Released in June of 2018, Among Us is perhaps the greatest example of a delayed hit. Developed by InnerSloth, the creators of the long-running flash game series, Henry Stickmin, Among Us is a fairly simple online game based around a team of astronaut Crewmates trying to complete tasks, while a smaller team of Imposters try their best to stealthily kill them or sabotage the ship.

The game is evocative of previous titles like 2014’s Town of Salem and the original Trouble in Terrorist Town. With a supplementary main gameplay loop of completing simple tasks, Among Us is about the ability to convince others of someone else’s guilt—or your own innocence.

At its most basic, Among Us follows a group of 10 players consisting of 8 Crewmates and 2 Impostors. The Crewmates go around the ship playing small mini-games, while the Impostors attempt to sabotage the ship or kill a Crewmate. Anyone can report a body or use a limited supply of meeting calls without a body, which will bring all the players into one place to discuss what happened and figure out who the Impostor is.

When players have a meeting, they use a simple chat interface—or a third-party audio call like Discord if playing entirely with friends— to discuss what happened and try to identify the Impostors so they can be voted out.

The design of the game is very similar to that of previous works by the creators, with a light-hearted 2D art style that makes it very easy to understand what is going on and allows the game to have a broader appeal than its precursors.

While the simplicity of the game seems like it could hurt the longevity, the developers of the game decided to focus all of their efforts on it, even canceling a potential Among Us 2 in favor of further supporting this game. Still, the choice makes sense as for smaller developers, as a huge success doesn’t come along that often, and the developers need to make the most of it.

While personally, the game isn’t something I would play due to the limited mechanical depth, the popularity isn’t unwarranted. For a group of people who want to play together, the game is an easy recommendation. Alternatively, while playing online with random people might not be quite as enjoyable, it is still worth trying.