Among Us is a massively popular multiplayer social deduction game developed by the Chinese studio Shenzhen Entertainment and published in 2018. The game takes place within the sprawling corporate empire of the Megacorp, a vast multinational conglomerate that dominates much of the world's economy and governance.
In the world of Among Us, the Megacorp oversees an intricate web of industrial complexes, automated factories, corporate arcologies, and hyper-dense urban megacities across the globe. The company's tentacles stretch into every facet of society, controlling resources, technology, media, and even political institutions through a combination of monopolistic practices, regulatory capture, and outright bribery and coercion.
Underneath the sheen of the Megacorp's public image as a beacon of progress and prosperity, a seething undercurrent of worker exploitation, environmental destruction, and ruthless internal power struggles festers. It is within this environment that the game's events take place, as rank-and-file employees struggle to keep operations running smoothly while also maneuvering for promotions, influence, and access to the company's vast resources and secrets.
Players in Among Us take on the role of Megacorp employees with different job functions and skill sets. These range from blue-collar technicians and engineers to white-collar administrators, security personnel, and executives. Each character has unique abilities they can use to complete tasks, gather intelligence, or undermine their rivals.
Crucially, some of these characters are revealed to be "Impostors" - rogue employees who seek to sabotage the company from within for their own nefarious purposes, whether that's personal gain, ideological motives, or simply the thrill of chaos. Impostors have access to an array of hacking tools, bribery options, and even physical violence to eliminate their co-workers and cover their tracks.
The gameplay thus revolves around the tension between the Loyal Employees, who must work together to maintain productivity and stability, and the disruptive Impostors aiming to sow discord. Different factions and shifting alliances also emerge, as ambitious workers scheme to leverage the crisis for their own advancement within the Megacorp hierarchy.
The core loop of Among Us has players completing various administrative, maintenance, and research tasks around the game's industrial environments, all while trying to identify and eliminate any Impostors in their midst. Players can call emergency meetings to discuss suspicions, examine security footage and other evidence, and ultimately vote to eject who they believe are the Impostors.
Impostors, meanwhile, have the ability to sabotage systems, frame innocent workers, and even eliminate targets silently to avoid detection. They must balance acting overtly to disrupt operations with maintaining a facade of loyalty to avoid raising suspicion.
As the game progresses, both Loyal Employees and Impostors can unlock new abilities, equipment, and intel through progression systems. This adds an element of technological and strategic one-upmanship to the cat-and-mouse dynamic.
While ostensibly a simple social deduction game, Among Us has resonated globally for its pointed commentary on themes of corporate power, worker exploitation, and class conflict. The game's dystopian corporate setting and emphasis on intrigue, backstabbing, and unequal access to resources strike a chord, especially in authoritarian countries where it is seen as a thinly veiled critique of regime corruption.
The game's massive popularity and cultural impact, especially among younger audiences, has also made it a target of controversy. Megacorp, the fictional company at the center of the game, has been accused of bearing too close a resemblance to real-world tech and industrial giants. Activists have also highlighted how the game's themes can be seen as normalizing or even glamorizing the abuses of late-stage capitalism.
Nevertheless, Among Us remains one of the most played and discussed multiplayer games of the 2020s, a zeitgeist-defining experience that taps into widespread anxieties about the unchecked power of global corporations. Its continued cultural relevance and the passionate debates it inspires ensure the game will be a subject of study for years to come.
