By Andrew Agney
Games where you can sit around and play with friends are always fun for get togethers and parties, hence them being given the title of “party games”, but while some are silly, cute little games to just enjoy with others, there is one that puts pressure on everybody and thrives on paranoia and mind games, called Among Us.
Releasing in 2018 for mobile devices then later coming out for PC, Among Us is a social deduction game where up to 10 players are crewmates in a futuristic setting and are given various tasks to complete the game; however, up to three of the crewmates are chosen to be impostors who are tasked with killing the crewmates. The game is over when the crewmates either finish all of their tasks, correctly identify and vote the impostor for ejection, or if the impostor succeeds in killing all of the crewmates.
Recently in 2020, the game has seen a sudden, massive surge of players coming to enjoy the game, including Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, also known as AOC, the U.S. representative for New York who has started streaming the game live on her twitch channel at Twitch.TV/AOC.
Among Us is a simple game to pick up and its cartoony graphics keep the feel of the game from getting too dark, paired with cross platform play between mobile and PC players, you would be hard-pressed to not find any groups to play with. You can pick up the game for free on mobile devices, at the cost of not having all the cosmetic options and having to watch a small ad between rounds, or pick up on PC for a small price with all the content and no ads.
The game is very fun and engaging, always having to be suspicious of everyone— or taking suspicion off of yourself— while also trying to complete your tasks, constantly has your mind working. And if you are unfortunate enough to be killed by the impostor, do not fret! You can still play as the ghost of your character and relax as you focus on completing your tasks, however the in-game chat will be changed so that only other ghosts can see your messages, and it is common practice in real life groups that the dead players cannot speak anymore, otherwise what is the point? In-game options can also help shape the game to your preferences, such as raising or lowering the amount of time allotted to voting or how quickly the impostors are able to kill.
Be careful playing the game however, as it can be very high tension and very anxiety-inducing. It can also be considered one of those games that “ruin friendships” like Mario Party; I have personally heard quite a few shouting matches and people getting angry at the game when they are unable to get a word in or get dog piled on by the other players during debates, only having a limited time to debate and cast your votes does not help this.
Overall, I think this is a fun game if you want to always feel a bit of tension while hanging out with people, I suggest playing with close friends or random strangers online, people that you either know well enough to know they will be fine if things get heated, or people you will never see again so it does not matter if a short argument breaks out. This is also still a mobile game, so do not expect too much content from it— there are only three maps and only a maximum of 10 players can be in a game together.
I give Among Us a 7 out of 10.
