Among us VR understand what made Innersloth’s murder mystery game so special when it came out in 2018 and gave us near-endless games by putting 10 people inside a ship universe while two impostors try to kill everyone. This basic VR remake is a premise-based refresh that tackles suspense while introducing exciting new dynamics. While its missing features can be disappointing, what’s here is a great time. Right now, it’s one of the best VR games this year.
It’s hard to overstate how polished VR is between us and how it feels to play. Schell Games has adapted it to virtual reality very well: the shaded 3D art style works to great effect, and the switch to first-person gameplay proves natural. Strolling around The Skeld spaceship map and using the motion controls to do missions is a lot more immersive, and refueling the engines with manual pumps and shields baiting by touching the screen is more intuitive than using a gamepad or mouse and keyboard. You can play comfortably standing or sitting down, as the movement is completely smooth and controlled by the thumbs. There’s no teleportation, but if you’re concerned about motion sickness, you can use optional eye shields to reduce the risk of potential nausea, along with a quick turn of the camera.
Among us VR faithfully reproduces the mold of the original, and once again divides us between the Crew members and the Impostor. In a 4- to 10-player online match, Crewmate must complete a number of randomly assigned quests on The Skeld. Some missions are not particularly fun, such as waiting for data transmission and the real fun that comes from the social play around it. However, there are some new missions that can make creative use of VR: the Administration has a new retina scanner that requires you to stand still for a few seconds, which is not very exciting, although the game MedBay’s small is entertainment.
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However, as the Impostor, your only goal is to convince everyone that you’re just another Crew, even if you’re killing other people and trying to get away. There are many creative ways to kill people, such as jamming doors or causing power outages (knowing that Impostors can see in the dark). Or you can go big by sabotaging the ship by depleting oxygen or causing reactor failure, which are instant wins if Crewmembers leave them idle for too long. I feel more shivery during a power outage and feel more panicky when bright red lights appear during a vandalism.
When a dead body is discovered, an emergency meeting begins and the real game of detective work and cheating begins. If you are a real Crew, you must find out who the Impostor is using any suspicious activity you may have witnessed and decide who can be trusted. If you are an Impostor, you show your innocence, blame others and try to get others to vote with you to buy others a one-way ticket to space. Even after years of playing, keeping your story straight and successfully pinning another kill feels great, and it’s only enhanced by VR. Being tricked through no fault of yours can be frustrating, never mind getting caught as an Impostor by sheer luck, but the fun of this cat-and-mouse game is finding subtle clues or trick people with clever hints and insinuations. There is a cooldown before you can attack again, which stops a skilled Rogue from running. As always, how well a social game like this works depends on who you’re playing with, but in VR you’ll have more of a sense of presence when people are staring at you.
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That’s certainly true of the regular version of Among Us, but simply having voice chat built into everyone’s headset solves one of that version’s biggest problems: if you’re using an external voice client like Discord, the dead can still talk and use it to cheat, but here they become mute ghosts upon death. Plus, the fact that everyone can talk instantly makes emergency meetings the hallmark of our VR System. Using distance increases tension: Knowing that someone’s voice gets louder as you get closer is another way to gather evidence and make new moves that match whether you’re hunting or being hunted chase. Alternatively, you can have someone tracking you scanned in MedBay to prove your innocence without necessarily notifying the Impostor of your location. If you’re an Impostor, you can try hiding in the vents and eavesdropping on other crew members’ conversations. Voice chat also makes calling someone out while lying and watching the so-called “Brandmates” collapse under pressure even more radically satisfying. And if voice chat isn’t for you for whatever reason, there’s also a text chat system that uses predefined instant chat messages.
There’s a lot of VR content that gets it right, but the biggest difference to this version is that it doesn’t have all the same content and features as the standard Among Us. That’s understandable in many places, as changing game settings like increasing walking speed would be a nauseating disaster for many. However, it would be nice if you could adjust the number of tasks. Cosmetics were also limited at launch, and although the Steve Zissou-esque beanie was beautiful, it didn’t have a double-ended hat.
What’s even more troubling is that Among Us VR lacks additional maps. At launch, there’s no Mira HQ, Polus or Airship – all we have to play with is The Skeld. To be fair, this was also the case when Among Us launched but a lot of people might not realize it since those maps came before it was really popular. As a result, what’s here feels disappointingly small compared to the current state of Among Us. You also won’t find an XP system, anonymous voting, or extended roles like Scientist and Photographer. Schell Games says content updates are coming, but for now, we don’t know what or when. However, the true lifespan of the VR among us depends on who you’re playing with. I couldn’t play with my friends in this review, but even in a hallway full of strangers, I had a great time. The good news is that there’s cross-player between Quest 2 and PC, which is a reassuring choice given VR’s smaller audience.
