The Pulpy Bean Murder Mystery Seems Great

Among Us Story: On Guard was officially revealed earlier in June during the Summer Game Fest Showcase, and it was one that seemed to leave viewers a little taken aback initially. A single-player, story-based version of Among Us? Could that really be a worthwhile thing to explore for a series so well-known for its multiplayer/social aspects?

Thankfully, we didn’t have to wait long to see what the game was all about, as developers Innersloth held a public demo via Steam, albeit a timed one that has now run out. If you missed it, you’re no longer currently able to jump in to check it out.

But allow me to get you up to speed. My background with vanilla Among Us started only a couple of years ago, but once I finally jumped in, I was hooked. Since then, I’ve Platinumed the game on PS5, which really isn’t an easy trophy to get, and also included me linking together my PS5, Switch, PC, and iPad to try to farm certain trophy metrics. Don’t judge. I’m totally normal.

So, with enough gameplay time in the original Among Us to 100% the trophy list completely, how did I feel about this new demo? So far, On Guard seems like a great time.

The Single-Player Setup

As we’ve already covered, On Guard is entirely single-player, and the story setup is pretty straightforward. You’re a new crewmate, so you need to go through training. You’re hooked up to a simulation machine that places you in the beanbody of Guard, a pulpy, Noir-ish detective-type who is no nonsense and takes his job of keeping the crew on the ship safe very seriously.

It doesn’t take long to figure out the other crewmates on the ship rub him the wrong way quite often, because of course, they don’t always seem to be taking safety and security as seriously as he does. The writing and given dialogue options are really well done, and very often laugh-out-loud funny.

The demo was extremely short, only running about 10 minutes total, but there was still a lot of intrigue packed in the short runtime. In true Among Us style, there’s a murder on the ship (poor, innocent Cook), and as the Guard, you feel ashamed that you couldn’t keep them safe. The crew calls an emergency meeting, and since you were last seen with the body, you’re everyone’s main suspect. Classic.

Now, it’s up to you to prove you had nothing to do with it, while also trying to survive the likely incoming additional chaos, since the impostor/killer is clearly still on board somewhere. In terms of story, that’s all we’re clued into so far. It was enough to get me interested, and also full of so much humor and well-placed references to the original game that I’m already keen to check out the full game release.

Fan Service References Combined With Creative Ideas

Innersloth has loaded On Guard with so many original Among Us references, so if you’re a fan of the franchise, you’re going to be smirking and chuckling nonstop throughout. Familiar tasks and activities are reimagined, like swiping your keycard in Admin (which is still as finicky as ever, of course).

It’s also just a joy to see a new version of our familiar ship, now pulled into a totally different artsyle and populated with a cast of characters that make sense for each room on board. In total, we have Guard, Cook, Operator, Management, Scientist, Engineer, Doctor, and Captain. All of the beans have distinct, well-realized and comical personas, like Doctor, who is entirely self-obsessed and addicted to engaging with his social media followers.

You have a task menu, which is kept track of for you by a talking robot companion, which acts as a normal quest log for any other single-player game, though Among Us-ified in a cute, creative way. You’ll enter the vents, crawl around, and find shortcuts from room to room in order to track down the killer.

You’ll hunt for clues in order to bring new information to the next emergency meeting, either to help prove your innocence, or be able to drill down and start to hone in on that slippery impostor – or impostors. We don’t know yet if there are multiple on board.

The game really is extremely charming, and very often hilarious, highlighted even more by how meta this demo was overall. Since you’re actually playing from the perspective of a bean in a simulation, you have someone outside the sim saying things like “This room will be available later, but not in the demo.” Smart, meta, and funny all at the same time. I have high hopes for the full experience, because I’ve truly enjoyed all of the writing and direction so far.

Enough Variety to Stick Around

Despite the hyper-short runtime of the demo, I really can’t wait for more Among Us Story: On Guard. I have a slight concern that showing us such a small portion of the game in the demo could imply that the full version might be shorter than some are expecting, but of course, the jury is still out on that.

I’m also now beginning to speculate if the layout of the game’s title is hinting that we’re going to get more games like On Guard, but playing as different beans on the ship. Among Us Story: On Guard is first, but could something like Among Us Story: Captain’s Log be coming later in the future? Based on the On Guard demo, I hope so, because it seems like Innersloth is having a lot of fun with this one, which should hopefully translate to the final product.

Ultimately, On Guard is said to have at least three unique endings based on your dialogue choices and how the rest of the action unfolds. This means that no matter how long (or short) On Guard ends up being, it’s still seemingly designed around jumping in again and seeing what other outcomes and story paths you can figure out. So far, I’m personally very down for more, and I’ll be waiting for more details on an eventual release whenever Innersloth is ready to share more.

Systems

Number of Players

Single-player

Steam Deck Compatibility

Unknown

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