The premise of Among Us is simple enough that just about anyone can pick it up quickly: eight crew members dash around a claustrophobic, cartoon spaceship to complete simple minigames and fill up a shared progress bar. But among them are two hidden impostors with the goal of secretly murdering everyone until they equal or outnumber the crew and claim victory.
And yet, like so many excellent multiplayer games, it’s very tricky to master because it’s about fooling real people, not gaming an AI. You can’t even fall back on the same successful strategies too often or your opponents will catch on, so sometimes you have to mix things up and maybe even act illogically to keep them guessing.
The only catch is that players are only allowed to talk to each other during emergency meetings, which only happens after a body of a slain Crewmate is found and reported or someone presses the emergency meeting button (each player can only press the button once per game, depending on your settings). During a meeting, players discuss what they’ve seen and vote to either kick out a suspicious player or continue on without an elimination. However, Imposters will try their best to convince the other players that they’re one of the good guys, so players must use logic to see beyond the deception and make the right choices. Sounds fun, right?
Since the game is easy enough to learn and fun for adults too, you may want to try playing as a family first to see how your kid manages before letting them play online with friends. If it’s too intense—which it can be at times, with the background music and sound effects—you’ll be there to comfort them. And you can chat about things like why it’s OK to lie during a game but not OK in other circumstances. Plus, in a family setting, kids would be able to decide whether they want to continue playing without having to fear repercussions from their peers.
