The Game Awards 2021 has come and gone, announcing the best of the best in the video game industry in a variety of categories. It Takes Two took home Game of the Year, making it the biggest winner of the night, but other titles in Deathloop and Forza Horizon 5 were also big winners, earning multiple awards. The Game Awards was also a platform to highlight some of the games set to release over the coming months, though, and a handful of these announcements may have stolen the headlines.
One of the more exciting moments of the night was Guillermo del Toro name-dropping Silent Hill at The Game Awards, which had fans dreaming of the long-awaited revival of the Silent Hill series. Among Us was also present, revealing yet another release that could reel in some gamers who would have skipped the base game. This latest version of Among Us is a VR game that is currently in development and coming soon. This is an exciting reveal, as Among Us was one of the more popular games of 2020 and could earn a new lease on life from moving to a new VR platform.
The Popularity of Among Us
Among Us was originally released in 2018, although the peak of its popularity didn’t arrive for another two years. It was one of the more popular games during the COVID-19 pandemic as people turned to gaming to reconnect with friends and family, likely as a result of its accessibility to people who would otherwise be non-gamers. The game was available on PC, iOS, and Android devices, before receiving a release on the Nintendo Switch in December of 2020. Among Us is also set to release on PlayStation and Xbox consoles this month, which could serve to reignite the game’s popularity.
Aside from the accessibility in being available on mobile devices, Among Us was also popular because of its basic, but addictive gameplay loop. Players are stranded on a spaceship along with a team of crewmates, and they are each delegated tasks around the ship that they must complete. However, some players have the role of imposter, which makes it their job to eliminate the crewmates without being caught. This makes Among Us a fun game to play with friends, as it sparks many debates as to who is the imposter. Already, in its base form, Among Us is a compelling game, but taking this to VR could bump it up a level.
How Among Us VR Could Change Things
The upcoming release of Among Us VR is an exciting one for fans of Among Us and VR alike, offering the opportunity to explore the game in a new way, from an entirely new perspective. Among Us has never been playable in first-person, so the experience of an Among Us VR game should completely change the dynamic at play. Among Us may have never been viewed as a scary game, although it does have its heated moments from time to time. However, Among Us VR could change that easily.
Imagining a VR game in which players are stranded in space, surrounded by a crew of people who may turn out to be murderers, is quite a horrific premise. The base game of Among Us is cutesy, but it’s easy to see how it could become a horror game in a new format alone.
The Among Us VR reveal trailer, although short, gave an insight into how tense the experience could be. While completing a task, a crewmate turns around to see an imposter breathing down their neck before the screen turns black. Merely changing to a first-person perspective could be enough to bring out the horror in Among Us’ premise, but it’s easy to see how Among Us could become one of the scariest VR games on the market.
Among Us for VR is currently in development for PC and PSVR.