our-review-and-guide-for-playing-hide-and-seek-in-among-us-2021

Hide and Seek mode takes the Among Us Universe by storm.

The unofficial Among Us Hide and Seek mode has now been stamped as officially awesome, so much so that developers Inner Sloth recently announced their plans to make it into a fully-fledged and legitimate game mode.

“Instead of the slow silent tension of a “whodunnit” thriller, Among Us is transformed into a frantic bloody slasher.”

Our most loyal readers will remember February’s team-review of the deceptive puzzler phenomena Among Us. In which, each of our core writers battled it out in a game of spacefaring lies, venting, sabotage, and murder. Some of our friendships still haven’t recovered. If you’ve somehow missed the viral sensation that is the cross-platform game Among Us, we suggest you start there. If you’re already a pro-Imposter but you’ve heard rumours of the new game mode taking the world by storm all over again, read on.

How to Play Hide and Seek in Among Us

Until Inner Sloth fulfil their promise to make Hide and Seek mode official, players must take the space-bull by the horns by modifying the game settings themselves (hit the customisation console and go to “Game”). Because the game mode requires a gentleman’s agreement not to perform certain actions, it is a mode best played with friends. That said, searching the public lobbies should produce Hide and Seek game lobbies wherein the mode can be attempted with strangers.

To set up a game of Hide and Seek in Among Us, implement the following changes:

• Set kill distance to “short”
• Change Imposter visibility to 0.25x
• Change Crewmate visibility to between 2x and 5x
• Change Crewmate and Imposter Speed to 2x
• Sabotage Comms
• Set task volume to between 6 and 9
• Reduce kill-cooldown to 15-seconds

Unlike in the standard game mode, as soon as the game begins, players should reveal who the Imposter is. This can be done over chat or through an emergency meeting wherein players opt to “Skip Vote”. Following that reveal, the non-Imposter Crewmates have 15 seconds to run and hide before the big bad Imposter comes looking for them. The Imposter must then find, chase, and kill the remaining players before they complete all of their tasks. There is no reason to call emergency meetings or report bodies.

The settings above are the settings recommended by the Among Us Hide and Seek Twitter channel who have been promoting the game mode long before the game’s pandemic-induced viral fame. Further down the thread, they recommend other variants of Among Us Hide and Seek mode which involve further modification of the settings. These include altering Crewmate and Imposter speed, reducing visibility to 0.5x for Crewmates, or increasing visibility but sabotaging lights.

Our suggestion is to start playing with the settings that we’ve laid out above and then experiment until you find the settings that you enjoy best. For example, that Twitter thread states that the Imposter is not allowed to vent or use security cameras, whereas we found that allowing both led to hilarious scenarios without fairly disadvantaging the Crewmates so long as the Imposter’s speed and visibility were sufficiently reduced.

Our Review of Among Us Hide and Seek Mode

We all thoroughly enjoyed Hide and Seek mode in Among Us. Even without the core “who is the Imposter?” game mechanic, the four levels offered in Among Us make for perfect hide-and-seek playgrounds. It forces players to use the play areas in whole new ways and instead of the slow silent tension of a “whodunnit” thriller, Among Us is transformed into a frantic bloody slasher.

The modifications lead to a whole new type of nail-biting tension and plenty of uniquely hilarious scenarios. When they bump into him, Crewmates must constantly decide whether to run from the Imposter or take their chances by hiding just out of sight. In one match, one of our players was hiding in a dead-end toilet cubicle as the Imposter opened all of the cubicle doors until his. But by holding his nerve and not running away, he successfully bet his life on the Imposter losing interest.

And that is one of the crucial ways in which the matches are transformed. Whereas in standard Among Us, players must stay silent outside of Emergency Meetings, there is no such obligation in Hide and Seek. Players can choose to be heard by both their comrades and hunter. An ability which can be both advantageous and disadvantageous. They say in space no-one can hear you scream, well in Among Us’s space-odyssey they will be able to now. Do you risk alerting the murderer by shouting to tell your Crewmate that the Imposter is coming her way? For those scenarios, we enjoyed it most with voice communication between players. And you may well decide it’s savvier to stay silent anyway. Holding your tongue and your nerve may well save your skin. We let out many a position-revealing yelp and squeal upon running into our short-sighted assassin – and it did not end well.

Another way Hide and Seek improves on the standard Among Us game-mode is that it is enjoyable with fewer players. Whereas standard Among Us games tend not to be particularly fun without a minimum of six people, Hide and Seek is still fun with just four.

Closing Thoughts on Among Us Hide and Seek

Since the early days of Counter Strike: Source zombie-mods and N64 split-screen gaming, players have always managed to find unofficial ways to play a game that they find more fun than the way it was meant to be played. It’s great to see that crowdsourced gamer innovation still going strong.

We applaud the devs for realizing the potential of the game mode and we look forward to seeing how its official launch will modify it yet again. Inner Sloth aren’t stopping there when it comes to updates. As well as releasing new maps over the last year, at the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase they revealed an increased lobby size of 15, new characters, as well as the delightful opportunity to honk the horn of the airship