Android Central Verdict
If you enjoyed the original Among Us, then you'll absolutely love how the VR port captures its spirit while improving on the mechanics. Thanks to proximity chat and motion-control tasks, The Skeld feels like a real ship crewed by real people, which makes the Imposters' betrayal that much more personal. It's too bad the game only launches with one map, but we're hopeful that the other maps will come to the game later.
Pros
- +
Proximity chat works really well
- +
Lovingly recreates Skeld map and tasks from original
- +
Quick chat a solid alternative for avoiding trolls
Cons
- -
Only one of four original maps available
- -
Likely microtransactions for hats
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Some UI annoyances
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Among Us launched quietly in 2018, then blew up to monumental popularity in 2020 during the height of pandemic social distancing before losing some of its cultural impact in subsequent years. Now, Innersloth is hoping to recapture some of that spark, working with acclaimed VR developer Schell Games and Robot Teddy Games on the new Among Us VR game for Meta Quest 2 and Steam.
Compared to the basic Among Us, the Among Us VR port keeps the same core gameplay mechanics: crewmates complete tasks, imposters pretend to work while sabotaging and murdering, and everyone accuses one another in emergency meetings. The virtual version cuts out a lot of the depth — there's only one map, for instance, and no special roles — but you feel much more like a "real" crewmate in space as you complete tasks by hand and chat with your fellows. And that makes the danger feel more real, too.
My colleague Nick Sutrich and I had the chance to play Among Us VR in a press-exclusive game prior to launch, but couldn't fully test the game outside of it because, well, Among Us only works with a crowd of people. So keeping in mind that some pros and cons may only become clear after launch when we've had a chance to test it more thoroughly, here is our initial Among Us VR review, focused on what you will and won't like about it.
Among Us VR: What you'll love
We have footage of a couple of our Among Us VR games in action in the embedded video above, though the video doesn't capture your full field of view for checking out "sus" crewmates in your periphery. The main thing you'll notice is how much everyone involved is laughing and having a great time, even when they're being murdered.
Although you can choose to play with text chat only, proximity chat makes the spaceship feel properly lived in. You can chat with fellow crewmates hoping to get a feel for their honesty or to establish an alibi. If someone's voice dies out, they may have wandered out of range — or they might be dead!
If and when a dead body is found, people can make accusations or prove their innocence much more quickly and naturally than in the original game, when you had to type things out. Just make sure to get some solid Quest 2 headphones so you can hear everyone well.
Meanwhile, murdered ghosts can chat with one another so they don't feel left out; living crewmates' voices are distorted and quiet but still audible, so you can all laugh as they get things wrong or cheer when they avenge your death.
Another fun addition is that you use your controllers not only to complete tasks in first person but also to point accusingly during a meeting or wave at someone to draw their attention.
In Among Us, the game showed tasks as a pop-up display that blocked the view around your character, so you couldn't see Imposters coming. In Among Us VR, when you approach a task station, you're transported directly in front of it so you can reach things easily even when seated; while most of your view is taken up with the task, you can turn your head to look behind you if you suspect something nefarious.
You can play with multiple control options, including joystick movement, teleporting around to avoid motion sickness or head-based movement. I don't have the strongest VR legs, but I played for an hour with artificial movement and had no issues with nausea. And you can use this method to run backward while keeping an eye on whoever's behind you, which can be a useful way to avoid sneak attacks.
Schell Games lovingly recreated The Skeld from the original game, now called The Skeld II, to look almost exactly as it should when converted from 2D to 3D. It creates a great ambiance, mixing claustrophobic corridors with bright sci-fi tech.
The map has a mixture of classic tasks from the original game and new tasks, and completing them with motion controls feels much more satisfying. You feel like you're actually repairing the ship yourself, rather than just playing little minigames
The only missing feature is the security camera center, which is conveniently out of order in VR. Schell Games told us that the feature is being worked on but there's no ETA right now. It'll be great to use this to monitor others when it eventually launches, though.
Overall, Among Us VR is a genuine blast to play. It recaptures the spirit of the original but enhances the experience with the virtual elements.
Among Us VR: What you might not like
My favorite map in Among Us was Polus, which channels the same aesthetic as The Thing and had plenty of fun tasks and isolated spots to murder folks discreetly. Unfortunately, Polus, Mira HQ, and The Airship are nowhere to be found in Among Us VR.
You also don't have special roles like Scientist, Shapeshifter, and Guardian Angel, which were added fairly recently to Among Us. I haven't tried them myself, but it would add some fun variety to games.
Lastly, the beans do have a few hats, but no full outfits, and I suspect that Among Us VR will charge you for cooler wardrobe accessories rather than let you unlock them with an XP system, as the base game does.
I suspect that if the game does well, Innersloth and Schell could add new maps and mechanics, either as free or paid post-game DLC. The question will be how long it takes for these maps to appear, and if the game will keep a solid community alive long enough for the new maps to appear.
In my short time with the game, there were several tasks that I never got to try; I never even got to be an imposter! But once you've played the game for a while, you'll notice the tasks have mechanically simple gameplay, mostly focused on timing, properly directing your Touch controllers, or just waiting for the task to complete. Your fun is more about the social element than the tasks themselves actually being particularly interesting or puzzling.
Different maps gave you more varied tasks, at least in name, so it becomes harder for Imposters to remember fake tasks on the fly. In Among Us VR, deception will be a little easier.
On that note, I really liked the group of journalists and game devs that I played with; everyone was friendly, focused on tasks, and didn't mess around. When the Imposter tricked the other crewmate into venting to me and won the game, I found his sneaky deception hilarious rather than frustrating. The question will be what kind of Among Us VR community will appear at launch.
Standard Among Us is pretty notorious for all manner of griefers and trolls when you aren't playing with people you know. Players quit when they aren't imposter or rat out their other imposter as a joke. They call emergency meetings to stall time and refuse to vote, or they message their murdered friends in real life to find out who the Imposter is.
In an ideal world, Among Us VR games will live up to my initial experience, and any jerks will be kicked out by the host. But many multiplayer Quest games like Gorilla Tag have somewhat notorious communities, and we're not sure how Schell Games will handle toxic players taking advantage of voice chat to bully fellow players.
If you're worried, you can always use text chat only, which lets you use a variety of predetermined prompts like "I saw X vent" or "Self-report." It's not as natural as just saying these things, but does make abuse less likely.
You'll note that most of these negatives aren't about the game itself! On that front, I have only one complaint: the UI can sometimes be a bit frustrating.
I don't like how the sabotage warning or "you're dead; finish your tasks" message perfectly covers up your map. Imposters said it was easy to accidentally press the kill button while trying to fix sabotages or fake tasks. And when you warp up to a task, your hands will frequently trigger things by accident. The latter two complaints, at least, will become easier to avoid once you get more used to the controls.
One other point: Among Us VR currently has five server options: US East, South America, Europe, Asia, and Japan. I had no issues with connectivity despite living on the US west coast, but a journalist from Britain did seem to be having serious issues during the game, noting a disconnect between his controller input and character actions.
You may not be able to play with friends on other continents, in other words, and you will want to have a consistent wireless network to fully enjoy the game.
Becoming the imposter
Nicholas Sutrich is writing this section, focused on being the imposter twice and how that experience differs from being a crewmate during the play session, as Michael was.
There's nothing quite like being an imposter in Among Us. Oftentimes, when I play the 2D version of the game with my son, he chants "imposter, imposter, imposter!" over and over again hoping he'll get the coveted role. As is the case in games like Clue, being the imposter is terrible fun.
That fact is elevated significantly in VR, where your voice and your body language are combined to give you a significantly harder challenge of convincing the crew that you're totally innocent.
I recorded the gameplay video further up in the review in hopes of capturing something worth watching. Thankfully, that absolutely happened and you can see my treachery begin at around the 16-minute mark when I slayed my totally innocent co-worker, Michael.
The subsequent emergency meeting was absolutely exhilarating, with my heart rate racing the entire time as I lied through my teeth to save my own skin.
In my defense, he was the only person hanging around for a terminal by himself for a while. Everyone else kept grouping up and wouldn't give me a moment to silently assassinate them.
Even still, I nearly got caught by the person heading into the chamber I just exited and, even though I didn't know it at the time, I was seen venting right before the alarm was raised.
The subsequent emergency meeting was absolutely exhilarating, with my heart rate racing the entire time as I lied through my teeth to save my own skin. If I could hear Michael, I imagine he was probably cursing me from his ghostly body at the emergency table.
Aside from being a ton of fun — I felt like I was either laughing or sweating the entire time — Among Us VR seems to be thoughtfully designed at its core. Going in, I was concerned that some of the elements that make play safer for kids (or those of us that don't want to hear people screaming or being obnoxious) would be removed.
I was happy to see privacy features like Quick Chat-only games from the 2D version are still included in Among Us VR.
Thankfully, that wasn't the case at all. Yes, I know VR is "meant" for ages 13 and up. Meta might be battening down the hatches on games that openly encourage accounts for kids, but it's also not stupid and recognizes that kids are still going to play in VR. It's still a video game, after all, and parental controls can help parents keep kids in check.
Primarily, I'm talking about the option in Among Us to only play games that use Quick Chat only. That turns the voices off and only lets players use the predefined messages to communicate with each other. In other words no swearing or other offensive language.
By default, real usernames are also hidden and crewmates are just called "Blue," "Red, "Green" and so on and so forth. You can toggle this off for yourself, which adds an additional layer of privacy to the experience.
All in all, I'm super impressed with this iteration of Among Us and really hope additional maps are added. Playing with friends is going to be an absolute blast, and this grand game of Clue could truly become one of my all-time VR favorites.
Among Us VR: Should you buy it?
Considering the original Among Us costs $5 for four maps, it's fair to ask whether the VR port justifies paying twice the price for just The Skeld II. But I would honestly say yes: Among Us VR will easily number among the best Quest multiplayer games at launch, and I have hopes that the high-profile game will continue to receive support after launch with new maps.
Proximity chat, immersive and well-designed controls, and the charming crewmate bean aesthetic makes the game a blast to revisit if you enjoyed the original. If you didn't because social multiplayer games with strangers don't appeal to you, however, you can and should skip this.
