I still remember the very first time I tried Team Fortress Classic’s VIP mode, which was also called The Hunted. I spawned into my first match and saw that instead of a gun I was holding an umbrella. I was the VIP! Hell, yes! But also: Oh, no!
In TFC VIP, one player was the 10th class, the Civilian (because VIP and The Hunted weren’t enough names for him, I guess), a guy in a business suit with no guns, and everyone else on the team had to protect him while the other team, composed entirely of snipers, tried to kill him. It was a wildly fun mode about traveling through a map from one safe zone to another while relying on teamwork the whole way, which meant it was a mix of thrills, close calls, and complete disasters. I loved VIP: it had an entirely different feel from standard deathmatch or CTF.
Now VIP mode is coming to, of all places, Among US 3D. It’s called “Critical Cargo,” and in this mode one crewmate is randomly chosen to be the VIP (they call it “Critical Crewmate,” but c’mon, it’s the VIP). Intruders try to kill the VIP while the crew tries to protect them. Sounds like a nice change from the standard intruder mode.
To help the crew keep their special crewmate alive, there’s a new type of spacesuit that includes a scanner, called B.E.A.N.S. (the Better Evaluation and Knowledge Suit) that can identify the bad guys. Problem is, as you might expect for a gizmo with such a shoddy acronym, it doesn’t work all that well. Here’s a little trailer to introduce you to B.E.A.N.S. and the Critical Cargo event:
I haven’t thought about or even played a VIP mode since my TFC days, and it’s a shame it’s such a rarity in modern multiplayer shooters. Counter-Strike 1.6 had a similar mode called Assassination, but it never made it into CS:GO and CS: Source, so fans had to rely on mods. Halo 3 had a mode called Escort (though the VIP was armed) and Titanfall had a “Marked for Death” mode where both teams had a VIP-ish target at the same time. And it looks like there’s an effort to bring a new VIP mode to Team Fortress 2 via the Workshop.
But that’s about all I can really think of when it comes to VIP modes over the past couple of decades, so it’s nice to see the concept still kicking in Among Us 3D’s new update. The Critical Cargo event is live now and it will run until October 2.
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