Chinese rip offs of popular western games is something that unfortunately happens quite a bit.
For example when PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds was taking off,
over in China the creators NetEase created a very, very similar game called Knives Out,
which was pretty much PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds but with a different name.
Knives Out even included PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds memorable phrase “winner
winner chicken dinner” word for word. This then led last year to PlayerUnknown’s
Battlegrounds suing Knives Out creator, which was then settled out of court and the details
of the settlement were not shared publicly. However despite lawsuits like this, copycats,
clones and rip offs still goes on in China quite a lot.
And that means when Among Us became gaming's next big sensation last summer,
it was clear that some copycats and rip offs was gonna pop up over in China.
Also this is something that especially will be the case when Among Us doesn't include
any Chinese localization and that means Chinese gamers couldn't play the game
with the language that they understand if they wanted to play the official version.
So today we'll be taking a look at the top 5 Chinese Among Us rip offs.
Also all games listed in this video will be in the description in Chinese, if you want
to go check them out yourself. Number 5. Werewolf Among Us
This is the most popular Among Us clone to come out of China so far,
going on to become China most popular game on the App store and even beating Tencent’s top titles.
It’s also the most original one on the list. The game has been given a werewolf theme,
so that instead of there being an imposter among your ranks killing the crew and
you needing to work out which player is the imposter, it is instead a werewolf.
The werewolf theme the Chinese game has is also something that will come a few other
times in the video, and so first, here’s why werewolf imposters are so common.
Now, the game Among Us is actually based on an old real life party game created by a
Russian psychology professor at Moscow University. This game is called Mafia and was created in 1987
and shares many common themes to Among Us. Since 1987 however, different variations
have popped up, including a werewolf theme one instead of the mafia theme.
The werewolf version is cited as being created in 1997 by interactive fiction
creator Andrew Plotkin and it’s this version that ended up being especially
popular over in China, even prior to Among Us. And so when it came time for the clones to pop
up, some of them chose to have the imposters be werewolfs instead. And so you can see various
werewolf-type graphics in the Chinese game. Alongside this, for Werewolf Among Us whilst
all gameplay mechanics are kept the same, the setting has been changed to
a medieval castle rather than a spaceship. The overall art style and character designs
are also more cutesy in nature, too. Alongside this, the activities that the
crew have to perform have been modified to a more medieval castle theme as well - such
as organizing potions, stacking logs on a fireplace and putting bricks into walls.
Defeated players will no longer get sliced in half either but, as is normally the case
for Chinese versions of games, the violence was toned down and players get bonked on the head
instead. They are then left with a knocked out stars animation spinning round their head.
And one more thing about Werewolf Among Us is that it has voice chat,
unlike Among Us which only has text chat. Number 4. Space Kill
Whilst Werewolf Among Us is the most popular Among Us clone, Space Kill is the 2nd most popular.
Space Kill is also much less original - keeping the games spaceship theme and using the same
activities that the crew need to complete. The main thing that makes it stand out
however are the character designs, with everybody being a one eyed alien.
Also again, instead of getting sliced in half, characters will get bonked on the head like so.
Like Werewolf Among Us, it also feature voice chat too.
Number 3. Space Werewolf There aren’t as many details
about this game available but, as you can see, the store icon is very similar to the
icon for Among Us. However, looking at the screenshots, the characters instead resemble
small hooded aliens with pitch black faces. It isn’t as popular as the others with it
only having a few hundred reviews, but it’s still rated 3.2 out of 5 stars.
Number 2. Our Party - Werewolf Game 3D Version A little more popular than the last,
this game has a rating of 3 and a half stars after over 600 reviews.
This is another much more direct copy of Among Us, with it being contained in a
spaceship and completing similar tasks. However there is one big difference and
that’s that everything is now in 3D - both the level’s scenery as well as the character models.
The characters now also were spacesuits too and it again as voice chat, unlike Among Us.
When characters get defeated in this version though, there’s a slight punch animation and
then the characters are just depicted lying on the floor without any damage or special effects.
And then finally, Number 1. Werewolf Project And then the final entry is the biggest rip off of
them all to come so far and this is also something that Chinese players aren’t happy about as well.
This game is only available on Android and not iOS and on its TapTap store page the game has over
22 hundred people following the page for updates. However it also only has a community review score
of 1.7 out of 10 and many of the comments are calling the developer out for not only
copying Among Us, but then even going as far as to use art assets from another game too.
The game characters are a combination of gangster characters, as well as a few more quirky designs.
These character designs have all been taken from another game though - this
being the shooting game Little Gunfight 2. And so not only is this game an Among Us
copy but a very lazy copy of another game too. Aside from that everything else is kept very
similar to Among Us, with the same tasks and the spaceship setting.
Once again though, voice chat is included, which is a highly requested feature that’s still missing
from Among Us without the use of 3rd party mods. What do you think about these Chinese copies
of Among Us? As always,
let us know your thoughts in the comments below and, until next time, thank you for watching.