There’s an Impostor Among Us

At the beginning of quarantine, the whole world was marveling over the game Animal Crossing: New Horizons. A friendly, entertaining game with cute animals that let us virtually connect with our friends was just what we needed during the pandemic. Now, many months later, a new game has taken over the COVID-19 era.

Among Us is an online multiplayer “murder mystery” game released in 2018. You and your crewmates must perform tasks on a spaceship, fixing errors to prepare the ship for a space journey.

However, there’s a catch. There is an impostor “among us”. Depending on the game, one to three people are randomly chosen as the impostor. These hoaxers venture through the spaceship, traveling through vents only available to them, searching for innocent crewmates to silently kill. If regular crewmates coincidentally run across these dead bodies, they can report the body to call an emergency meeting. The crewmate’s duties are not only to finish all the given tasks but also to vote out every impostor to win.

Among Us has also become increasingly popular among students at SFS, too. Kenneth Lee (9) shared his opinions on the game, stating how he enjoys playing it because “you actually have to predict and find out who the impostor is.” The excitement of sniffing out your suspicious friends or the thrill of lying to your friends and making false accusations is what makes the game so engaging for everybody. He believes the game is enjoyable for all students because “the structure of the game is really simple, as the game focuses more on your speculations and guesswork than on the physical controls.” The game’s focus on the players themselves is what makes each match fun because “even when you join a new game, the different personalities of the players will always create a fresh and dynamic gameplay.”

But why is the game suddenly so popular? Although Among Us was first released in 2018, it blew up in popularity in late summer of 2020, as numerous big streamers on Twitch (the biggest online streaming platform) and Youtubers began playing it. In late September, Among Us reached nearly 4 million players worldwide! In addition, Among Us has opened up a doorway to a whole new world of memes. “___ kinda sus” (meaning the player is acting suspicious) and “I saw ___ vent” are two popular phrases among the community.

So far, Among Us has allowed students to virtually connect with each other at home by playing a thrilling game together. In fact, a lot of students choose to group call and engage in actual conversations while playing the game, which makes it all the more exciting and suspenseful. So if you haven’t tried the game yet, go check it out. Have fun and good luck! (And watch out for yellow; he’s acting pretty sus).