Among Us (for iOS) Review
The multiplayer party game Among Us came out in 2018, but it really took off in 2020. No one thought that the social distance caused by the pandemic would make us all desperate for new ways to interact virtually with friends, even if that meant lying to them on spaceships. Among Us is more than just the right game for the right time; it's also a very fun online and offline multiplayer game. It is an Editors' Choice-winning iPhone game for people who don't mind being tricked.
PROS
- Turns paranoia into a party
- Entertaining even when you aren’t participating
- Free on mobile
- Crossplay with PC
- Many customization options
CONS
- No built-in voice chat
- Occasional technical issues
One Small Step
I played Among Us on an iPhone 11, but you can also play it on PC and Android. You can play for free on your phone as long as you watch an ad after each round. You can pay to get rid of ads and unlock cosmetics like pets that follow your character around. The game costs $4.99 on PC, but you get more cosmetic items for free than you do on mobile.
The game also lets people play against each other on different platforms, either online or in person (if everyone connects to the same local network). Most games end in less than 15 minutes, and there are so many players that you can always find a new one to join. Among Us only works if it's easy to find or bring together large groups, so it's important to have a low barrier to entry.
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In Among Us, up to 10 players must work together as a crew on an isolated spaceship to avoid being picked off one by one, unless you're the imposter doing it. As a member of the crew, you have to do tasks while keeping an eye out for the suspicious imposter and building a case against them. As the imposter, you have to kill crew members while staying hidden and persuading the survivors not to vote you off the ship and into the abyss. In other words, don't be scared. Roles are given out at random, and you should do what you are told. If you disconnect too many times on purpose to try to get the role you want, you will be locked out for a few minutes.
Deep Space
Among Us takes ideas you may have seen before and gives them a fresh and clever spin. It makes the game play around each murder interesting enough that you're not just sitting around doing nothing while you wait to vote someone off. The work of fixing up the spaceship has some of the sci-fi, cooperative charm of Spaceteam. Opening your map to find your next objective and figuring out the minigame you need to play to complete it can take up so much of your attention that you won't even notice an imposter sneaking up behind you, which seems like it was done on purpose.
Some tasks may be too similar to traditional video games for casual players. For example, quickly solving a puzzle you don't know how to do reminds me of WarioWare. However, they add depth and make each session different. The game doesn't feel like a glorified minigame because of them. In one round, you connect wires to get power back on, and in the next, you use the weapons system to blast asteroids away. Also, the game doesn't ask for that much speed or accuracy. I never felt like I was missing out on anything because I used the touch screen instead of a mouse and keyboard. Even if you don't find the imposter, if everyone does their jobs, the crew wins.
Imposters, on the other hand, have more than enough tools to do their bad things. As with any other stealth game, you should take the time to learn the rooms and hallways of each map so you can sneak around and kill any enemies who aren't paying attention. After a kill, the group's first question is almost always, "Where did it happen?" This is the most important clue. So, it's important to have a strong alibi based on a place.
There are other advantages to being a fake. You can break equipment to make crew members waste time fixing it, pretend to do fake jobs, and hide in or leave through vents so you don't get caught next to a dead body. But your best skill is that you can lie, deny, and put the blame on others when you get caught. Crew members can call emergency meetings even before dead bodies are found, so you should always be ready to act like you are not involved.
Mission Control
When you and your friends play party games in person, you can change the rules however you want. In Among Us, you have the same freedom to make your own public and private rooms. You can change things like the number of imposters, the length and number of tasks, and even how fast you move. You can also play against dummies offline to learn tasks and imposter skills and get a better feel for each map.
Voice chat is not built into Among Us, which is a shame. Usually, when I play an online game, I don't want to talk to anyone, especially people I don't know well. But Among Us can't work without communication. Everyone writes in the chat by default. That's fine, but it loses so much important feeling, nuance, and performance that the game is actually less fun. Since it's still too dangerous to meet up in person, I strongly suggest that friends use a Discord server to talk to each other. Just make sure to play fair and not give away who the imposter is.
This next, more debatable flaw is less clear, but it is still something to think about. Among Us isn't the only game I've played where you lie and change the way people interact with each other. I've also played other games like this, and I think they may be too stressful for some players. Even in a game, the pressure and paranoia of making and being made an accusation can really make you feel anxious. I like the intellectual and exciting tension, but I can see why other people might not.
The bad guys who aren't supposed to be there are less fun. Like any popular multiplayer game, Among Us has its share of cheaters and hackers who spam the chat with political messages or links to their websites. This is a problem that, thankfully, the developers at InnerSloth are working on. InnerSloth canceled a second game so they could put more money into the first one and keep up with the growing number of players. That's great, because I did have some technical problems, like the sound not working or my character loading into a black screen with no sound. Still, that roughness is part of the game's working-class, sci-fi charm, just like the flat, sketchy art style that reminds me of a Newgrounds cartoon.
John Carpenter Would Be Proud
We don't need any more attention for Among Us. Before we wrote this review, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez broke records for the number of people watching her play the game on Twitch, even though she had trouble setting up voice chat. The game's language has already made its way into the wider culture of online gamers. This Editors' Choice award-winning iPhone game, Among Us, is more than just a fad. Its clever trickery should make it a permanent part of your party games.
