History VideoGame / AmongUs

** If an Impostor betrays a teammate to avoid suspicion, it's still in the favor of the betrayed to not sell out their teammate in retaliation, as it will mean [[PressXToDie a quick loss for their side]] (or, in 3-Impostor games, the Impostor team "merely" being heavily crippled and on the verge of defeat).

** For more specific examples that allow the Impostors to directly screw with the Crew's interfaces, sabotaging the lights invokes BlackoutBasement on the Crew, while sabotaging the communications will [[NowWhereWasIGoingAgain obscure the task checklist and task progress bar]].

* BolivianArmyEnding: An Impostor victory (assuming it's not from timing out a sabotage) is essentially this trope. The crew can no longer outvote the Impostors to eject them, but you don't actually see the remaining Crewmates getting killed.

** There are many instances of a player heading out to fix a sabotage and getting ambushed by an Impostor either right before getting there or right after successfully fixing it, which is one of the reasons Crewmates [[WhoWillBellTheCat are often reluctant to be the first to go deal with a sabotage]]. This can be {{defied|Trope}} by going to the site of the sabotage in groups, but it's harder to pull off during a lights sabotage due to the reduced visibility making it harder to stick together and to tell who committed a murder that would otherwise have been in plain sight.

* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: There are many cases of Crewmates going out of their way to ensure the safety of a fellow player only to get killed for their trouble, usually by the very player they were protecting. A particularly cruel scenario is when a Crewmate tries to keep an eye on two other players to ensure neither kills the other, only for ''[[FlockOfWolves both]]'' to turn out to be Impostors, kill the Crewmate who tried to protect them from each other and scram before anyone else finds the body.

The game was first released on June 15, 2018, and it slowly but steadily nurtured a small, dedicated fanbase. It exploded in popularity on Twitch and other streaming platforms in mid-2020, fueled by the worldwide desire for socialization during the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, basically becoming the next ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}'' (before that game had a major resurgence in late 2023). In August 2020, it [[https://innersloth.itch.io/among-us/devlog/171026/among-us-2 was announced]] that a sequel, ''Among Us 2'', was in development and planned for release in 2021, before being dropped in favor of maintaining the massive fanbase the current game had and [[https://innersloth.itch.io/among-us/devlog/181107/the-future-of-among-us releasing the content planned for the sequel onto the current game]] in September 2020, promising features like better servers, player profiles, ColorblindMode, and a ''VideoGame/HenryStickminSeries'' [[{{Crossover}} themed location]], [[https://twitter.com/AmongUsGame/status/1329154673022996481?s=09 later revealed to be the Toppat Airship]] on November 18th. A UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch port of the game was announced on December 15, 2020, and released later that same day. It also made its way to the current UsefulNotes/{{Xbox|SeriesXAndS}} and UsefulNotes/{{PlayStation|5}} consoles almost exactly a year later on December 14, 2021.

* DenserAndWackier: The game becomes this during April Fools. The player characters turn into horses, make neighing sounds and have silly animations for everything from moving around to Impostors killing Crewmates. But the biggest example is Hide and Seek mode, where the Seeker is replaced by a rancher who proceeds to round up the other players while the usual Hide and Seek theme is replaced by a rodeo version.

* TheLoad: Crewmates who refuse to complete their tasks (out of paranoia or just plain obstinacy) can prevent the Crew from winning by tasks. More generally, Crewmates who fail to stay aware of their surroundings or come up with believable alibis during questioning only help the Impostor by being easy to {{frame|Up}}.

** When fixing the lights in Electrical, the switches can be flipped on ''and'' off, so multiple Crewmates can screw up each other's work by mistake. Impostors may choose to {{invoke|dTrope}} this by sabotaging the Crew members fixing lights to buy time for their partner's kill cooldown to end.

* EasierThanEasy: If you're an Impostor, playing with multiple Impostors will likely be this if there are relatively few players (less than 9 players for 2 Impostors, less than 14 players for 3 Impostors). At those numbers, the Impostors only need one kill each to immediately put the Crew in danger of losing the game unless the game settings are tilted heavily in the Crewmates' favor (long kill cooldowns, small task counts, etc.) to counter the advantage.

* LoopholeAbuse: PoorCommunicationKills ''is'' the theme of the game, and it's enforced by restricting communication only to live players and only during meetings. But nothing's stopping people from simply using an external application such as Discord or Teamspeak to discuss at a meeting. While it can be done and a lot of players do make use of these apps, the general consensus is that ''everyone'' playing must be involved in voice chat if it's used and must adhere to the game's normal communication restrictions; colluding in secret or talking during prohibited times is unsportsmanlike and earns the ire of the playgroup if discovered.

* AFoolForAClient: An accused player will often have to take the initiative in defending themselves. How well this works out depends on the player's persuasion skills, ability to make solid arguments, the strength of the evidence against them and whether the crew is willing to hear them out in the first place. The main exception to the trope is when a fellow player can vouch for the accused, such as if they were together the entire round.

* CripplingOverspecialization: Crewmates who are exceptional detectives capable of figuring out even a crafty Impostor can often make subpar Impostors themselves, because they might find it harder to make up lies to support their story compared to working with the facts. Furthermore, the fact they suddenly aren't cracking the case this round might raise a lot of suspicion.

** When fixing the lights in Electrical, the switches can be flipped on ''and'' off, so multiple Crewmates can screw up each other's work by mistake. Impostors may choose to [[InvokedTrope invoke]] this by sabotaging the Crew members fixing lights to buy time for their partner's kill cooldown to end.

** When fixing the lights in Electrical, the switches can be flipped on ''and'' off, so multiple Crewmates can screw up each other's work by mistake. Impostors may choose to {{invoke|Trope}} this by sabotaging the Crew members fixing lights to buy time for their partner's kill cooldown to end.

* ScunthorpeProblem: The in-game profanity filter is on the aggressive side, and it ignores punctuation, case, and spaces. If you need to use the in-game chat, it's not unusual to see someone attempt to say "It's Cat" and have it come out as [="It***." =] This, at least, can be worked around by individual players deactivating the profanity filer. It's even more aggressive in the name-entry segment; if a swear is in the name, it won't allow the user into a room at all — someone going by the name "Spoon" won't be allowed in because [[ToiletHumour their name has "poo" in it]].