After spending a little more than a year apart from friends and family due to the Coronavirus, one game was able to bring people together: Among Us. This is a simulation game that can be played on your phone, as well as on the computer. It was originally released in 2018 by the developer InnerSloth LLC, but it became the most popular game of the past year winning the best multiplayer game of the year at the 2020 Game Awards.
At the beginning of the pandemic, this is one way that my friends and I were able to hang out and hold on to some form of normalcy. However, at the beginning of the summer when they were trying to convince me to download the game, I was a bit skeptical. My friend also sent me a long video that explained all of the rules of the game and frankly, I was too lazy to learn them. Despite all of this I still downloaded the game because I wanted to at least give it a shot.
Less than a week after downloading Among Us it became a quick obsession, not just for me and my friend group, but everywhere. Even Congresswoman Alexandria-Ocasio-Cortez live-streamed her playing Among Us with some of the most famous Twitch streamers including Pokimane and Dr Lupo, to try and get young people voting. I even began to watch these streamers play on twitch because I loved the game so much.
At first glance, the game may seem a little strange, but just give it a chance. In a cartoon spaceship, four to ten players need to complete simple mini-games to prepare their spaceship for departure, such as connecting colorful wires or swiping your ID card. Among the players, there can be up to two imposters among the crewmates who are secretly murdering everyone. The goal of the game is to discover who the imposters are and vote them off of the spaceship before they kill enough of the cremates that they can claim victory. However, it is very tricky to figure out who is the imposter and who is a crewmate being blamed.
It is a really fun murder mystery game that forever keeps you guessing if your friend is telling you the truth or is just lying through their teeth. To figure that out all of the players will meet in an emergency meeting either after someone has found a dead body or someone thinks another person is suspicious to discuss who was where and what they were doing. The meeting can be pretty short depending on how long you set it before the game begins, so it can be pretty intense trying to figure out who might be the imposter. Once you finish discussing, you can vote who you think is the imposter and if the majority of votes goes to one player and they are kicked out.
My friends and I talk on Discord when playing because it is easier and more fun to talk it out and hear how people plead their case, rather than frantically type within a short amount of time. After a couple of rounds, you will get the hang of it and it will instantly become a game that can bring you and your loved ones together.
The mobile game is free, but if you would rather play it on a computer it costs five dollars. Within the game, there are also some upgrades you can make to your avatar such as purchasing a pet that can follow you around as you play or a new skin so your avatar can be dressed as a doctor. The options are endless.
I highly recommend this game to everyone. It is a great way to bring people together, especially if you are still separated because of Covid-19.
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