Revisiting 09 October 2020, 16:13

author: Jakub Mirowski

5 Life Lessons from Among Us, the Hellishly Fun Scumbag Simulator

There are games that try to make us feel for others, arouse empathy, condemn thoughtless hatred. And there's also Among Us, which says : "I bet five bucks that I'll make you a two-faced pig in two rounds." And believe me, it's right.

The review is based on the PC version.

"Man is the cruellest animal," Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, and humanity, just given the events of the past century, has proved him right. But does each of us hold an element of extreme evil, sick cunning; a tendency to manipulate even those close to us? Would we all be able to abandon our friends in cold blood just to enjoy elusive success? Is plotting, lying and cheating to get to power really our second nature?

After more than a week of nonstop playing Among Us, I am convinced that the answer is: "It sure is XD."

If you haven't heard of this production in the past month, we hope your hermitage adventure has brought you the expected spiritual illumination. This game, simple both in terms of gameplay and graphics, has taken the gamer community by storm; in an instant, players forgot the similar multiplayer game, Fall Guys, in favour of becoming the worst possible version of themselves.

For a while I was really reluctant to see what this phenomenon was about, but when I lost my GPU and was left with the integrated one, I sort of no longer had a choice, and downloaded Among Us. It has virtually no system requirements, it let's you hang out with friends, the rules are based partly on Mafia, which is a real party sensation... Once I was in, I was in for good. But what began as innocent entertainment with friends quickly morphed into a dark festival of manipulation, deception, groundless accusations and lynching of innocents. To put it short: it was awesome. So, in order to make entering this brutal world of plots and betrayals easier, I invite you to read some of my impressions. Here's five things that Among Us has taught me about human nature.

Nothing's more fun than cheating

I played a lot of games during the pandemic and most of them were good. Really good. I'm talking Doom Eternal, Dark Souls 3, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided or my beloved The Long Dark. In Among Us, people walk around with an improvised GIMP, and the biggest challenge is to drag the card through the reader at the right speed. And yet, this was the only game so gripping that I found myself playing it from late evening through early morning, and still had a hard time leaving it.

It's easy to see what's really addictive about it. Is it all that fun to be a reliable crew member: connecting different-colored cables together, typing codes and switching dials? I don't think so. Among Us is not the domain of the angel, but the devil on our shoulder. The ability to decieve several people at once by inventing evil machinations, the rapid heartbeat after each murder and successful evasion, snickering quietly, listening to others cast accusations, and then cast innocent bystanders overboard... This production really resonates wonderfully with the ugly side of our nature.

No wonder, then, that Among Us has its own "one more tour syndrome." In this case, it's "the last game of impostor and I'm done" (of course, you have to draw it first). Having to do chores as a crew member and being a useful part of the team is an unpleasant duty . Being able to kill and blame it on others is the reward. I don't know why we get so much pleasure from deception – but the developers really exploited it as much as they could.

All flavors of paranoia

But while being the worst version of yourself is a goal when playing the impostor, there is often no excuse for the behaviour of the remaining crew members. Before I started playing Among Us and only heard about it, I thought every game was like the movie It (phenomenal, by the way – if you can see the 1982 version). In that movie, a group of scientists came up with ideas to force an alien, able to morph into anything, to reveal its true form: they constantly accuse each other, but ultimately manage to force the monster to reveal its terrifying form, and then burn it. Common sense combined with flamethrowers and dynamite eventually overcomes any paranoia. In Among Us, in nine cases out of ten, paranoia wins.

I'm sure that if the alien from It came across a group of players, it could, after the first victim, sit in a chair with a cup of warm milk and watch everyone else slaughter each other. If a body, or something otherwise suspicious is spotted, anyone can immediately call a meeting where the team decides who to throw out the ship. I myself was often relegated to the place where no one hears your scream for the following reasons:

1. I was standing in a suspicious place (checking the map);
2. I followed someone for more than two seconds (because we had tasks in the same place);
3. I took too long to complete a task (it required more than 10 seconds of work);
4. I was standing on the vent shaft (I had to work near it);
5. I was in the reactor when it malfunctioned (I had to work in there).

And perhaps most frustrating of all: just to be safe. impostors can be annoying as hell, and most players turn into genuine manipulative geniuses, able to swear on their mother that they're innocent, but if you throw someone under the bus just so that a crew meeting doesn't turn out futile, you're the real monsters. Remember that.

Activity is suicide. Inactivity even more so.

If there's a meeting where it's really hard to get leads on the identity of the impostor, don't talk. As I mentioned, in nine cases out of ten, paranoia wins in Among Us, so when there really isn't a good reason to space someone, just try to blend in. Why? Well, there clearly is a belief in the community that only the guilty tries to explain... or talk at all. So if you propose any, even the most common-sense solution – "let's skip the vote," "let's check red," "let's name our positions" – sooner or later, it will turn out people think you're trying to distract them. Sentence? A trip to space. Just in case.

"Ha!” you shout with a triumphant smile. "Then I'm just not talking at all." Wrong again. Because the only thing more conspicuous than a crew member pretending to be Sherlock Holmes is a crew member pretending to be mute. He's silent – it means he's hiding something. If he's hiding something – it means he's got something to hide! What possibly could you be hiding? A duck?! No! Being an impostor! And the most glaring of all red flags is someone who speaks only when a shade of accusation falls on them, because remember: only guilty people make excuses! And even if they're innocent, why the hell not toss them out the airlock anyhow? Just in case.

There are two solutions: either always have solid evidence – video recordings, testimony from four to seven eyewitnesses, and from the victim SHOULD suffice – or master to perfection the art of being the human equivalent of music in Marvel movies. It's always there, no one can deny it, but until someone remembers your tune, someone else will be kicked. Just in case.

All your friends are scumbags...

There are games that can ruin friendships. Mario Kart and a suitably thrown blue shell, a last-minute, embarrassing goal scored in FIFA, even Monopoly – we all know it. The thing is, none of these games promotes being a scumbag. In Mario Kart, we just have to win a race, in FIFA, to win a match, and in Monopoly, to learn something about the bloodthirsty nature of unregulated capitalism. In Among Us, on the other hand, being a scumbag is the icing on the cake and the main source of satisfaction.

Therefore, I can say with certainty that if you decide to play along with a group of people you have so far considered your friends – prepare to be severely disappointed by their moral backbone, or rather lack thereof. Bamboozling people is incredibly addictive, and before you know it, you'll have your best friends stabbing you in the back.

There's a kid on my team who's extremely well-read and intelligent – he's always willing to accuse anyone innocent just to keep himself alive. There's also a seminary graduate with a priestly ordination who, without a second thought, strangled the entire crew, pretending to be fixing the oxygen supply system even as we were drawing our last, desperate breaths. Finally, there's my friend, whom I've known since kindergarten and even served as his best man on his wedding – and, imagine that, he was the first to grab a pitchfork when the idea came up to throw me into space "just in case." So, yes, I don't know about your friends, but be ready to learn some nasty things about their morality when playing Among Us.

...and you're no better!

You get to the end of an article like this and you think: Why the hell is this guy even playing this game, losing faith in human nature, finding we're no better than animals in the wilderness? The answer is simple: no matter how morally superior you think you are, Among Us will make you a malevolent, spiteful gremlin, who's only ambition is to make everyone kill each other.

I've said it before: setting people up is addictive. Among Us serves it in extremely generous doses, as long as you don't act carelessly. Imagine this: you see two players walk into a room with electronics, you kill the third one right in front of them, and then let the two accuse each other, ultimately leading to both being cast overboard – without a trace of suspicion on yourself. Or you convince the entire crew that a completely innocent crew member who walked into the room right after your murdered someone is actually a killer trying to cover up his guilt by reporting the crime. Now imagine all these scenarios in small, dozen-minute doses, with good friends. How could that not be exciting?

Ditch the illusions about your backbone of steel, ask the devil on your shoulder for ideas, and find a moment to see how well you can manipulate others in Among Us. Your friends will forgive you. Someday. Probably.