I went to space and all I got was trust issues
Do you ever feel like maybe you have way too many friends?
Do the people in your life wear you down with their non-stop texting and constant check-ins on how you’re doing and sharing stale memes from 2 weeks ago?
Are you in the market for a game that destroys relationships, now that Monopoly isn’t an option in these socially-distanced times?
Well read on, I believe I might be able to help you with that…
“I can’t stand it, I know you planned it”
At its heart, Among Us is a social deduction game in the same vein as Werewolf and Mafia, but with cutesy astronauts avatars that kinda look like Fall Guys in space.
Faction roles are assigned to players in secret at the start of the game. You either join the Impostors, an ‘informed minority’ (to use the Mafia game term) who are aware of each other through in-game mechanics, or the Crewmates — the ‘uninformed majority’ — who just want to live their spacemen lives without getting impaled by Impostor alien spikes or ejected from the map unceremoniously.
Impostors spread paranoia as they kill off Crewmates and sabotage the systems around the map (all while trying their best to appear innocent), whereas Crewmates need to stay alive while performing maintenance tasks to prevent a defeat by sabotage. As a Crewmate, you’ve got to display Sherlockian levels of deductive reasoning and call emergency meetings to vote out suspicious players before you get outnumbered and lose. Crewmates can also win by completing all tasks.
“Cause your crystal ball ain’t so crystal clear”
Well, that’s what’s supposed to happen anyway. In my experience, players prefer to kill each other quickly instead. Typically when I play with friends, everyone starts shooting accusations at each other as soon as the first dead body gets reported, getting defensive even though I literally saw them killing a Crewmate right in front of me 5 seconds ago. Do not underestimate how a casual “your head lah!” can make you doubt your own eyes.
For these reasons, Among Us in my top 3 list of ways to find out which of my so-called “friends” will lie straight to my face and should not be trusted under any circumstances.
“You’ll shut me down with a push of your button”
Seeing as how Impostors always begin the game outnumbered, they’re usually given a slight advantage through game mechanics such as having a wider vision radius compared to Crewmates, so that they have a better view of what everyone in their immediate area is up to. This helps Impostors to score kills while Crewmates are innocent making their way around the map or to watch out for suspicious eyes while trying to sabotage the ship systems.
The tasks that Crewmates have to carry out around the map are simple minigames that act as busywork to keep them occupied while Impostors stake ’em out like the murderous aliens they are. They’re not especially challenging so gamers of any skill level can join in. These minigames aren’t the point anyway; it’s the social aspect of Among Us that drives each round.
What’s funny is that even when you’re dead, you come back as a ghost and can still complete tasks. Seeing a bunch of ghost Crewmates trail an Impostor is an amusing sight.
Crewmates can report dead bodies spotted, calling emergency meetings to discuss and suss out the killer(s) in their midst. This is when the best part happens: everyone gets to attack each other verbally, lobbing accusations of being Impostors while simultaneously defending their actions. Trust no one! Everyone is sus, and the player you were going around the map with might turn on you and vote you out, ejecting you into the cold vacuum of space.
“Scheming on a thing, that’s a mirage”
For optimal results, it’s best to have some form of voice chat while playing as it’s much easier to accuse suspicious players and defend yourself via the medium of indignant shouting. Discord, Zoom, whatever works best for your friend group. You might want to switch off the video option if your poker face CMI. Oh and of course if you’re dead in-game, you gotta honour the rules and mute yourself. Can’t have ghost spacemen blabbing about who killed them.
Voice chat also works great when you play rounds as an Impostor, so that you and your Impostor buddy can work together to manipulate everyone into being suspicious of each other, especially if you know they’re 1) bad at defending themselves, 2) owners of naturally-occurring sus faces, 3) susceptible to lies, or 4) all of the above.
“I’m trying to tell you now, it’s sabotage”
Anyway, I hold more grudges than a Ju-on box set, so you all better watch out. I’m gonna eject every single one of you like the pack of space Judases you are.
Among Us is free to play on Android and iOS, and really cheap on Steam although personally, I prefer playing on mobile. Cross-play is supported so your friends can join via the free version if they’d prefer to test Among Us out first before purchasing it.
Have fun, wildly accuse everyone, and trust no one! You’re all sus!
