Many students stuck inside thanks to Covid-19 have become tired of the daily routine. Doing the same things day after day have sent some students into an endless cycle of boredom. But some of those students have found a way to break that cycle of boredom. While many students have chosen shows, sports or art to stifle their boredom, others have chosen video games. A big chunk of those students are choosing to play a game called Among Us.

Among Us is a fast paced, multiplayer game with cartoony, short, spacesuit wearing participants which take place in various spaceship settings. Each game can consist of up to 10  players.

The majority of the players are crewmates, whose main goal is to do their assigned tasks that are set in various places within each map. But, up to three players can Imposters. Imposters can kill other players and also go into vents, which lead them into other rooms. 

If a Crewmate or another Imposter finds a dead body, they can report it. All of the living players can then discuss who is the Imposter via a chat box. They can either come to a decision to vote someone out, or they can skip the vote if they don’t have a lot of information. 

The point of the game is different for Crewmates and Imposters. The Crewmates need to find out who the Imposter(s) are, and vote them out before all of the crewmates get killed. An Imposter’s goal is to sabotage tasks and kill all of the Crewmates without getting caught.

Being the Imposter requires you to be a good liar. You need to be prepared with an alibi for where you were, and if need be, to come up with a reason to blame someone else. 

Raena Ford very much enjoys this aspect of the game.

“I like the murder mystery part of it because you really don’t know who did it unless you were right there infront of them,. ” Ford said. “It’s really testing your ability to lie and defend.”

While others might enjoy the game for strategic reasons, Renee Amaya appreciates playing the game for a different reason.

“I enjoy the feeling of belonging and community. everyone’s in the game together trying to win whether you’re the impostor or crewmates,” Amaya said.

While some students like it for the strategic aspect and others like it for the community aspect, Lexi Stone enjoys it as a leisure opportunity.

“I like it’s something you can do in your down time.” Stone said. “We’ve played them at football games just with band kids to ensure that we’re all playing at the same time, so I love how we have those options.”

Although Among Us was officially released in June of 2018, the game really blew up in early 2020 as an effect of quarantine. The game got picked up by millions of players worldwide, even some of the most popular YouTubers and streamers. People like Pewdiepie, Jacksepticeye, Corpse Husband, Mr Beast, and many others.

The game even got popular enough to have hundreds of people going as an Among Us character for Halloween. That caused many stores in various states to sell out of novelty spacesuits and space helmets, not to mention paint, dye, and fake knives.

Among Us has clearly brought a lot of people together, considering this quote from Amaya. “Among us is the perfect game to escape from the reality of our current world issues right now.”