Among Us VR Gives The Wildly Popular Game A Brand New Perspective
One of the biggest surprises during The 2021 Game Awards was the reveal that Among Us is stepping into the realm of virtual reality. Among Us VR was revealed with a brief teaser trailer in the midst of The Game Awards, and though it didn't show very much, most of us probably have a good enough grasp on the original game to imagine what a virtual reality version of the game will be like.
A whole new reality for Among Us
Still, it's nice to have a look at the game, and that's precisely what we got in this short trailer from The Game Awards. In it, we can see the player character performing tasks in the iconic spaceship – this time rendered in 3D – before they're attacked by the impostor. Unfortunately, that's all the trailer gives us, but if the goal for the trailer was getting the average Among Us fan excited about the prospect of a future VR title, what we got was really all we needed to see.
The shift to virtual reality could even bring some survival horror vibes that are missing from the standard game. Sadly, details are pretty slim at this point in time. At the end of the trailer, it's revealed that the game will come to Meta Quest 2, Steam VR, and PlayStation VR, but there's no word of a release date yet.
On its blog, developer Innersloth tells us that the VR version will support multiplayer, but unsurprisingly, there won't be cross-play between the VR version and the standard version. Instead, when you play in VR, you'll be playing only with other VR players, united in your quest to fix your ship and avoid the imposters among your crew.
What is Among Us?
For those who don't know what Among Us is, it's essentially a video game version of the party game Mafia (otherwise known as Werewolf). Mafia is typically played in person, with players split into two groups: the villagers and the Mafiosi. That Mafiosi play a game of deception, attempting to pass as regular villagers while picking a villager to kill each night. Each day, the villagers are informed of who was killed and attempt to determine who the impostors are, eliminating those whom the majority suspects.
Among Us keeps the structure of Mafia, but puts the game in space and moves the setting from a village to a spaceship. Regular players are given a series of tasks they need to complete, while the impostors have to kill off the crew while avoiding suspicion. If the crew finishes all of their objectives or eliminates all of the impostors, they win the game. If the impostors manage to kill the crewmembers before they complete their tasks or manage to trigger a disaster aboard the ship, they win.Among Us has been around since 2018, but it skyrocketed to popularity during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic when large numbers of prospective gamers were stuck at home and couldn't play party games like Mafia in person. Now that we've reached the point at which the brand Among Us can expand beyond its original piece of media, it's time to make the jump to the next most logical place: virtual reality. Will you be dropping in on this game when the time comes for public release?