If you have a tween or teen, chances are they are playing Among Us on their device. I know that in the past couple of months, my 13-year-old son has really gotten into it.
How to Play
Among Us is a murder mystery game for 6-10 players, and you can play with friends or strangers. You are privately assigned one of two roles in the game: Crew-mate or Impostor. The Crew-mates have to complete assigned tasks around the map. There are three different locations you can play in, and you’ll be moving from room to room completing simple tasks like matching wires or flipping switches. Meanwhile the one or two Impostors will be trying to kill you and get away with it. You don’t know who the Impostor is, and all of the crew are trying to figure it out.
There’s a chat function in the game where all the players gather to try to determine who the Impostor is so they can vote him out and win the game. The Crew wins if they vote out all of the Impostors and/or if all Crew-mates finish their assigned tasks. The Impostor wins if no one votes him out and he kills everyone. Games last anywhere from two to ten minutes depending on how quickly the Impostor does his job.
My son absolutely loves this game. His favorite part is the excitement of seeing if he will get to be a crew-mate or the impostor before a new round begins. He also enjoys connecting with others while playing, especially if he can get his brothers or friends to play with him. At school, sometimes a bunch of friends play together over lunch.
Words to Know
Before you play, you’ll need to learn a few basic terms to understand the other players.
- Sus: Suspicious or Suspect
- FR: For real
- Vent: a secret hatch the Impostor can use to move quickly around the map. Also used as a verb.
- Elec: Electrical room
- GG: Good game
- AFK: Away from keyboard
- Throwing: Not trying to lose on purpose, but to lose in an embarrassing way
For additional info about lingo, look here, here and here.
Is it Safe?
The game itself seems fairly benign and the murder mystery in outer space concept is pretty straightforward. There’s no blood, guts or core. The characters and setting are cartoons.
The only real danger I can find is playing with random strangers. Players may use profanity in the chat room and some choose suggestive or dirty nicknames for themselves.
Overall, this free-to-download game is pretty fun. My son is way better at moving quickly around the map compared to me, but that is probably due to his hours of practice over the last couple of months!
If you want to see what this game is all about, download it for yourself! Your kiddo will love teaching you how to play. Mine sure did!
