Among Us is an online social deduction game that takes place in a space themed environment. Modeled after other classic multiplayer party games, such as Mafia and Werewolf, Among Us divides players into two roles: the majority are “crewmates” and a small number of people are “imposters”. The crewmates perform various tasks while trying to identify which players are imposters. Meanwhile, the imposters sabotage the tasks and try to kill the crewmates while they fix wiring, upload data, or empty the garbage. In order to eliminate the imposters, the crewmates hold meetings to discuss the identity of a potential imposter and eliminate the player by voting him or her out. The imposters can also manipulate the process by convincing the crewmates to vote off an innocent teammate. The crewmates win if they successfully eliminate all of the imposters, or if they complete all of their tasks before the imposters kill wipe out the entire crew. The imposters win if they kill enough people so that there are an equal number of crewmates and imposters.
Among Us was originally released in 2018, but was not well known and had little mainstream popularity. The demand for the game erupted recently, as many famous live streamers and YouTubers—such as xQc, CallMeCarson, Pokimane, Shroud, Ninja, and PewDiePie—began playing the party game during the Covid-19 pandemic. After these popular influencers got onboard, other consumers saw what they were missing and wanted to try it out for themselves, prompting a snowball effect in the game’s playerbase.
After playing the game myself, I really enjoyed the game, as it was extremely fun to play with my friends. It’s very easy to learn and one you can quickly master all of the unique tasks in each map by playing the game numerous times. Among Us is a great way to stay connected with your friends during quarantine because you are able to create private servers that allow you to host rounds of play with friends rather than random users. If you don’t have enough people to play with or if you just want some solo practice, you can always join a public match which will randomly assign you to a group.
Overall, I recommend this game for everyone. There are both free and paid options for all types of computers and phones, and it is easily located on your device’s app store. So why not enjoy some fun while social distancing and enjoy a space adventure?
