduction through its voting process. Everytime a dead body is reported or an emergency meeting is called, a voting process occurs where after the allotted discussion time, living crewmates vote on who they believe the impostor is. Throughout each round, all players are to remain silent, so suspicion is easily built up towards many different players. Whether it be because someone is following you, you haven’t seen someone the whole game, another player seemingly disappeared from an area with a vent near it, and more, everyone is usually suspicious of at least one other person. Or, it may also be the case that in a given round, there are players that have no leads on who the impostor is. Regardless, this difference in the state of each players’ headspace and suspicions leads to a pretty chaotic discussion time before each vote.
Among Us also involves many other variables that increase the fun, and difficulty in deducing who the impostor is. Some of these include the ability to lie during discussions, differences in skill level/strategy leading to confusing or unclear outcomes and meetings, limited chat time, the impostor’s ability to vent, and more. One example I would like to touch on that affected my gameplay in different ways is the ability to lie during discussions. While a basic addition, this adds so many levels to the gameplay. One time, even though I was telling the truth about my suspicions and my account of what occurred, a couple of my friends thought I was lying simply because I paused for a bit as I was talking, and proceeded to lead the conversation and get everyone to vote me out, when I was indeed telling the truth as a crewmate. While as a player this was frustrating, it was very fun and interesting to experience this from a design perspective, because it showed me how a feature as simple as meetings can lead to so much chaos.
Another variable I would like to discuss is differences in skill level/strategy affecting the gameplay. This manifested in many ways, such as one of my friends who was the impostor openly killing people and getting caught after only the second kill. Another moment this manifested was when we voted out one of our friends who I at least thought was seemingly suspicious, as he was lurking around people and didn’t seem to be completing tasks. However, after we found out he was not the impostor and the game was over, he told us his strategy, which simply didn’t involve completing all his tasks right away or as soon as possible, but rather looking around and trying to fish out the impostor early on.
Just like in any game, the formal elements of game design are present all over Among Us. All of the variables I just discussed add layers of conflict in the game, which help add variety and make the game interesting. There is also meaning that emerges from the game, as players are able to experience the consequences of good and bad choices they make, and although malevolent, players also learn how to better lie and deceive (at least within the game environment). In a way, this shows how games play with morality, although there is nothing of tangible value at stake. Among Us is also a game that allows players to explore themselves and how their brain works in intense situations “in front of” others. It also allows players to explore their level of risk aversion, among other things.
There are many things Among Us does great, other than the things I’ve already mentioned. One of these is that, due to the number of players and the number of crewmates versus impostors, any player in any given round is most likely to be a crewmate. This gives new players a chance to adjust to the gameplay and strategies behind a successful game, giving them a point of entry and making it more likely for them to initially have fun and want to stay longer as they are likely to experience some wins during their first few games. The game also gives players the chance to banter with other players and become close friends, as it creates many funny, lighthearted and enjoyable moments. This can make players associate positive feelings with the game, and even nostalgia if they played long enough. The silly character design and animations also make the game feel lighthearted and accessible to everyone. The simplicity of the tasks is another feature that makes the game accessible and relatively easy to get into.
There are some areas where I believe the game can be improved. The first is that there should be a timer that prevents players from calling an emergency meeting right away once the game starts. This can help prevent trolling/bad decision making. Another area where the game can be improved is adding a mode where voice chat is allowed, but has a strict reporting/banning policy. This would allow for people online to have more riveting gameplay with other players that are serious about trying and playing the game the right way. A third area for improvement would be adding more complex tasks. I believe reducing the amount of tasks necessary to be completed but increasing the difficulty of the tasks would create for more interesting gameplay at times, because after playing the game for a little while, doing the same things over and over gets really boring. Another addition could be dynamic elements added to the maps, or new maps added to the game, which would also help with the repetitiveness of the game. Another way the game could be improved is through skill based matchmaking, which would make public lobbies more playable.
Among Us is like many other social deduction games like Mafia and Secret Hitler, where deception and identifying players’ identities are at the core of the game. However, Among Us is special for many reasons including its fast paced gameplay that makes each game very intense and prevents drawn out games/player fatigue, it’s simple mechanics that make it very accessible and easy to jump right into, and its silly design and memorable catch phrases that make the game fun and amusing.
I would definitely recommend the game, but primarily if you have a group of friends or people you can call while playing.
