Image via InnerSloth
This year's biggest trending phenomenon—aside from the 2020 presidential election—is Among Us. It's an indie multiplayer game, where players must determine who amongst them is a murderer—and meanwhile, the murderer must lie and leverage trust to kill the other players. Due to its cartoonish aesthetic, the game is a lot more family-friendly than you might think, even with that description.
To say that it's caught fire with the public is an understatement; for a game that no one had heard of prior to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic (and the quarantine lockdown situation many are currently still in), it's more of an out-of-control, dry forest blaze, buoyed upwards by Twitch, Tik Tok, influential streamers, and U.S Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. It's also been added to the Nintendo Switch, which is sure to raise its profile, especially for more casual gamers.
For those of you who are still confused about what Among Us is and how it got to the phenom status it's reached, we've got you covered. Here is your need-to-know explainer for Among Us, the perfect escape from your spiking pandemic reality.
What is 'Among Us'?
Among Us is, at its core, a murder-mystery game. You and up to nine other players are placed in a locked room scenario; the most common one is a spaceship with multiple rooms and pathways. These are "Crewmates," who are completing a number of ship maintenance tasks. But here's the catch: one-to-two Crewmates, unknown to everyone aside from themselves, are actively working against the mission. These "Impostors" can sabotage the ship's life support functions and can also kill innocent crew members.
The game ends when the Crewmates either complete their tasks or correctly accuse the Impostor. Or, it ends when the Impostor manages to kill off the crew without being discovered.
Who made 'Among Us'?
Among Us was created by three people: Marcus Bromander, Amy Liu, and Forest Willard, who founded the indie game studio InnerSloth. The team released this game in 2018; at the time, it was only compatible with local multiplayer. They later added online multiplayer and released a steady trickle of customizables and new maps over the next two years. Every time they decided to move on to a new game, the small but enthusiastic player base kept drawing them back.
Why am I only hearing about this now?
Among Us achieved its breakout success in July 2020. Prior to that, there had been small, steady increases to its fandom; a South Korean streamer discovered the game shortly after it launched, and a Brazilian streamer discovered it in 2019. But Willard credits streamer Sodapoppin for rocketing the game to its current prominence. Now, everyone plays it, even high-profile streamers like Pokimane, xQc, and PewDiePie.
What kind of numbers is this game doing?
It's doing sick numbers. In just the month of September, Among Us had over 120 million downloads across all platforms. On just Google Play and the App Store, it's had over 158 million installs since its inception. There's also massive meme potential; Among Us-themed TikTok videos accounted for 13 billion views in October alone.
Jeez.
Right? It's gotten to the point that Innersloth canceled its upcoming sequel Among Us 2 and has decided to dedicate all of its time to enhancing, improving, and maintaining the original Among Us. And it's easy to see why; such a cultural phenomenon comes along once in a lifetime. Why fix or elaborate upon what isn't broken?
Are there any drawbacks to this popularity?
Among Us recently went through a rough patch, which consisted of a hacker forcing users to spam chats with threats, advertisements for hacks, and pro-Trump propaganda. InnerSloth has since released a server update to combat these hacks.
Any phenomenon has these sorts of issues; popularity makes bad actors an inevitability. It's made more complex by the small, three-person team running things; InnerSloth needs to find a middle ground between their DIY mantra and their responsibilities to such a massive user base.
Is this a difficult game?
Both the mobile version and the PC Steam versions of the game are easy to pick up and play. The ability to succeed in this game has less to do with input or muscle memory, and more to do with psychology, knowledge of the map, and situational awareness.
When someone finds a body or calls an emergency meeting, it's an open opportunity to debate who the Impostor is. Who did you see entering the room? Who did you see leaving it? Did you see anyone standing around, pretending to work? Does someone's alibi in the chat not match with what you witnessed.
Everyone votes at the end of each meeting on who the Impostor is. A player who receives a plurality gets flushed out the airlock of the ship. If the accused was the Impostor, the game will tell you. If the accused wasn't the Impostor, the game will also tell you. And so it goes.
That sounds fun.
It is. It can also be enraging. There are few more infuriating things than being accused of being the Impostor, especially by players who could confirm your alibi but stay silent.
If you're the Impostor? The entire game becomes an exercise in lying like a rug. You need to have an alibi and a backup for it. You need to redirect suspicion onto an innocent player and appear besmirched when someone accuses you. And you need to do this all without making it obvious that you're doing it, or people will figure it out, and you'll be going out the airlock instead of your victim.
Can I play with a bunch of randoms, or should I get some friends to join me?
You can play with a random collection of strangers in public lobbies and have a fantastic time. But you're also bound to run into players who don't know what they're doing, aren't taking things seriously, or are poor sports and rage quit midway through.
The most ideal way to play this game is with friends, or with a group of people who you know are taking it seriously. There are Discord servers explicitly for this purpose, and via Discord, you can also use vocal chat for your in-game meetings. This is a great way to up the suspense and drama--hearing people's voices in real-time makes it harder for people to bluff or fly under the radar.
Let's talk strategy!
What are some good strategies if I'm the Impostor?
First and foremost, don't get caught. Pay attention to your peripheral vision, and make sure no one else is in your field when you kill someone or disappear into a vent—only Impostors can do this. And secondly, craft a good story. If you kill someone and then vent to another location and sabotage something, it creates the effect of being in two places at once. If you kill someone, and then immediately pair up with another innocent player, you can use that person as your alibi: "I was with X player the whole time!" The other player might even vouch for you. As a general rule, don't start making excuses before someone even suspects you. Keep your story straight and simple.
What are some good strategies if I'm a Crewmember?
Stay in groups. An Impostor will try and get you alone. Pay attention to anyone who's standing around not doing tasks, like they're looking for a victim who's isolated. If you see someone doing work? Make sure they're actually doing work! Some of the tasks have specific animations, which makes them impossible to fake. Also, pay attention to the green taskbar. If someone is "working" but the bar isn't filling up, you know there's some fishy business going on.
AOC plays this game, right?
U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez streamed herself playing Among Us on Twitch to get out the vote for the November 3 election. She, along with a rotating cast of Twitch personalities and U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar, had one of the most viewed streams in the platform's history; 4.8 million people viewed all or part of the three-hour stream, and at its peak, 400k people were watching at the same time.
AOC has a charisma and relatability that's well-suited to this sort of format. In a country where young people—particularly young people of color—vote in lower percentages than older people, this was an especially successful outreach, and it shows the importance of voting for our stories and our concerns.
I'm sold. What platforms is it on, and how much does it cost?
Among Us is available on iOS and Android for free with advertisements; you can pay $1.99 to remove the ads from the game. You can also play the game on PC; it is $4.99 on Steam. Both ports of the game charge for bundles of customizables, which allow your avatar to wear different clothing or own different pets, which will follow around you during gameplay.
Practicing your best ruses? That's free, but valuable.