If you, like me, spent far too much time playing Among Us during the seemingly never-ending COVID-19 lockdown, then I have just the game for you. Enter Dubium, a space game that centres around deception and deceit. Where Among Us has adorable little egg-like crewmates, Dubium trades these out for Pixar-style cartoon astronauts, and it looks amazing.
Your characters (dubbed ‘Frontiers’ in-game) are sent off to a derelict space station with a quest to destroy four energy cubes to save the mysterious energy-providing keystones.
In a cartoon trailer akin to something out of Fallout, we see infamous terrorist group Blamane destroying space stations across the universe in an attempt to seize the keystones for themselves. As you can guess, one of your ‘comrades’ is working on their behalf, and will slaughter every Frontier that gets in their way.
You can do this with a vast array of gear, which will allow you to trap your unfortunate colleagues, or simply shoot them in the head. Each of the game’s six characters have their own abilities and specialisms to either seek out the Traitor, or pick off the Frontiers.
If, however, the Traitor is found out and exterminated, Blamane may appoint a new Traitor, meaning the game will continue – after all, you have to escape the space station. Whether you focus your efforts on survival or rooting out any and all traitors is up to you, but you’ll need to be quick about it.
In order to engineer your escape, you’ll need to complete a series of different tasks, including finding oxygen canisters and checking the life support. In many ways, Dubium is a more realistic Among Us, but as a fan of all things blood, guts, and gore, I love that.
Above all, I am obsessed with Dubium’s art. Described as ‘Pixar-style,’ I much prefer the realism over Among Us’ colorful 2D. I can see myself playing Dubium with friends on a dark night, just waiting for one of them to slink out of the shadows. Or, wait, maybe I’m talking about me – you’ll never know.
Dubium is currently available in early access form on Steam, so you can take it for a spin right now – after all, who doesn’t love a good detective game? We also have a list of all the best games like Among Us, if you fancy pointing the finger in a different guise; Town of Salem is my personal favorite.