Among Us is a game that has quickly shown people just how sociopathic their friends are. And, it's a pretty amazing experience, but it could be better. The game is intentionally bare-bones, and that makes sense considering the Development Studio, Innersloth, is made up of only three people.
That said, the game has had a gigantic surge in popularity recently (though it's well-deserved), so much so the developers have canceled the sequel to work on content for the original. So, with all the new players we're hoping some new features are coming as well.
10 An AFK-Timer For Ghosts
First and foremost is an AFK-Timer for Ghosts. This doesn't really matter for people who are playing with a dedicated friend group, but those who join public games, it's a real problem. As soon as a player dies they'll leave the game or just AFK until the next one starts, which in most other games would be fine. But in Among Us, this means the Crewmates have no chance of winning outside of catching obvious Imposters and ejecting them, as they literally can't complete all the tasks. Putting a setting in the lobby to enable like a 60-second AFK timer for Ghosts or something would be a perfect way to make this game more accessible for people who don't have 7-9 friends waiting around.
9 The Ability To Change Keybindings
Among Us started as a phone game back in 2018, that's why the UI elements in-game seem so...mobile-like. That's all well and fine, but the version that was put on Steam still feels as restricted in its options as a mobile game would. No graphics options, no accessibility options, and no way to change keybindings. And in this day and age, that's pretty absurd. Look at the Pokemon mobile apps and its pretty clear that these options can easily be included. Now, there aren't exactly a lot of keys that need to be pressed in-game anyway, but it would certainly do a lot for players who use Adaptive controllers or players with unique preferences.
8 The Option To Scale The UI
And, while the topic of the UI is still fresh on the mind, can we talk about how huge the UI is? There's no reason the Use, Report, and Sabotage buttons have to be quite so big on the screen. We get that this is how the game looked on mobile, but it's not exactly a monumental amount of work to create a scaling UI option. It might not seem like much, but being able to shrink these UI elements even by 25% could mean the difference between spotting someone venting in the bottom right of the screen or not.
7 An In-Game Voice Chat/Channel
Among Us needs in-game voice chat, it just does. The game is meant to be played in a way where players don't talk during the Rounds and are only able to debate once a meeting has been called or a body has been found. And, it works pretty well in Discord where groups just go by an honor-system of muting themselves once the game starts.
But, games shouldn't be dependant on unrelated programs to work, it should have an In-Game Voice Channel that automatically mutes players once the round starts. It wouldn't change the way people play by a huge amount, but it would stop those awkward moments where someone forgot to mute themselves and yells out who killed them for everyone to hear.
6 Accessibility Options For Colorblind Players
A lot of people have been voicing concerns over Among Us color options. There are a fair amount of color options, but they're not at all set-up for colorblind players. There's no "color-blind setting" in the options and that stinks since knowing who's who is so crucial to gameplay. The way it is now, someone who struggles with this has to go into a lobby and politely ask that no one takes both Green/Red, Blue/Yellow, Blue/Green, or any of the other Colorblind spectrum combinations, and this is essentially impossible for those who are fully colorblind.
5 A Minimap Option In Lobby Settings
From what we've played and seen in online content, most people play Among Us with a picture of the map they're on pulled up on their second screen. This allows them to know where they're going at all times without stopping, let's them ask and verify where players were when a body was found, and informs them where all the vents connect. As things are right now, players have to pull up the map in-game and it takes up their whole screen! Luckily there's some transparency so people can look at the map while running, but it's still awkward. An easy fix for this would just be a tiny mini-map down in the bottom left corner or something. Innersloth could even make it optional so that players who liked the whole memorization aspect could disable it for their lobbies.
4 More Customization Overall
We're obviously not trying to harp on what Among Us is missing, but these are all relatively small changes that would improve the overall experience greatly. Now, in comparison, adding more costumes, skins, and pets seems pretty secondary, but this stuff is still important. Think about how much the wide range of cosmetics in Fall Guys adds to the experience! If Among Us had unlockable costumes or even just a wider catalog of colors/patterns, players would absolutely be dedicating more time to playing it. We know that there are some options coming up this Halloween, but that's just a start.
3 Additional Color Combinations And Patterns
Speaking of Color Options, we'd love to see more of those as well. People really love to represent their favorite colors, after all. Just look at how many Switch Joy-Con colors there are based on popular demand. We get that there is already a decent amount, but adding a few more and some patterns/combinations would make people stop fighting over their specific color as much.
Just off the top of our head, they could easily add gold, silver, grey, beige, crimson, inverted, and bronze.
2 An Option To Force Names To Match The Player's Color
Again, this is just an idea for a toggle option that could improve lobbies overall. There have been a number of times we've played with a group of people, only to have one person who doesn't talk to the group a ton get confused because people unconsciously used real names to identify others rather than by their color or in-game name. If there was an option to make everyone's name above their head the color they picked, it would make discussions a lot easier by default.
1 The Ability To Create Private Lobbies Without Codes
And lastly, just let friends start a private lobby that others can join through Steam! No more of this 6-digit code nonsense. Obviously, it's not a huge hassle to input the code, but when it doesn't work half the time and players have to try it over and over until they connect, that's when it gets frustrating. We get that Innersloth has been having server issues due to their surge of popularity (Fall Guys had the same issue, especially when it came to grabbing), but enabling private lobbies shouldn't make that problem much worse, or if it did it would be worth it in the long run. Make the game as easy to play as possible so people can go from start-up to in-game in the span of 10 seconds. The more accessible the game, the more popular it'll likely be.