Jay’s Video Game Review: Among Us

I finally downloaded one of the most talked-about games of the year and here's what I think.

Believe it or not, the incredibly popular PC/Mobile game, Among Us, came out a couple of years ago. The game never truly caught traction in any type of a major way, until the summer of 2020. As weird as 2020 has been, it's no surprise that an old(er) game, which was in the middle of creating a sequel, would randomly catch fire and become one of the most popular games on the planet seemingly overnight.

The team behind Among Us was deep in the creation of a follow-up when the game blew up, causing them to put the sequel on the back-burner and focus their all-of-a-sudden hit.

The game's popularity is mostly due to a sudden usage from Twitch users in early summer of 2020.

After hearing about the game endlessly, and seeing several friends post about their experience, I finally decided to download the game on mobile to see what all the fuss was about. Turns out, this game is more addicting than I could have ever imagined.

The premise is fairly simple, and the presentation looks like something straight out of a Game Boy. The presentation of the game is incredibly simple with an overhead camera following your character. It reminds me of the classic Pokemon games on Game Boy. The premise of the game is very easy to understand, resembling a new spin on the classic "Clue" board game.

It's a game of who done it, where your mission is to find the murderer unless of course, you are the murderer. If you are indeed the villain, your job is to convince the others that you are a friend and not a foe.

In Among Us, matches include ten random players, including yourself, who play as astronauts taking part in their space duties. When the match starts, nine players get the assignment "Crewmate", and one player gets the assignment of "Imposter". The crewmates can win the game by either completing all of their space-tasks or eliminating the imposter. The imposter can win the game by sabotaging the crew secretively or killing off all of the crewmates. The fun part comes anytime a crewmate finds a dead body, then the game switches to a Survivor-type tribunal, where all members of the game plead their case. Once the group comes to a consensus on who the imposter is, a vote takes place, and whoever received the most votes is kicked off of the crew, whether he/she is the imposter or not.

I have played Among Us for a day now and I must say, I am incredibly intrigued by the game. I honestly did not think I would enjoy it, but there's something insanely fun about either deceiving crewmates or attempting to play the role of Sherlock Holmes in finding the imposter.

This is one of those games you could play for several hours and still have fun. The only downside to this game that I can see is that I imagine it will get aggressively old very quickly. I can't see myself playing this game a month from now, but for the time being, it's a sure thing.

8/10 ranking.