A popular game that recently ascended to the limelight, Among Us is a multiplayer game that relies on deception and discernment. Groups of minimum four and maximum ten roam a set of three maps to solve puzzles while being hunted by one to three imposters. The sole purpose of the imposters is to bring misery and death to the non-imposters, called crewmates.
Imposters have a various amount of tools that they can utilize around the map to make the lives of crewmates harder, including, but not limited to, closing doors, initiating countdown timers, and killing. Under the constant threat of the imposters, the crewmates have to complete the tasks before the imposters eliminate all the crewmates. As soon as all the crewmates complete their tasks, they win the game.
However, this is not the only way to win the game. Whenever an imposter kills a crewmate, any player, crewmate or imposter, can report the body, entering a phase of discussion. Players would then discuss who are the imposters and have the chance to vote one player out. This player is then thrown into the vacuum of space and announced whether or not they were the imposter. If they weren't then the game would continue, casting ever more suspicion on the other players, but if they were the last imposter, the game would end there.
The rise of the game has been largely affiliated with the pandemic as players are trapped inside. This game is a perfect combination between basic game and socializing, quickly becoming popular between various twitch streamers and thus the general populous.
Numerous strategies have arisen since the rise of the game, each bringing another layer to the game. Imposters have the ability to 'vent' from one part of a map to another, providing them with alibis after they take a life.
They apply combinations of venting, sabotages (which are abilities that let them delay the crewmates completing their tasks), and wordplay, redirecting the blame of the murders to other people and bring forth the end of the game by utilizing the crewmates themselves to kill even more crewmates.
By the end of multiple games, suspicion and separation would build up even between the closest of friends, but as long as they realize that what they are playing is only a game, these disputes can be easily resolved.
The rise of this game was not without reason, but with the gain in popularity comes the fall of community. Toxic players quickly flooded the servers, intentionally ruining the game experience for other players. Cheaters have an unfair advantage and destroy the fun that comes with playing. The creator of the game, InnerSloth, quickly executed multiple small patches to try and deal with the issues, but even with their efforts, many are still unhappy.
Among Us is free to play on mobile but distributed at a cost for the PC platform. Players can optionally purchase additional cosmetics that can appear to others in-game at the same price as the other characters.