Among Us

Among Us for PC is a perfect variations of a murder mystery theme, with the game’s template apparently lifted from an (admittedly, rather futuristic!) Agathat Christie novel. There are a set number of people in an enclosed space, with no ways in or out. Of the people within the space, one, two or three are not who they seem! It is an online multiplayer social deception game, and it is the unexpected juxtaposition of the other players that makes the game so compulsive and unique.

What’s the Intriguing Story?

You are either a crewmate or an imposter – you will be slipped a note, giving you your real personalised instructions, if you are an imposter – working through a set series of tasks.

As an imposter, which is arguably more fun, you must follow your own list of instructions, which include sabotaging the crewmates’ work and killing them. Imposters have special ways of moving secretly through vents, which enables them to get up to their nefarious naughtinesses.

Crewmates work to achieve mini-game goals, usually to do with maintaining or fixing up the play area (more about which below!) and it is possible to win the game simply by completing all the task, although more commonly crewmates will try and guess who the imposters are and get rid of them.

When a crewmate’s body is found, a meeting is called, where everyone gets to chat using text boxes – these are only available during meetings, there is no way to communicate otherwise. If a character is thought to have been behaving suspiciously, they are deemed ‘sus’, a vote on their assumed guilt is held and if they are guilty they are thrown out (with usually fatal consequences).

But the game is not over for you if you are dead. Instead, you become a ghost, invisible to everyone except other ghosts – and you can carry on working your way down your list of tasks to do, helping the other crewmates get that little bit closer to the finish line!

The Nitty Gritty

The game has a top-down perspective and fairly crude animations, but is a very compelling game because you can go in and out as you like, playing for hours, or just jumping in for a few minutes. To prevent frustration on the part of other players, when you quit in the middle of a game, all your tasks are marked complete.

Characters’ field of vision is a limited cone, which means that the player can see more than the character which just adds to the fun. The other way of winning is to find and eliminate all the imposters – once the last one is uncovered the game is over.

Imposters can win too, if their sabotage is not uncovered before time runs out, or by reducing the number of crewmates to equal or less than that of the imposters. But don’t worry about secret sabotage going undetected – as soon as something nefarious is done, there is a reaction that is noticed ship-wide, such as the lights all going out or the doors all closing, so, crewmates can get to work finding the issues!

What’s the Appeal?

The big selling point of the game is the chat. Players are positively encouraged to trash talk each other, so instead of trolling being an unpleasant reaction from someone who has lost or who is trying to provoke others, it is openly part of the game!

This makes it surprisingly funny and entertaining, and it is all the more so because each game will play out differently with new players making entirely new assumptions, insults and accusations. There is something fiendishly hilarious by responded with wounded pride that you are new to the game and trying to work it out, to an accusation of being ‘sus’. Rather more especially when you’ve just killed a crewmate and are now heading off for a bit of sabotage!

There are three map areas to play through, each of which has their own tracking system for verifying accusations of being sus:

The Skeld is a spaceship which monitors tracking through CCTV systems

Mira HQ is, as it sounds, the HQ building, where tracking by doorlog

Polus, the planet base uses vitals indicators for tracking

Among Us for PC is available for purchase on Instant Gaming for a fraction of its retail price. You will receive an official key and be able to play the game in seconds. Play smart. Pay less.