Released in June of 2018, the popular mobile and PC game Among Us has caused quite the commotion in 2020. Although the app’s initial appearance in the game market was over two years ago, it has only recently gained a lot of attention. Despite its delayed attention, Among Us has managed to attract over four million players across the world. Curious as to what makes it so intriguing, I ventured to the App Store to find out if I would get hooked on the game, too.

At first glance, downloaders see a suspicious-looking red figure, standing out against a yellow background. I was anxious to find out what the meaning of this was, as I had seen people switch their profile pictures on various social media accounts to this same figure. Upon opening the app, I realized that players could choose from twelve different colored characters, despite the fact that only ten can play at once (which is a bit modest in my opinion.)

The buttons on the home screen were a bit hard for me to navigate at first, but I managed to get into a live game. My cyan character, appearing in the waiting room, looked out of place, as I did not know how to move it yet. I soon figured out that there are two options pertaining to the motion of the player: joystick or touch. I strongly prefer the joystick, as the constant struggle to find where to press in touch mode was annoying. Once I could actually move my player, I attempted to understand the logistics of the game.

The maps are probably the trickiest part to understand. I’m a person who likes to focus on one thing at a time, so when those three maps were thrown at me, it was overwhelming, to say the least. For that reason, I say just keep it easy and stay in “The Skeld,” the most popular among the realms. In other words, if you’re anything like me, stick to one map to preserve your enjoyment of the game.

From what I gathered in my first few moments as an Among Us player, the game involves a lot of chaos. Some of this comes from the ability of hosts to control the settings. I have encountered sessions in which the player speed is outrageously fast and others where people have decreased the lighting to darkness. The majority of this wild nature, though, comes from the players themselves. The developers at Innersloth, the company behind Among Us, made a brave decision when they chose to implement the chat function in live games. Many people, to put it in simple terms, abuse this feature, as anyone can basically send anything to the chat, so the content can get corrupted quickly. Another bothersome feature of this “peanut gallery” is the power hosts hold to kick and ban players from the game. I can’t recount how many times I got banned for something silly like taking someone’s favorite color or saying something the host doesn’t like. People are petty.

Sticking with that theme of pettiness, I want to remark on the debate-like structure of the game’s communication area. This is where all the nine-year-olds get into fights with each other, accusing their fellow crewmates of being the imposter. I’m not going to lie, this is pretty frustrating, especially when you are the innocent one being targeted. I remember this one game I was playing where a group of players did nothing but stalk me the whole time, proceeding to persuade the majority to vote me out at the next emergency meeting. In instances such as this, the chat can become a pain in the butt to deal with, as the council of nine-year-olds is easily swayed by the word “sus.” All of this makes sense, as the game is rated for individuals nine and up, and the majority of Among Us players are teens and pre-teens.

One of the things I appreciate most about the game is the ability to influence the outcome even when you are dead. For example, when I was killed by the imposter, I turned into a ghost whose job was to complete as many tasks as possible to help the team win. The same applies to games with multiple imposters in them, as dead imposters can still sabotage rooms by locking them and triggering emergencies. There is no lag time between dying and becoming a ghost, a plus that not many games have.

Overall, I believe Among Us met the hype it has received, but it could use some modifications to make it even better. One idea that I propose is to implement some type of ranking system. so the players get rewarded for doing their jobs well. I think this would make the game more worth people’s time, as many players enjoy benefits based on accomplishment. Another proposition I have is to allow more people to play the game at once. In other words, allow more contestants to compete together. It may be tricky to do with a lot of different connections on one server, but I think it would increase the chaos and ultimate enjoyment of the participants. Other than those couple adjustments, I would say that the game has generally been a positive experience for me. I would highly recommend Among Us to the general public, as it gives a good mystery to solve and a fun challenge to endure with friends!