Among Us Review

Among Us is fun even if you don’t like traditional social deduction

I’m not a fan of traditional social deduction games (mafia, werewolf, etc).  I don’t like playing with accusations based on “hunches” or “reads” the loudest player at the table has, and I don’t like practicing the act of becoming a better liar.  There is a lot of downtime between games (especially for something like One Night Ultimate Werewolf).

Among Us fixes just about every issue I have with social deduction and adds even more depth on top of it.  I haven’t been excited to continually jump into game after game in the social deduction genre before.  I’d strongly encourage anyone who is skeptical about it to give it a shot if you have a group to play with.


Actions Speak Louder than Words
In Among Us, every action you do in the game builds a case for you either being crew or an imposter.  There’s no talking allowed outside of the meetings, but that doesn’t mean you can’t communicate.  The way you move with the group, the amount of time you spend on tasks, and the pathing you take to fix a crisis are all ways you can communicate to other players.  When you get to the first meeting, all you have to do is explain what you were doing and where you were at the start of the meeting.  If you’re doing a good job as the imposter, you don’t even necessarily have to lie.


Another Dimension Adds Depth
Moving around a map in real time between meetings adds a lot to social deduction.  For example, a good imposter will do a good job convincing the crew that they are one of the good guys using this form of communication before even speaking a word at the first meeting.  You can even make suspect patterns of movement a habit while you are crew in order to strengthen your cases while you are an imposter for future games with the same group.

Personally I’ve found the game to be most fun when you have a relatively static group of players that are familiar with the game so you can see player patterns emerge.  This can happen in a game of mafia too, but the amount of depth you have here is much deeper.


Lots of Replayability
Among Us offers a huge potential for replayability.  The customizable ruleset lets you modify the difficulty for imposters which is incredibly useful for new players and experts alike.  If you find the imposters winning too often, you can increase the kill cooldown.  If they aren’t winning enough you can do the opposite or limit the amount of emergency meetings to 1 per game.

Another source of replayability is the maps.  Right now there are only 3 maps, and one of them is mostly used as a tutorial map.  The other 2 maps play a lot different from each other.  There is a lot of potential to add more maps and different mechanics specific to each map (vents / cameras etc).  Playing almost all my games on those 2 maps hasn’t gotten old either.


Not without its flaws
There is a lot to like about Among Us, but there are a few downsides that need to be pointed out.  The biggest one for me is tasks that have a visual cue.  The med bay in map 3 is the most obvious example of this.  People can watch you do the task, and you are proven as Crew.  I really don’t like the idea of being able to prove you are Crew or imposter since it removes some of the depth of the game.

The learning curve can also be higher than usual for a social deduction game.  It can be difficult to get immersed in the game if you don’t know the map layouts and it can be difficult to communicate with people when you don’t know.  This is especially true for an imposter.  You are more likely to be suspect or just get caught red handed if you are a new player playing as an imposter.

Lastly, getting 7-10 players that you know in voice chat is easily the best way to play.  This can be difficult to assemble at times if you don’t have an active discord of people.  Playing pubs usually means no voice chat which makes meetings cumbersome but still doable.  I’ve found the game is best played with 7+ people so you can have 2 imposters, and it can be difficult to get that many people together.


Summary compared to traditional social deduction

Pros
- Moving around a map in real time adds tons of depth
- Different maps add even more replayability and expandability to the game
- It’s much easier to get 7+ people together over the internet
- You can be an effective imposter without even lying
- The setup is all automated, you just need to rejoin and fire up another game
- Customizable rules with many knobs to adjust the Imposter difficulty appropriate for your play group

Cons
- Some tasks have visual cues that prove you are Crew (my biggest issue with the game)
- Getting caught red handed as an Imposter means you’re dead
- The learning curve can be a little higher since knowing the maps makes a big difference
- Voice chat makes the game a lot more playable, so it’s difficult to play pubs

To summarize, Among Us does everything that other social deduction games offer, and fixes issues that I have with them.  It also adds a lot of depth and minimizes downtime.  I’m not a fan of the genre, but this game really works for me.

I’d strongly recommend anyone who is able to play with a group on voice chat to give it a try, especially with a $5 price tag.