Should you Buy Among Us VR? | Before You Buy Oculus Quest 2 Review

Welcome to Reality Remake and to the Before you Buy segment where I share my first impressions of one of the many VR games out there. Today’s game is Among Us VR, massively anticipated because of the breakout success of Among Us in 2018. I’m going to assume here that you are familiar with the basics of Among Us, which translate perfectly to the VR version. Ten people per match, and two imposters. Crewmates complete tasks to win, Impostors kill crewmates and sabotage to win. The real question is, how does this gameplay translate to VR?

Social Deduction in VR is Awesome

The answer is, extremely well. Among Us VR is the first social deduction game to come to the Quest 2, and it is as beautifully simple and fun as it is on any other platform. It’s even enhanced. The tasks, while still repetitive, are more immersive and tactile when done with your VR hands instead of tapping on a screen. Having to look around with your actual head, instead of always having a top down 360 degree view, means some new tactics like hiding spots and sneaking up on people are now possible.

Here VR serves to make the gameplay of Among Us even more interesting and dynamic. Watching an unsuspecting crewmate come into view while they’re busy looking away at something else as you sneak up behind them is more thrilling as the impostor. While always trying to keep an eye over your shoulder, as a crewmate, and backing away from any sussy people is even scarier.

Of course the best part of the game is even better now, the social deduction itself. Each emergency meeting or found body still has all of the drama, accusations, and evidence gathering of Among Us. What makes it better is actually being able to look right at your accuser or accused with your two eyes, right in front of you, and even point with your actual hands. None of the Among Us VR characters have visible faces of course, but the arguments are even better when you can point at the accused, or even physically surround them.

The Cons

While the gameplay itself is great, the only problems with it are those inherent to the VR platform. The greatest is playing with your friends. It’s easy to convince a group of friends to download a free app and play Among Us, or even pay a little and download the game, since most people have computers and gaming consoles to play it on, and practically everyone has a smartphone that can handle it. If your friends don’t have a Quest 2 and you want to play Among Us VR with them, then you might have a hard time convincing them to invest hundreds of dollars in hardware just for this.

This means you’re more likely to rely on public lobbies. Though you’ll find one very quickly and they’re easy to join, the usual Quest multiplayer crowd is evident. There are some kids that are probably too young to be playing VR (at least according to Meta’s terms of use), and you’ll get some that scream and some that don’t know what they’re doing well enough to take a meaningful part of the game. Still, after playing many games I’ve found that it is common to have enough level headed people in a lobby that this doesn’t ruin the experience. In fact I’ve never left a lobby because it had too many loud or clueless kids in it. Older teens and adults are still more common.

Conclusion

If you’re wondering if VR makes Among Us better, then the answer is yes. That is, if you like VR at all, if you’re not comfortable standing for long periods of time, or easily get nauseous, this game still might not be for you even if you like Among Us, but if you’ve enjoyed VR before and love Among Us or social deduction games in general then Among Us VR is a no brainer priced at a low 9.99$.

This has been Reality Remake, thanks for reading.