‘Among Us’ is the game of the moment. There’s very few who haven’t heard of it by now. Despite the fact it came out in 2018 it’s taken off over lockdown as perhaps the biggest games on PC and mobile of recent times, with The Guardian (2020) reporting that ‘Among Us’ has attracted more than 85 million players in the last six months. This is very believable as it cannot be ignored how it has swamped social media platforms with memes and love stories coming from the game which have been posted on the ever popular TikTok.
‘Among Us’ essentially is a virtual game of Wink Murder, with the aim being to find the Imposter ‘Among Us’ in the game which accommodates up to 10 players. It’s fair to say it becomes a little bit of a blame game, the aim being not to get caught if you’re the imposter. The popularity has shocked the games developers Innersloth so much that they have abandoned plans for a sequel, with the solution being combining resources to improve the original. This has worked out in their favour as the improvements are firm fan favourites in the gaming world and the downloads are testament to that.
Game Rules
Players are told at the beginning if they are an imposter or a crew member. Whilst the crew member carries out tasks like pairing up wires and cleaning air ducts, the imposter walks through the corridors of the malfunctioning spaceship the game takes place in trying to break equipment and kill the innocent crew members. Whenever a body is found a meeting is called. This is a monitored time where all players discuss and try to decipher who the imposter is. This is the fun part! The crew do this by comparing alibis and reporting suspicious or ‘sus’ behaviour they’ve observed. This is when the imposter has to work hard to cover their tracks. When the vote comes around if the crew are correct and detect the imposter it’s victory for the crewmates, however if they are wrong the game continues until they detect the imposter or else the imposter kills the entire crew. It’s quite straightforward!
Where did the hype for this game come from I hear you ask? Many claim it’s down to the influencing ability of Twitch Streamers persuading their viewers to play and download the game due to them making it appear so fun! For those of you who don’t know what Twitch is, it’s a live streaming platform which is predominately used by gamers. This has led to many rushing to play across the free mobile app and/or the £3.99 PC version. For some the game has turned into a night out (probably with the times that are in it) as people are playing it on private Discord Servers with friends. For those of you wondering what Discord is, its another big winner in the gaming world since COVID-19 struck. It has been a good means for many to connect over lockdown and social distance and bond through gaming. Although, that’s maybe a blog for another time!
Personally, I’m not a gamer. I’ve never been a gamer. However, this game has won me over. After weeks of refusal to download the free mobile version of the game I finally caved about a week ago. FOMO hit me! I felt like I had to see what the hype was about after numerous persuasive comments from my American friends and my flatmates to give it a go. Before this the only mobile app games I liked were that of my childhood such as ‘Animal Crossing’ and the ever iconic ‘Angry Bird’ due to their simplicity. In my opinion, ‘Among Us’ is by far the most fun- that is possibly due to my love of Drama and its similarity to the classic theatre game Wink Murder. So far in my week and a bit of playing the game I fortunately have not been the imposter but rather a crewmate. I am proud to admit that I have successfully helped in spotting the imposter. Obviously the imposters playing in the public games I have partaken in weren’t great at deceiving me!
All that’s left to say is if you haven’t tried it yet, join the crew and don’t be the imposter ‘Among Us’!
Holly Lucy Mc Allister is a final year BSc Communication Management and Public Relations student at Ulster University. She can be found on: Twitter and LinkedIn