Among Us - InnerSloth LLC

App Review

This review of Among Us was completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 19 November 2020.

About the app

This section contains details about the app provided by an ACCM Reviewer.

ACCM review

This review of Among Us contains the following information:

• The level to which the game was reviewed
• App description
• Reviewers comments
• In App purchasing
• Online information
• Gambling
• Advertising and product placement
• Gender stereotypes and sexual references
• Coarse language
• Game playing behaviour which may be of concern to some parents
• Other

The level to which the game was reviewed

The reviewer played the game for several hours and observed her 9-year-old daughter playing with supervision.

App description

Among Us is an interactive mystery game that is played in small teams of up to ten players. You can join existing online teams, or you can host your own game. You can choose to play only privately with friends (with an invitation code) or you can simply join the thousands of other players from all around the world. The game is set on a space station and for each round, your team (the crew) is assigned a series of simple tasks that prompt you to move about the different areas of the game. Tasks include things like ‘refill fuel tank’ or ‘record temperature’ and are very simple and straight forward to complete. The catch is that there will be at least one crew member who is an imposter and they will try to kill you whilst you are getting the tasks done. To win the game, the crew must complete all the tasks before the imposter kills everyone. If someone is murdered and the body is found, then the team members must have an emergency meeting to try and decide who was the imposter and take a vote on it. Players can chat to each other as they play, discuss tactics, and talk about who might be the imposter. If you are nominated as an Imposter, your aim is to kill as many of the crew as you can without being detected. To kill, you simply approach a crew member and press a button that says ‘Kill’. This will cause the crew member to die in a cartoonish way with little blood, but in very violent ways (e.g. Strangling, stabbing, breaking necks etc.) You can buy pets and accessories for your player as an add-on but they are just for fun and do not give you any advantage in the game.

 

Reviewers comments

The premise of this game is simple, clever, and fun, however the ability to engage with other players in online chat means that there is a high possibility of children being exposed to coarse language, sexual innuendo or propositioning, bullying, and grooming. There is much anecdotal evidence of children being asked for personal details such as their age, gender and where they live as well as reports of bullying and insulting language being used. You can use the censor chat filter, but whilst this filters out bad language, it does not stop users from phishing for personal details (for example asking for phone numbers or emails so that they can continue chat on a different platform). For this reason, this game is completely unsuitable for children who do not have a well-developed strategy for online safety and the maturity to handle these situations and all play should be closely supervised by an adult.

Parents should also be aware that this is a fun and quite addictive game that contains a fair amount of violence and players are rewarded for deceptive behaviour and learning to lie effectively. It is not in any way gory, with very little blood and cartoonish violent actions – but because it is such an integral part of an addictive game, it could have a desensitizing effect on children.

In App purchasing

There is In-App purchasing in this game, examples include:

• Pet Bundle AU$4.49
• Remove all ads AU$2.99
• Skins AU$2.99
• Hat bundle AU$4.49
• Hats (various) AU$1.49

These purchased add-ons are fun but do not give a player any game advantage, which means that there is no great purchase pressure for children who feel like they need to pay to improve their game.

Online information

There is no online information required to play this game.

Gambling

At the time of review, the reviewer found no simulated gambling content. If you discover simulated gambling content in this app, please contact us with the details so we can update our review.

Advertising and product placement

There is advertising in this game, including:

• Regular pop-up ads appear that need to be watched briefly before returning to the game. You can purchase an add-on to remove all ads from the game for $2.99

Gender stereotypes and sexual references

There is nothing of concern in the actual game, but in the online chat children may be exposed to language that is homophobic and sexist.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this App.  For example:

• No coarse language in the game, and no coarse language is allowed when the chat censor filter is active – however this does not prevent insulting, bullying and rude behaviour from other players.

Game playing behaviour which may be of concern to some parents

Please see reviewer’s comments above.

Other

N/A.

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