As the quarantine summer creeps to an end, people begin to look for a fun online game to start the school year. Not many games are being released as they’re all gearing up for the next generation gaming consoles to be released in November. Like me, a lot of Gen Z was searching for a game but then “Among Us” was found. Though it’s recently seen a huge jump in popularity, it’s not a stranger to the gaming community since it’s been around since June 15, 2018.

“Among Us” is a Party-Murder Mystery game that is $5 on Steam and free to play with ads on mobile devices. This game was made by a trio Innersloth; they’ve made two other games with the most notable being “The Henry Stickmin Collection”.

“Among Us” is a great game especially when playing with five or more friends. It brings a tense and mysterious atmosphere to what has been a boring summer. There’s an adrenaline rush whenever there’s a voting session, wondering anxiously who will be voted out and whether you will be voted out or not. 

Two teams are required to play: one group are Imposters and the others are Crewmates. The objective as an Imposter is to strike down all the crewmates without being caught or voted out as an accomplice. When playing as a crewmate, the mission is to complete all the given tasks while trying to figure out who the imposter is to win the game. Crewmates face a number of challenges and quests that the imposters throw at them such as triggered emergencies and events. 

There are three total maps to choose from and the player has the option of joining or creating a game with 1-3 imposters. If you’re the host and creating the game, there are a variety of settings to choose from to either make the game harder for a particular side or to even make the game more mysterious. This makes the game different and interesting each time it is played.

After about 10 matches in a row, it gets boring, in spite of the wide variety of maps because the game is too consistent in the process of playing.

Of course there are different strategies to win, such as manipulation of other players but the entire game generally gets stale after hours of playing because there’s nothing new being introduced. 

Lots of players are excited and hoping for new updates, such as intruder animations inspired by  viral TikTok videos that a fan made. More animations and at least two more maps would bring the game more players and revive it’s already existing fanbase.

Since the game has exploded in popularity during quarantine, there have been numerous issues with constant server connection issues in the North American region because of how many players there are at a given time. When there aren’t connection issues however, I think it’s worth the wait.

Even with the underlying issues, “Among Us,” is a great game to pass time and it proves that a great game doesn’t need a giant team or graphics to be good. When issues arise, it needs to be recognized that this game is still made and run by only three people.

All in all, “Among Us,” is a fun way to get your brain moving for just $5 on Steam and for free on mobile.