Kevin C. Wong

iOS Game - Among Us (2018) [+]

Among Us (2018) is the current hot Twitch streamer game which is weird since it was released two years ago. It is cross platform Windows ($5), Android (free), iOS (free + $2 no ads) science fiction mafia/werewolf type game with up to ten players.

When the game starts one (1-6 players) or two (7-10 players) players are Imposters. Everyone else is Crew. Each Crew has a task list of todo items and they have to travel to various control station to do the tasks (which are short mini-games). Meanwhile Imposters can murder crew (though there is a cool down so don't murder with witnesses), cause various emergencies (e.g. turn off the lights, break O2 generator, or start a reactor meltdown, and there is a cool down here too so timing when to do an emergency can be significant), lock doors and travel through vents.

Anyone can call a meeting at any time or declare a found body, but it must be done at a switch so even if someone finds a body they might get killed before they can pull the emergency switch. Once in a meeting everybody can talk (Among Us has text chat but not voice chat so you need a third party tool and everyone on Twitch uses Discord voice chat) and you have a couple of minutes to talk, decided and vote on someone to eject (or skip vote). You can't tell if you've ejected a Crew or Imposter until the game is over.

Etiquette is key. Streamers can't read chat (many put chat in emote-only mode) to avoid spoilers. You can only talk during meetings. If you die you can't talk, though you do become a ghost and can complete your task list (if enough tasks are done Crew wins).

Among Us is a fun chaotic game with lots of arguing. On Twitch it's cool to see popular streamers playing in the same game.

Two criticisms:

  • Right now it's so popular that 4-letter codes get repeated so often you try to join a game and join the wrong one. EU servers seem better I guess because everyone plays on NA and Asia.
  • On iPad the UI is a bit harder to use. In particular with the map open you can barely see anything else since it takes almost the whole screen. On Windows the map is still big but you can see more of the regular UI.

Still, it's a fun game to play with friends.