Among Us[c] is a 2018 online multiplayer social deduction game developed and published by American game studio Innersloth. The game was inspired by the party game Mafia and the science fiction horror film The Thing.[10] The game allows for cross-platform play, first released on iOS and Android devices in June 2018 and on Windows later that year in November. The game was then ported to the Nintendo Switch in December 2020 and on the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S in December 2021. While the game was initially released in 2018 to little mainstream attention, it received a massive influx of popularity in 2020 due to many well-known Twitch streamers and YouTubers playing it, and due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A virtual reality adaptation, Among Us VR, was released on November 10th, 2022.
Among Us takes place in space-themed settings where players are colorful armless cartoon astronauts. Each player takes on one of two roles: most are Crewmates, but a small number play Impostors.[d] Crewmates work to complete assigned tasks in the game while identifying and voting out suspected Impostors (which appear identical to Crewmates) by means of social deduction, while Impostors have the objective of killing the Crewmates.
Among Us experienced a significant surge in playership in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic due to popularization by YouTube and Twitch content creators, and received favorable reviews from critics on account of its fun and entertaining gameplay. The game and its stylized characters have also been the subject of various internet memes.
In this gameplay screenshot of the original map, The Skeld, the white Impostor has killed the blue Crewmate. White's vision of the pink player has been partially obscured by the wall. Any player, including the killer, can report the dead body and trigger a meeting.
Among Us is a multiplayer game for four to fifteen players.[12] Up to three players are randomly[13] and secretly chosen to be the Impostor(s) each round. As of 2021, four playable maps are available, a spaceship called "The Skeld", an office building called "MIRA HQ", a planet base called "Polus",[14] or "The Airship", a setting from Innersloth's Henry Stickmin series.[15][16]The Crewmates can win the game one of two ways; either by completing all assigned tasks or by ejecting all Impostors. Impostors can likewise win in two ways; either by killing or ejecting all Crewmates,[e] or by sabotaging a critical system on the map (provided the Crewmates do not resolve it in time).[f][14][17][18][19] At the start of the game, Crewmates are assigned "tasks" to complete around the map in the form of minigames, minipuzzles, and simple toggles, mostly consisting of maintenance work on vital systems such as fixing wires and downloading data.[20] Impostors cannot complete tasks, but may pretend to perform "fake" tasks to feign appearance as legitimate Crewmates, Impostors, however, can perform sabotages, ranging from minor (such as disabling lights, making Crewmates blind) to critical (such as disabling oxygen generators), requiring immediate counteraction by Crewmates to prevent their deaths. Impostors may also enter and traverse ventilation ducts (commonly known as "venting"), and kill nearby Crewmates. To help Crewmates identify Impostors, there are various surveillance systems on each map, such as security cameras on The Skeld,[21] a doorlog system with sensors in MIRA HQ,[22] and a vitals indicator in Polus that shows the living status of all players.[14] In addition, certain "visual tasks" provide animated cues, such as scanning oneself in the Skeld's medbay. As Impostors cannot perform tasks, Crewmates can use visual tasks to confirm their identity to nearby Crewmates.[23]
Any living player may call a group meeting by reporting a dead body, or by pressing an Emergency Meeting button.[g][19][24][25] During meetings, players discuss — via the in-game text chat or an external voice chat application such as Discord[26][27][28] — who they believe to be Impostors based on available witness testimonies, with Impostors lying to hide their identity or falsely accusing other players. Impostors can be identified beyond reasonable doubt if they are seen venting or killing a Crewmate, but ultimately players must weigh the veracity or value of each other's statements. Players then vote for who they believe is an Impostor, if a plurality vote is obtained, the player who received the most votes is "ejected" from the game.[20][19] Players who are killed or ejected become ghosts, which can still perform tasks (Crewmates) or sabotages (Impostors) but are otherwise unable to be seen by or interact with living players. Effectively spectators, ghosts may see and pass through walls, follow players or other ghosts and chat with other ghosts.
A November 2021 update added additional specialized roles to the game: Crewmates can also be Engineers, Scientists, or Guardian Angels. Engineers can traverse vents like Impostors, albeit to a limited capacity. Scientists can check vitals at any time to see if any player has been killed recently. Ghosts of Crewmates can become Guardian Angels, which can temporarily protect living players from being killed. Impostors likewise can be Shapeshifters, allowing them to temporarily morph into other players and assume their color and appearance.
An alternative Hide and Seek gamemode was added in December 2022. There are no meetings or ejections, and a single Impostor (whose identity is known to the Crewmates) attempts to kill all Crewmates within a fixed countdown timer. Crewmates must hide or flee from the Impostor and can complete tasks to roll down the timer, as well as enter vents for a brief time to hide from Impostors. Crewmates are also given a display showing their proximity to an Impostor as well as the number of remaining Crewmates.[29]
Prior to each game, various options can be adjusted to customize aspects of gameplay, such as player movement speed, the allowed number of emergency meetings, number of tasks and visual tasks,[30] or whether or not an Impostor is revealed after being voted off, allowing participants to manually balance the game's settings to their desires.[31] Players may modify their own appearances with cosmetics, including skins, hats, visors and pets,[32][33] some of which are purchasable as microtransactions.
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