The Addictiveness of Among Us

The frenzy behind Among Us has taken the gaming world by storm as of late. While the game is ~2 years in age, it feels like everyone is getting behind the readily-accessible, massively-replayable title. Available for both computers and mobile with crossplay, just about anyone with an internet connection can hop in the fun, but it’s massively more intense when it’s with friends of all sorts, even if you haven’t played with them in years.

So what makes this game a smash hit? How can a game that lasts a few minutes (that isn’t a battle royale) not get stale after 3 consecutive hours? It’s a phenomenon that Among Us has perfected after the only moderate success of Town of Salem and Trouble in Terrorist Town. The angle of deception, the true-to-life depiction of Clue, the down-to-the-wire balance between Imposters and Crewmates… the formula is spot-on in this game.

It’s just as entertaining to play either side of the battle. Imposters get the thrill of the hunt and the chance to decimate their friends, while Crewmates can feel a sense of security and trust with their companions. The fact that this game can change at the flip of a coin makes split-second decisions vital. There are so many strategies and experiments both sides can utilize and they won’t work every single time, which makes the visceral nature of Among Us downright enthralling.

More compelling is the fact that you can take real-world knowledge of your friends and use it to your advantage during deliberation periods. Is your clever friend pulling a ruse and self-reporting the dead body? Is the hardcore gamer of the bunch sabotaging your escape to no end? Factor these bits in and make your suspicions clear and concise, and you just may turn the tide of an argument and save your own behind.

Mechanically, the game could use some polishing, though. It was recently announced that there would be a sequel to the title, but developers InnerSloth have since retracted that aspiration. Instead, they’ve shifted focus onto efforts to make the current game as great as it can possibly be, which should be a testament to how impactful this one game has been in such a short boom period. Currently, the North American servers are nigh impossible to create a game in during the evening, so that would be a good place to start, but they also plan to implement a friends list and another map down the line.

It’s a good thing that more attention is being given to the product, as Among Us is so downright addictive that it might soon get old. There’s no telling at what point of a game’s popularity that it starts to get stale, so the improvements will need to arrive relatively soon to retain the unreal player base it has right now. Nevertheless, Among Us is one of the best party games in recent memory, right next to Fall Guys, proving that titles don’t have to be super pretty or mechanically complex to be smash hits.