Seems sus.
Picture this – it’s 2020, in the height of a global pandemic, and one game has done the unthinkable by bringing gamers together from all around the world, to see who can deceive others, sabotage their so-called “crew mates” tasks, and commit vile acts of (harmless and fictional) murder while pinning the gruesome acts on pure, innocent bystanders.
Among Us was a global hit, and millions upon millions loved it, including yours truly.
Now fast forward to 2024, and based out of Melbourne, Australia, Saboteurs has brought the suspense and fun of Among Us to real life.
In July of this year, mOB_Zombies & friends attended the venue for a birthday celebration. We were first introduced to Saboteurs at The Game Expo in Melbourne earlier in the year, and were instantly entranced by it.
Constructed from shipping containers, Saboteurs is (at the time of writing) set up in a carpark in The District Docklands. Upon entry, we were ushered into a room where you get geared up with a vest and wrist-mounted controller – very “laser tag” style, to give you an idea. There’s posters mounted everywhere explaining the rules and how the game functions. It was all starting to feel quite real, and we were excited!
mOB_Zombies spoke to Gus from Saboteurs at The Game Expo 2024!
We were then shown an introduction video that showed off how the tasks worked for Crewmates – much like in Among Us, tasks are completed by going to various panels and completing the activity there, like connecting the wires in Electrical, going through Decontamination, or activating the Shields.
As for Imposters, this part is quite simple – you point your wrist controller at a player and press the button. Think of it like laser tag, it will fire a “shot” at the player and alert them that they’ve been killed. It’s then advised that the Imposter flee the area so they’re not seen at the scene of the crime. (This all works in theory – unfortunately a couple of us had some technical difficulties with our wrist controllers, whereby we weren’t able to kill people, but the team at Saboteur were quick to look into it and get the controllers working again, and gave us an extra game for our troubles).
Once a player is dead, they are advised to either stay still like a statue, or be overly dramatic and lay themselves along the ground like they’ve just been violently murdered.
Needless to say, we all went with the latter choice.
We went into the play area – a dark maze of hallways with various panels around – and were asked to select a “start area”. These are designated spots where players can stand without being seen by anyone else. Then, our wrist controller lit up with either a red or green light for a couple of seconds, to indicate to us if we were a crewmate or an imposter. After that, it’s game on!
Finding out your tasks is simple – you go to an information panel, tap your card, and it tells you the task and where it can be located. So off you go, making your way through dark and smoky hallways, looking out for other crewmates (or imposters!), and try to get that task completed. Once completed, assuming no dead bodies have been found, you then go to another information panel and find out your next task.
For players that come across a “dead” body, reporting it is easy enough – pressing and holding the wrist controller button will call a meeting, at which time the newly deceased corpses make their way to the waiting area, where they can watch cameras and see an activity log of who killed, who voted for who etc.
During the meeting, those players still alive have the chance to discuss what they saw, perhaps throw out some theories or even make some accusations. Being a sussy baka is a sure-fire way to get voted out, regardless of whether you’re the Imposter or not…
Voting is also quite simple – after the cooldown period has ended for discussions, simply go back to one of the information panels, tap your card, and select who you want to vote out (or skip). Much like in Among Us, if one player has the most votes, they are then voted out, and the rest of the players are advised if they were an Imposter or not.
The rounds continue like so, until either the Crewmates have completed all their tasks, discovered and ejected the Imposter, or the Imposter succeeds and kills everyone on board.
In one of the final rounds, unbeknownst to us Crewmates, the birthday boy was assigned the Jester role – for those who aren’t familiar with this, the Jester’s aim is to act sus enough that the crew vote them out, at which point the Jester wins the round!
Well… Kudos to the birthday boy, because they fooled us good by acting very sus – we voted them out, and the rest of us lost. What a bittersweet way to end the game.
Overall, the game was quite an enjoyable experience. Despite the technical issues we encountered, we all had fun, and I would recommend any fans of Among Us to go check out Saboteur when you can!
Laughs were had, tasks were completed, backs were stabbed, and we were even fooled into voting out a Jester! If you'd like to book your own session and get sussy, check Saboteurs out now: https://saboteurs.com.au/
Always remember:
“Sus until proven innocent.” – Blue Crewmate
Comments