Portals GLaDOS Comes to Among Us Courtesy of a Fan Mod

Among Us is a game that is simplistic in gameplay as well as its premise, yet it has enjoyed unexpected success that it continues to benefit from to this day. Originally released in 2018, Among Us flew under the radar of many until the summer of 2020 when it spiked in popularity, largely due to several prominent Twitch streamers promoting the game. As Among Us continues to enjoy its success into 2021, several players have found ways to mod the game, adding new and dynamic ways to play Among Us.

Originally, the goal in each game of Among Us is to find out who, among one's crewmates, is an Impostor through means of meetings, while trying to avoid death via the Impostors themselves. Some mods, like the Sheriff mod, take the liberty to alter the game, granting the ability to kill Impostors while avoiding the accidental murder of one's own teammates. Recently, a mod was created by a fan of Portal, adding the villain of the first-person puzzle shooter, GLaDOS as a support crewmate for Among Us.

The creator of the mod, Redditor AltSk0P, posted a video of the GLaDOS bot in action, using a voice modulator to painstakingly recreate the AI's voice to the best of its ability. The bot has the ability to commit to doing tasks, report bodies, and can also murder as the Impostor. The bot isn't perfect, as seen from the jittery movements of the bot as well as the occasional garbled voice, but it is still a capable enough bot to convincingly lie, as shown in the video when the bot avoids being outed as the Impostor following a murder.

GLaDOS is known as a major villain of the Portal series, playing the role of the main villain in the first Portal game. In Portal, she uses the protagonist, Chell, as a test subject, putting her through several trials in exchange for the promise of her freedom. In Portal 2, GLaDOS plays the role of an ally to Chell as they take on the main villain of Portal 2. Despite Portal being over a decade old, GLaDOS remains a popular character due to her eccentric and neurotic personality. It is due to GLaDOS's erratic behavior in the Portal that the bugs within the Among Us bot complement GLaDOS well.

The community of Among Us continues to thrive with its ever-growing modding community, adding unique ways to play the game with others. What was initially a community built upon its social gameplay with friends transformed into a budding community that aims to push the game past its original intended boundaries.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director Masahiro Sakurai recently published another column on the Japanese magazine Famitsu. This time he discusses the game that has broken records as one of the most popular games of all time, Among Us. Sakurai has a lot to say about the 2018 title that blew up in 2020, but chief among them is the idea that he is not quite sure if the game will remain popular for the long haul.

Among Us found unparalleled success over the summer of 2020 on mobile and PC. Since then, the game launched on the Nintendo Switch in December, and Among Us sold over 3 million copies in just a month on the Switch. Likely in hopes to promote that version, Sakurai played Among Us and talked about the unique social deception game.