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After launching quietly in 2018, Among Us exploded in popularity in 2020 and lost some of its cultural impact in subsequent years. The new Among Us virtual reality game is being developed by Innersloth and will be available on Metaquest 2 and Steam.
The core mechanics of the game are the same, crewmates complete tasks, imposters pretend to work, and everyone accuses one another in emergency meetings. You feel more like a real crewmate in space as you complete tasks by hand and chat with your fellows, despite the virtual version cutting out a lot of the depth. The danger feels more real because of that.
We had the chance to play Among Us in a press-exclusive game prior to launch, but couldn't fully test the game outside of it because it only works with a crowd of people. When we have a chance to test it more thoroughly, we will have a better idea of what to think about it.
We have footage of a couple of our Among Us games in action in the embedded video above, but the video doesn't capture your full field of view for checking out "sus" crewmates in your peripheral vision. Everyone is having a good time even when they are being murdered.
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It is possible to play with text chat only, but proximity chat makes the spaceship feel like home. If you want to get a feel for their honesty, you can chat with other crewmates. Someone's voice may be out of range if they die.
When a dead body is found, people can make accusations and prove their innocence much more quickly than in the original game. It's important to get some solid Quest 2 headphones so you can hear what's going on.
Murdered ghosts can chat with one another, so they don't feel left out, and living crewmates' voices are distorted and quiet, so you can all laugh as they get things wrong.
You can use your controllers not only to complete tasks in first person, but also to point accusingly during a meeting or wave at someone to get their attention.
You couldn't see Imposters coming because the tasks were a pop up display that blocked the view around your character. While most of your view is taken up with the task, you can turn your head to look behind you if you suspect something.
You can use a variety of control options, including a joystick, to play. I had no issues with nausea after playing for an hour with artificial movement. If you want to avoid sneak attacks, you can use this method to run backward and keep an eye on who is behind you.
When converted from 2D to 3D, The Skeld looked exactly as it should. It mixes sci-fi tech with claustrophobic corridors.
The map has a mixture of tasks from the original game and new tasks, and completing them with motion controls feels more satisfying. You feel like you're actually fixing the ship.
The security camera center is out of place in virtual reality. The feature is being worked on, but there is no date for when it will be ready. It will be great to use this to keep an eye on others.
There is a blast to play among us virtual reality The experience is enhanced by the virtual elements.
Polus was my favorite map in Among Us because it was similar to The Thing and had lots of fun tasks and isolated places to kill people. Polus, Mira HQ, and The Airship are not included in the game.
Special roles like Scientist, Shapeshifter, and Guardian Angel were added to Among Us. It would add a bit of fun to the games.
The beans have a few hats, but no full outfits, and I think that Among Us will charge you for cooler wardrobe accessories rather than letting you get an upgrade with the base game.
New maps and mechanics could be added as free or paid DLC if the game does well. The question will be how long it will take for the maps to appear, and if the game will keep the community alive long enough for the new maps to appear.
In my short time with the game, there were a lot of tasks that I didn't get to try. Once you've played the game for a while, you will notice the tasks are mechanically simple, mostly focused on timing, properly directing your Touch controllers, or just waiting for the task to complete The tasks themselves are more fun because of the social aspect.
It becomes more difficult for Imposters to remember fake tasks on the fly because of the different maps. It will be easier to lie in Among Us virtual reality.
The group of journalists and game developers that I played with were friendly, focused on tasks, and didn't mess around. I found the Imposter's deception hilarious, even though he won the game. What type of community will appear at launch?
When you aren't playing with people you know, Standard Among Us is a good place to hide. Players quit if they are not real or if they are faking it. They call emergency meetings or message their murdered friends in real life to find out who the Imposter is.
In an ideal world, among us virtual reality games will live up to my initial experience, and any jerks will be kicked out by the host. We're not sure how Schell Games will handle toxic players who use voice chat to bully other players in a game like Gorilla Tag.
You can always use text chat only if you're worried, and you can use a variety of prompts like "I saw X vent" or "Self-report" Abuse is less likely if you just say these things.
Most of the negatives are not about the game at all. The only complaint I have is the fact that theUI can be a bit frustrating.
The sabotage warning and "you're dead; finish your tasks" messages cover up your map. Imposters claimed that it was easy to accidentally press the kill button. Your hands will often cause things to go wrong when you warp up to a project. Once you get used to the controls, there will be less complaints.
There are five server options: US East, South America, Europe, Asia, and Japan. Despite living on the US west coast, I had no issues with internet, but a journalist from Britain seemed to be having serious issues with the game.
It's possible that you won't be able to play with friends on other continents, so you need a consistent wireless network to enjoy the game.
Nicholas Sutrich is writing a section about being the imposter twice and how that experience is different from being a crewmate.
Being an imposter in Among Us is one of the best things about being in the show. When I play the 2D version of the game with my son, he chants "imposter, imposter, imposter!" over and over again in hopes of getting the coveted role. Being the wrong person in a game is terrible fun.
In virtual reality, your voice and body language combine to make it more difficult to convince the crew that you're innocent.
In order to get something worth watching, I recorded the video further up. Thankfully, that happened and you can see my treachery begin at around the 16-minute mark when I slayed Michael.
He was the only person at the terminal who was alone. Everyone else wouldn't give me a chance to kill them.
Even though I didn't know it at the time, I was seen yelling before the alarm was raised, even though I didn't know it was happening.
My heart raced as I lied through my teeth to save my skin at the emergency meeting. If I could hear him, I would think he was cursing me at the emergency room.
I felt like I was either laughing or sweating the whole time I was in Among Us. I was worried that the elements that make play safer for kids would be taken away.
That was not the case at all. For ages 13 and up, virtual reality is not a good thing. Meta is not stupid and knows that kids are going to play in virtual reality. Parents can use the parental controls in the video game to keep their kids safe.
There is an option in Among Us to only play games that use Quickchat. The voices are turned off so that players can communicate with each other. No swearing, offensive language or anything like that.
Crewmates are called "Blue," "Red," "Green" and so on and so forth, even though they are not real usernames. You can add another layer of privacy to the experience by disabling this for yourself.
I'm very pleased with this iteration of Among Us and hope more maps are added. Playing with friends is going to be a blast, and this grand game of Clue could become one of my favorite virtual reality games.
Considering the original Among Us costs $5 for four maps, it's fair to ask if the virtual reality port is worth the extra cost. Among Us VR will be one of the best games at launch, and I hope that the game will get a lot of support after launch with new maps.
If you liked the original, the game is a great way to revisit it. You can and should skip this game if you didn't like it.