Space travel, betrayal, murder, and maintenance. These are just a few of the exciting elements involved in the gaming sensation Among Us. Gamers have recently breathed new life into Innersloth’s 2018 game, and the world can’t stop talking about it. But what is Among Us‘ story about, underneath all the intrigue?
Innersloth released Among Us for Android and iOS in July 2018, and it quickly came to Steam that August. The game was enough of a success for Innersloth to improve upon it with various updates for the past two years, but Among Us remained a somewhat unknown gem until recently. While Among Us is quick to throw players into the action, it offers very little to explain its story. Imagination can fill in a few gaps, but players do have some details to make assumptions from.
Among Us players are dropped into the roles of crewmembers aboard a spaceship, sky base, or alien planet and must complete various tasks, acting as maintenance workers around the ship to ensure their safety and success. The sky base is known as MIRA HQ. Players can assume, therefore, that the crewmembers work for an organization called MIRA. The spaceship, or The Skeld, is equipped with various facilities that imply long-distance travel, like the Cafeteria. The third level, Polus, is an alien planet that seems to be the foreign destination of The Skeld when not headed to MIRA, as both it and MIRA contain Laboratories for crewmate research. Among Us fan theories theories have circulated that Polus opens the door to some crossover canon with a previous Innersloth game, as well, though for now this is purely speculative. The three maps’ implications seem to draw similarities to the 1979 film Alien, and that isn’t where the congruencies end.
The inclusion of a Weapons room in two of Among Us‘ maps insinuates MIRA anticipates danger on its missions. Crewmembers will find their cosmic research attempts thwarted and their lives at risk by beings known as Impostors, who sabotage crewmembers’ work in order to claim the whole operation for themselves. If a crewmember ends up alone in a room with an Impostor, they risk suffering terrible fates of mutilation. Not much is known about the Impostors, other than that they are the enemies of the MIRA employees, but players who control the Impostors have access to vents, while crewmembers do not. It is possible, then, that the Impostors have the ability to shapeshift, offering them this unique mode of mobility and camouflage. Regardless, they have infiltrated the MIRA operation and are out for blood.
When suspicion arises, and a crewmember finds a dead body or witnesses a crime, they have the opportunity to call an emergency meeting. At this point, players can use the Among Us‘ in-game chat to communicate about what has happened. The Impostors are part of the conversation, however, and are so identical to crewmembers that they must be caught red-handed to be proven guilty. Have the Impostors learned the crewmembers’ language, or are they parasitic monsters that inhabit the brains of unfortunate hosts? Players have to keep keen eyes out for any “sus” activity if they don’t want to accidentally send their compatriots out into the cold.
While most of the Among Us‘ plot is still up in the air, players can hope Innersloth will bring more light to the questions at hand with updates. Since Among Us‘ launch, character customization options have been added like hats and pets, though they do little to advance the story. Innersloth had originally planned for an Among Us sequel, but it has since abandoned the idea to incorporate new features into the original game. With the current game giving off similar vibes to movies like Alien and The Thing already, there is surely more exciting content that Among Us will bring to the players in the future.
Header Image: Nerds Chalk
