Innersloth has made an intense multiplayer experience, taking the best from well-known games like Mafia and Werewolf. Of course, pandemic played into the developers’ hands, forcing the world to sit within four walls for the most part. The situation has led to the brainchild of Innersloth, called Among Us, achieving incredible success on PC, mobile devices and consoles.
The gist of the game
The idea behind the game is so simple that even a child can grasp it. There are between 4 and 10 crew members of a spaceship that crashes. Each has their own tasks that require quality execution. Except there are also hidden impostors amongst them, whose aim is to secretly kill everyone until they match or outnumber the crew and triumph.
Despite its semantic simplicity, the game is difficult to master, as it is in top multiplayer products. The trick is to trick a real person, not an artificial intelligence. If you play with friends or people who know each other well, the degree of difficulty increases. Using traditional strategies, or repeating the same ones from time to time, will not bring success. You can still try your luck in the first rounds, but as new and different levels start, you have to strain your wits and come up with something new.
Game design and mechanics of Among Us
The graphics are pretty fancy. The brightly coloured funny astronauts look like unremarkable scribbles, forever tripping over engine compartments, reactor decks and other seemingly insignificant obstacles. Nevertheless, this kind of drawing adds to the lightness and fun of the gameplay, especially given the fact that you have to cheat and kill.
Regardless of whether you’re a teammate or a terrible impostor, there’s no time for reckless abandon. The tasks to be performed are varied, including blowing up nearby asteroids, repairing the reactor, uploading important data and watering plants. Even if a character is killed, you can still complete tasks as a ghost. Once everyone completes their tasks, the impostor loses.
Being a sneak who constantly kills the crew is very satisfying, especially if you manage to get away with it. You can also sabotage the ship, which makes your teammates run around desperately trying to fix what the impostor has done. You can also hide in air vents so as not to arouse suspicion, or pretend to do the work yourself. The most important thing to do is to fit in and not give yourself away.
If a teammate comes across a dead body or feels he may know who the impostor is, he can call an emergency meeting. This is where the fun begins, as all participants must discuss who they think is the impostor. Touch screen support makes it much easier to type your thoughts, but it takes a long time when playing in the dock. This is where voice chat should be favoured, to make discussion easier and quicker.
The player features in Among Us
Among Us allows you to be sly, calculating, silent or defiant. But whichever method is chosen, the most interesting part is determining who the impostor might be.