A winning mix of sci-fi, social interaction and good old-fashioned murder mystery launched Among Us to stardom in the gaming universe back in 2020. Since then, US developer Innersloth has expanded the game’s simple whodunnit premise to make it even more playable.
Why it’s popular
Among Us quickly became popular with live-streamers on YouTube and Twitch when it first launched in 2018, but it was two years later during the pandemic that it became a genuine App Store phenomenon, as players were able to have fun with their friends while stuck at home.
You don’t need superhuman powers of deduction to understand what made it so popular.
The game transports players to a spaceship to complete a series of tasks, but there’s rather more to it than that. One or more of the group are designated as Impostors, sent to sabotage the mission and murder everyone on board. Crewmates win by identifying the guilty; Impostors come out on top by bumping off the good guys.
If you haven’t played Among Us for a few years, it’s worth returning to the final frontier. The biggest evolution is arguably the introduction of a Hide n Seek mode, in which Impostors have to work out where Crewmates are hiding. Innersloth have also increased the maximum number of players who can take part in games.
Get started
Since the gameplay mostly consists of exploration and observation, Among Us is wonderfully easy to pick up. For Crewmates, it’s all about completing your objectives while looking for suspicious goings-on. Impostors, meanwhile, need to go about their dastardly deeds by lurking in shadows or escaping through vents. It’s important to avoid looking suspicious, because whoever’s voted off – innocent or guilty – will be thrown out of the nearest airlock!
Did you know?
There’s more to being a Crewmate than there used to be. Engineers can travel through vents, Scientists can monitor other players’ vitals from anywhere on the ship and ghostly Guardian Angels can protect fellow teammates, even after they’ve been killed. There’s also a new class of Shapeshifter Impostors, who can impersonate any living player on the ship.