Minutes into my playthrough, I’m handed a Death Note and told to do my worst before I get caught. I whip out the notebook and start taking names, but another player sees me and I’m already getting flack. Out of desperation, I start felling all characters on my to-murder list, and steal some IDs so I can write down additional names to add to my spree. “It’s Shannon!” the players shout over voice comms. “Shannon is Kira! Arrest her!” My second-in-command woefully stands by me. “Pass me the Death Note,” he whispers. “I don’t know how to do that yet!” I say.
Such is the joy and fear you can experience in Death Note: The Killer Within, an Among Us-like social deduction game that fits up to 10 players. Recently launched on PlayStation and the Plus subscription service, already Death Note seems to be driving the kinds of bustling lobbies that Sony’s other recent game, Concord, was hoping to capture. Gathering enough players from your own friends to play Death Note can be a tall order (you need a minumum of 4 to play; the game is free if you have the subscription) and what’s more likely to happen is you can slip into a stranger’s lobby and join an already raucous party.
