Among Us is the game everyone is playing to stay sane

It turns out a space murder mystery is the perfect relaxing pastime.

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Courtesy of Inner Sloth

Crew members run to their tasks in this poster.

Savian Guzman, JHT Staff Writer

Among Us is a game by developer Inner Sloth about astronauts on a spaceship trying to complete their tasks so that the ship doesn’t crash. But there is an imposter among the crew, and the others must find out who it is while doing their tasks. 

You can play the game with anyone who has the room code for your game. Among Us is available on mobile, which means most J.Hop students have been playing it every minute of every day they aren’t in class. If you have ever heard someone say “That’s sus!” or “I was scanning in med bay!” You know they are playing Among Us.

Segariya Patterson, eighthth grade, says the game is fun because it keeps her guessing. “The characters and backstabbing make it interesting. I have the most fun when I’m an imposter. I can usually guess right if someone is being sus.” 

The characters are cute and cartoonish, which helps soften all the backstabbing that is happening. The imposter’s job is to kill all the other people on the ship or get their teammates to vote each other out. If you can get the group to eject an innocent team member into space, you know you’re a great imposter, and probably a questionable person. 

The host of the game can change settings such as speed, imposter sight, crewmate sight, visual tasks on/off etc. the imposter can also sabotage certain things like oxygen, lights, comms, and reactor. 

There can either be one, two, or three imposters. In a typical game of Among Us, there are two imposters. Depending on how many imposters there are, there can be up to ten people in the game. There are three maps and twelve color options for characters. 

Why is such a random game so popular? It was originally released in 2018. Maybe it’s popular exactly because it is so random, and doesn’t have anything to do with COVID-19 or politics or anything else. I would think about it more, but I have to go fake a task before I sabotage electrical. See you in space!