Among Us is an online game that has recently taken over nationwide and particularly at LHS. Its popularity is thought to be due to the surge in interest of online games during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The concept is a unique and an uncommon game format. There are three maps that players can choose to play on, all of which are set in space. On first impression, although initially learning how to play the game is confusing, I was able to understand why the game became so popular so quickly. A player can play multiple rounds in one sitting without getting bored since every game can bring a fresh set of players and customizable features. There are two types of roles that a player can be assigned to which is completely random.
A player that is a crewmate does “tasks”, which are short activities that crewmates work together to complete while navigating finding the imposter(s). Up to three imposters have different objectives which include behaving like a crewmate to stay in the game and eliminate players by killing them.
To win the game, crewmates have to collectively complete all of their tasks and imposter(s) have to kill enough crewmates to have an equal ratio of imposters to crewmates. The mix of strategy while talking to your friends in the chat feature creates a really interesting gameplay experience. The game is highly based on trust of other players since the chat function is the only form of in-game communication. Players have to decipher between who’s telling the truth about the identity of the imposter and who’s not. Personally, having played multiple rounds of the game, I’ve gotten hours of entertainment with no complaints.
Juniors Jakiya Reimer and Annie Baker play the game with their friends. Both of them discovered the game less than a month ago but already feel more connected to their friends because of it. Reimer’s favorite part about the game is being able to experience it with her friends.
“When me and my friends play, we all Facetime. We see different sides of each other when playing the game and [see] who’s trying to lie and gain another person’s trust,” said Reimer.
Baker, who also facetimes with her friends while playing the game further commented on the player dynamic by saying “[We’ll be] getting mad at eachother and it’s a lot of fun,
In the age of COVID, Among Us is particularly helpful in still having fun with friends while staying distant. As of now, the game is available for free on mobile devices and $4.99 on PC.
