Short Summary is an original series in which I write brief reviews of movies, TV shows, video games, books, and more. No spoilers, in this case!

Who is the imposter?

Among Us is a casual multiplayer game that can be played on a free mobile app or on PC when purchased through Steam. You and your fellow players are crewmates on a ship. You must complete tasks in order to fix the ship and return home. But, one, two, or even three crewmates have been replaced by alien imposters and are on a mission to sabotage the ship and kill everyone else onboard.

So are you a dutiful crewmate… or a duplicitous imposter? You all must find out.

Crewmates run around the ship, suspicious of the others, silently completing tasks. No one can chat during most of the game. Yet, when an emergency meeting is called or a dead crewmate’s body is reported, everyone is gathered to debate who they think the imposters are. The crewmates must either vote the imposters off of the ship or finish all of their tasks in order to win. However, if enough crewmates are voted off or killed, then the imposters win. When there aren’t enough votes to kick anyone off the ship, the game continues until another meeting occurs or another body is found.

And really, that’s all there is to it! But boy, is it a lot of fun. Among Us is a game of deception in the same vein as Werewolf, Mafia, and Town of Salem. Among Us is the simplest of these, though. There aren’t multiple roles in any moral gray area; there is only good and evil. The crewmates have no special abilities, yet the imposters do. Imposters can essentially fast travel to different rooms around the ship through vents to move quicker and get the jump on crewmates. The imposters can also sabotage primary functions of the ship — cut off the O2 supply, start a reactor meltdown, etc. — that the crewmates must fix immediately, or else they lose. Imposters are able to sabotage secondary functions as well, such as turning off the lights or mucking up communications, that crewmates should definitely fix… lest they want to die.

The crewmates’ only advantage, and well, disadvantage, is each other. Crewmates have the better numbers. They can stick together and complete tasks to increase their chances of survival and provide alibis for one another. At the same time, however, they can suspect and accuse the wrong people, too. To make matters worse, imposters are a part of the conversation and convincing crewmates of their innocence while sowing distrust among the actual innocents. Among Us is a game in which you can trust strangers or lie to your friends.

It’s so great being the imposter. There, I said it.

Now I do have a few complaints:

• There are three maps, the Skeld, Mira HQ, and Polus, and everybody and their brother mostly likes to play the Skeld. That’s not something the developers can truly control; it’s just a preference thing. But man, I like Mira HQ! Sometimes, it’s hard to find any sessions that aren’t taking place on the Skeld, even though there’s a search filter you can use to find other sessions. The Skeld is just that popular.
• (While writing, I found out the developers are actually in the process of fixing this problem, but I’ll keep my original gripe.) There’s no way to report bad actors, people who are ruining the experience, whether intentionally or not. Some players have learned to hack the game, others throw the game when they reveal their fellow imposter either just for fun or out of spite. Some players will be in a session but “away from their keyboard”, or AFK, which means, for whatever reason, they aren’t actually playing and therefore aren’t involved in any discussions, completing tasks, etc. And a lot of players will troll or insult everyone while in the chat, which sours any gaming experience.
• I wish the hats, pets, and other accessories were available to the people playing for free. Maybe those players can unlock those accessories the more they play? Yet I get it: there has to be incentive to buy Among Us, so those accessories are the reward.

So this is not so short and way more in-depth than I planned on going! But if you’re like me and still can’t commit to finally starting The Last of Us, then Among Us is the game for you.