Among Us is a Social/Mystery murder game about friendship, trust, betrayal, deception, investigation that got released back in 2018 but its popularity skyrocketed and became one of the most popular mobile/pc games for this year. But what is this game about? How did it become such a hit?
The Gameplay
Among Us takes place somewhere in outer space. The gameplay is simple; Crewmates consist of 3 to 9 players (depends on the settings) and Your task is to do various stuff like clearing the trash bin, reconnecting some wires, swiping your ID into a console, and repair dysfunctional facilities sabotaged by Impostors; Reconstructing the work environment like Controlling the overloading plasma reactor, fixing the oxygen supply and much more. The Crew’s primary goal is to survive and complete their tasks (even if they’re dead) or to find the Impostor(s) and to vote all the Impostors out via reporting dead bodies or by using the Emergency Meeting button.
Impostor(s) on the other hand consists of one to three players whose main goal is to blend in, kill and sabotage the ship. They’re given a list of fake tasks so they can go to the station and pretend they’re doing it, but you won’t get the screen. Of course, you need to make sure that nobody notices that the shared completion bar isn’t moving when you’re doing “tasks”. If the Impostor(s) manages to kill everyone or successfully sabotages the ship/base, the Impostors win. Even if they kicked you out, you can still help out your Imposter partner(s) to win the game.
To win as an Impostor or crewmate, requires communication, teamwork, attention to detail, and adaptability. This game is so simple but it requires deep thoughts and crucial information.
The Pros
Among Us is so simple and straightforward, you just need to be strategic and aware of what’s happening in your surroundings. Among Us supports Cross-play between PC and iOS & Android. It has a cute and childish art style that can be deceiving. The game includes 3 maps (so far). But developers promised to add more content like maps and cosmetics. The game has a ton of cosmetics from cute hats to cool-looking costumes. Pretty cheap for a game as you can buy it on PC for only Php 150 via Steam. But you can play it for free on mobile. Microtransactions are purely cosmetics and nothing beyond that. And Any pc (Even a potato or a microwave) should be able to run this game due to its low spec requirements.
The Cons
The game’s servers are a joke. Every time I hop on to a room or start a game, I get disconnected. Almost 50% of my games got disconnected due to some known server issues. Reports say that some players are also frequently struggling to get in a room and sometimes as soon as you successfully enter one, you’re going to get kicked out of the room due to high ping or other sorts of server issues.
The other downside of this game is that you have to deal with annoying and toxic public lobbies. Playing with a bunch of random players can be tricky and some of these players will leave as soon as possible if they’re not the impostor. This is annoying for the crewmates and the imposters because the game ends immediately.
Lastly, one of the most annoying people you will encounter is the emergency meeting people. These kinds of players will initiate a meeting for NO specific reason. They will either call a meeting to accuse someone for no reason and with no solid evidence or call a meeting at the start of the game to say “hi.” It’s funny at first but if it happens almost every game, it just becomes annoying knowing that it’s just going to waste time and it’s even worse when they don’t vote and the voting/discussion time is so long.
Conclusion
The concept, graphics, & overall gameplay is amazing! As I repeat, the game is simple and fun. Nothing in this game is complicated. It’s also better if you played with a group of friends. (Discord is recommended) You can play with random players online but the game is better to be played with friends as a text chat doesn’t convey the same satisfaction of hearing people argue as they try to figure out who the imposter(s) are.