Have you ever felt the need to not trust your friends, yell at them, or even accuse them of murder? Then the 2018 video game, “Among Us” is perfect for you. This game is a whodunnit like you’ve never seen before.
It takes place in one of three locations: a spaceship called “Mira HQ,” a volcano in a frozen climate called “Polus Outpost,” or a space station called “The Skeld.” Each of these three locations have unique tasks that each player must complete. These tasks can range from clearing leaves from an oxygen filter to destroying asteroids coming towards the ship. You must complete all of your tasks to win, and each character is assigned their own variety of jobs to do. When everyone completes these tasks the crewmates win the game. But there’s a twist, all the while the crewmates are doing these tasks, there are two imposters that must kill everyone. They are given fake tasks to make it easier to hide among the real players. They also can sabotage things to cause everyone in the game to lose, given that these special community tasks aren’t completed in sixty seconds. Every so often, an imposter will come across a lowly crewmate with no one around, at this point they go for the kill. When someone finds the body, a meeting is called among all the live players.
During this meeting, players are set into a voting stage where they have two options. Their first choice is to abstain from voting, casting no one off if they are unsure or there just isn’t enough information. Their second option is they can vote on someone who they think is the imposter. This is where things get very ugly. Blame is cast upon those who seem suspicious, who didn’t seem like they were completing tasks, who were following someone around, or those who were near the body. There is always the chance that imposters make up information to keep themselves clear, or they can create falsehoods to take the blame off themself while accusing the other people. The game is won for the imposters if they are able to either stall out a community task from being completed, or if they kill enough people so that the imposters match the remaining crewmates 1:1.
I played this game for the first time with my older brother and his friends, and oh my goodness it was a blast. Blame was cast, lies were told, and countless cartoon characters were killed in cold blood. The hitch was that these weren’t people I knew personally, so that only makes it more exciting to play with those you have close ties with. I give this game a 4.5 out of 5 spartan heads for the amazing concept, adorable art style, fun gameplay, and distrust among friends. The only thing I have to complain about with this game is the servers are a tad slow, and they aren’t super reliable for nights that a lot of people around the world would be playing. Games can sometimes be difficult to start up because of this issue, but when a lobby gets going, it’s so much fun. This game is $4.99 on steam, and free for iOS and android. I highly encourage everyone to get out and give this game a spin. Who doesn’t wanna accuse their best friend of murder?