The Story of Among Us

Among us
(Image credit: InnerSloth)

The word "SUS" is a term not used that much, but recently everyone is SUS. Who do we have to blame for that? And why is orange chasing me so aggressively?

Let's take a moment an define the word: 'sus'

It clearly comes from the either the word suspect or suspicion and the former word is used in a variety of ways in English. The latter, is always used as a noun or adverb and typically means a feeling or belief that someone is guilty of an illegal, dishonest, or unpleasant action. For example, He was a acting suspiciously or I have a suspicion that you are the killer.

For Suspect we can work through several examples:

1. We have the common English Idiom: 'suspect at best'

2. It also used as noun and this sentence sheds some light on the term: The police have apprehended a murder suspect

3. In it's adjective form the word would be used like this: Your behavior is very suspect.

4. Google defines the word as a verb meaning: "have an idea or impression of the existence, presence, or truth of (something) without certain proof" for example: "if you suspect a gas leak, do not turn on an electric light"

Now that your English lesson has ended for today we can better understand when some one says, "Orange is sus. I saw him alone in Admin." Or allow me to translate: Since the Orange player was alone in the Admin Room, which has access to the security Cameras, I suspect him of being the killer. Therefore, sus is a shortified word for suspect or suspicion depending on how the speaker uses it allowing for faster communication. Hopefully, you now understnad when something is sus.

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Donald Trump Among Us artwork (Image credit: u/Qnannie @reddit.com)

How it all Started

Among us is not a new game, it's release was on June 15, 2018, and for almost 2 years the game had barely any players, but after mid-2020 ( Covid-19 quarantine period ) this game has been booming across the globe. Every popular streamer has dedicated at least 3 hours a day to the game, and the popularity and player base is growing day by day, it's growing to the point where their servers can't handle it, and only a limited number of players can play at a time. Currently, the number of players exceeds 331k ( Source: SteamStats ).

The people responsible for all this 'sussing' are Marcus Bromander the designer and artist, and Forest Willard the programmer.

The game itself probably didn't take much effort, investments, and time to make, hence only the 2 people ( with the help of Amy Liu as an artist), were required to make this game, but the whole idea around it, just makes this game so fun to play, especially with friends.

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PewDiePie streaming Among Us with 100k live viewers (Image credit: u/TheMathGuy5674 @ reddit.com/r/AmongUs)

Why the sudden popularity?

The reasons why Among Us became the third most played games on steam is one because of the Covid-19 quarantine, and Sodapoppin's steam library and finding this game to stream together with his friends, In turn, this made so many other people buy this game and try it out. Thus leading to popular streamers like PewDiePie, Pokimane, Shroud, Ninja etc, jumping on the hype train making this game one of the most-watched sections on youtube gaming and Twitch.

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Screenshot of Ninja's Among Us stream (Image credit: twitch.tv/ninja)

Concept of the game

There are two sides in the game, the Crewmates ( which are usually 8 ) whose job is to finish all their tasks on the map in order to achieve Victory, and the Imposters ( usually 2 ), whose job is to kill the Crewmates until they are even in body numbers alive.

The Crewmates can:

  • Do tasks
  • Open Doors
  • Report bodies
  • Call emergency meetings ( Limited )

The Imposters can:

  • Sabotage ( Lights, O2, Reactor, Close Doors )
  • Kill the crewmates ( with a kill cooldown )
  • Fix the Sabotages ( but not the ordinary tasks )
  • Open Doors
  • Report bodies
  • Call emergency meetings ( Limited )

The hotkeys when playing with mouse and keyboard are:

  • Q - Kill
  • WASD - Move
  • E - Use
  • R - Report
  • Tab - Map

The game is usually played with a premade stack of 10 people, but you can just as well join a random lobby and do the discussions via chat. Whereas a premade stack is usually talking in voice chat on Discord/TeamSpeak.

The game is free on Mobile and costs $4.99 on the Steam if you wish to play it on PC Both Mobile and PC players can play with each other in any lobby.

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Player count steam stats (Image credit: Valve)

Is the game going to last?

Even though their player base is expanding day by day, slowly catching up to Dota 2 ( a game that has been popular for multiple years) in player numbers, there are discussions whether the game will actually last, or just be yet another "Fall Guys" where the game is popular for a month or two, and then everyone just quits afterward.

The negative aspects of the game are that there cannot be any patches to change the gameplay, so the concept will most likely stay the same, and the only thing that may be added is new worlds or maps.

The creators announced that they are actively working on Among Us 2, and that the sudden popularity of the basic version, motivated them to make something a lot better in terms of graphics and gameplay aspects, but since there is no official information, we can only guess or imagine what the new version is going to look like.

The good thing is that this game doesn't take much time and its sole purpose will be entertainment a thing that attracted a lot of players to it as they can socialize with their friends and spend some quality time together. In times when it's advised to stay at home avoid bigger groupings of friends.

That's it for the story of Among Us For more videos about gaming and esports, such as the most successful indie games, check out EarlyGame and our YouTube Channel.