The New Fortnite Mode Will Likely Seem Familiar To Among Us Players
Among Us has had a huge year, setting new records on Twitch and even taking home Best Mobile Game at 2020's The Game Awards, an impressive feat for a title first released in 2018. The makers of Fortnite seem to have taken notice and have debuted a limited-time mode called The Spy Within that should make Among Us fans feel right at home.
Epic Games announced the new mode on the official Fortnite blog. In The Spy Within, ten players are placed on two teams with their allegiance hidden from everyone else. Most of the players in the match will be Agents, while two are on the opposing Spy team. Agents complete objectives to earn coins while Spies try to eliminate Agents one by one without getting caught.
No communication is allowed until someone calls a secret meeting, at which point players can use voice or video chat to try and identify the Spies and vote them out. Agents win either by voting out both spies or accruing a set number of gold coins. Spies win by eliminating the other players.
While Epic's decision to emulate one of 2020's most lauded titles might seem questionable, there's a few details to keep in mind. First, The Spy Within is based on a map developed in Fortnite Creative by a group of Creators, not Epic Games. The crew includes: DolphinDom, KKSlider, Bunni_, Wert, Blanky, jstKamui, MackJack, Ritual and Snownymous. Second, while Among Us certainly streamlined and popularized the social deduction game genre, it by no means invented it. Board and parlor games such as Mafia, Werewolf, and Secret Hitler have utilized the formula for some time now.
That said, adding the Among Us styled limited-time mode certainly fits into Fortnite's general strategy of throwing anything and everything into its metaverse to appeal to the broadest audience possible. Fortnite has recently worked its way into Marvel canon, added Halo and God of War skins to the game, and fans have even speculated on the possibility of a Fall Guys crossover.
The Spy Within limited-time mode begins Dec. 15 and will rotate to a new variant created by community members every couple of days. A supposed leaked list of challenges specific to the new mode has also revealed some of the rewards available, including a music pack, a glider, and a spy-themed skateboard deck.