Among Us VR – a first-person version of the hit 2018 game exclusively for VR headsets – will feature proximity chat so players can discuss who they think the Imposter is outside of meetings. The information has just been revealed by the latest trailer for the game.
If you’ve played the original game on PC, smartphone, or console, you’ll know that while the in-game chat option is good, playing with friends using voice chat is a far superior experience.
Having to argue your innocence on a Discord call adds a layer of immersion to Among Us, and being able to crack jokes and just chat normally is a lot more fun than chatting over text. But this Discord setup isn’t perfect; It’s all too easy to miss out on vital information like accidentally revealing your killer as a ghost.
Mods like CrewLink have tried to improve the situation – introducing proximity chat and automatically muting ghosts for live players – but it’s only available on PC and not everyone is comfortableinstalling external add-ons.
Schell Games decided to eliminate the middleman with Among Us VR and included voice chat in the game.
In our interview with Among Us VR project director Mike Trafficker, he explained that voice chat made a lot of sense in VR.
“Among Us plays very well and we didn’t want to play around with the gameplay too much, but one big immediate difference in VR is that your 360 view was restricted to maybe 45 degrees – I forget exactly how much. But it’s a very different amount of information that you have to work with.”
Voice chat, and in particular, proximity chat between meetings, gives players some of that information back – allowing them to hear the world around them as they explore The Skeld. But it also gives them all new strategies to eradicate the Imposters.
“With voice chat, you can coordinate with people between meetings, which is very different from what players are used to, right? So you can say something like, ‘Hey, I’m about to go to the infirmary and scan, come watch me’ and people can go see the scanner checking you. ”
But Imposters will also benefit from voice chat. They can lurk and hear unsuspecting crewmates pass by before exiting a vent.
The feature, however, can also help catch imposters. Mike warned us that while the Imposters become invisible while hiding inside a ventilation shaft, they will not be silenced. If you laugh at a Companion’s joke while waiting for the perfect moment to strike, or enjoy rehashing your villainous schemes aloud, you’ll get caught.
Among Us VR is scheduled to release during “Holiday 2022” (read November 2022 to January 2023) and will be available on both Meta-Quest (opens in new tab) and Steam platforms (as well as PSVR 2 when this headset launches). Players will be able to play and chat in all VR versions of the game, regardless of which headset they use.