“Oh brother, I’ve got your back, always there to catch you when you faceplant,” he proclaimed, as our gaming marathon approached the finish line. But lo and behold, before the sun even rose, our sneaky sibling turned plunderer, swiping every hard-earned treasure and leaving the place looking like a yard sale gone wrong. Villagers scattered like startled pigeons, some too shocked to move, others playing dead like possums.
In the realm of games, betrayal can be wickedly delightful, so long as it stems from a lighthearted, playful spirit. That’s the cherry on the treacherous sundae.
Below are the 15 best betrayal games you can play to fulfill your very barbaric desire to betray — 12 games for PC and 3 board games for get-togethers.
12 Best Betrayer Games On PC
If you plan on double-crossing your buddy, it is a bright idea to play some detective games so you get a little sharp at snitching or when you’ve to catch the perpetrators. Here is a list of the 50 best detective games that you can check out.
Anyways, back to screwing people off. Let’s start with betrayal games you can play on Steam.
1. Among Us
Somewhere between four to fifteen people spawn on a confined spaceship. Looking like goofy beans in their suits, some of them are traitors—or imposters, as the game calls them. While other crewmates will go about their mundane tasks, impostors will sneakily sabotage everything and kill as they please without getting caught.
One thing that separates Among Us from its contemporaries is how the game is more about having fun than being competitive. Sure, there is an aggressive side to it, but the game is generally casual. Perhaps this is why the game rose to popularity all of a sudden. On a side note, here are 263 cute names for your bean in Among Us, from A-Z letters.
2. Deceit
In a world ravaged by a deadly mutant virus, six people find their consciousness rekindled. Everything is foreign to them, even the fact that two among those six have already been contacted by the virus. Those who have fallen prey yearn for blood, lots of blood, and death for others. The infected must seek blood, but quietly, without being noticed. Others will try to survive.
Deceit follows a similar social deduction premise as Among Us. There might be a longer matchmaking queue compared to Among Us. Fortunately, a sequel is right around the corner which will ease the search until the release. You’re not losing anything by trying Deceit, though, as the game is free to play.
3. Unfortunate Spacemen
Given that you’re looking for games to screw your friends in, it seems logical that most games on this list will require you to be social. But what if someone is acting like a sore loser and you want to switch off to solo? This is where Unfortunate Spacemen will chime in. A game with multiple modes—it has both PvPvE and PvE.
The multiplayer side is identical to the general social deduction games. With its own quirks, of course. Humans will be pitted against monsters who will disguise themselves as co-workers. All these monsters do is make survival hard for humans who are trying to escape.
4. Barotrauma
Submerged in the faraway planet of Europa, Barotrauma is all about working together to survive and fending off aliens. Inside the big, albeit claustrophobic, submarine, everything is fine until it isn’t. Aliens will irritate the players by destroying the ship, which can be fatal. So whenever stuff gets damaged, you will have to go on and fix it.
While there are multiple roles in the game—captain, engineer, mechanic, medic, etc—they are not restrictive. You can do stuff from other roles despite not playing as one, it’ll just be less efficient. Everyone has a role to fulfill in Barotrauma but since the game allows you to go rogue, you can just do stuff poorly. Like, the captain wrecking the ship on purpose. The game also lets you board some bots to fill in spaces if your group has fewer members.
5. Secret Neighbor: Hello Neighbor Multiplayer
A multiplayer spin-off to the Hello Neighbor franchise, Secret Neighbor has you and your buddies rescuing your friend from a grumpy neighbor. But there is a catch.
Your friend is locked inside the creepy basement of the neighbor’s house. It is locked with a key, so are other doors in the house, and your objective is to work together and find them. However, one among you is not your friend but the neighbor in disguise. You know where all this leads.
Secret Neighbor also has a map editor where players can create their own version of the house. Use this if one from the group has studied the game’s base map like his mother’s life depends on it.
6. Betrayal.io
Does the screenshot remind you of a certain susy game? It is not hard to guess the obvious inspiration the game takes. Betrayal.io is like the twin brother of Among Us. The game was released right after the sudden boom of Among Us, and to differentiate itself, it has unique activities that players can do, but the gist of imposter vs. crewmate warfare remains.
The game has multiple playable modes, in case you get bored of traditional cat-and-mouse mode. It can be played entirely in a browser, so you don’t have to download anything. Betrayal.io also has good character customization; you can be more fashionable than a bean. Like Among Us, it is available on both PC and mobile.
7. Project Winter
Hemmed in by a thick blizzard where the bellowing snow can make every cry for help grow faint, you and your mates look to restore power to scream for excavation. You chop trees, hunt animals, and cook, all to survive by any means necessary. Exploring and scavenging are pivotal but you’ll have to keep close to your teammates.
Straying too far alone makes you more vulnerable to wildlife in Project Winter. Not only is everything hostile, but you’ll also lose access to proper communication as the game has proximity chat. The farther you go, the dimmer the sound gets. Oh, the most important part, there are traitors who’ll first act as your friends and promise you escape, only to later take everything from you.
8. Split or Steal
Only those in whom you put your trust can betray you. This best describes the gameplay of Split or Steal. In the game, two random players spawn with a massive amount of money just lying there. Both of you have two minutes to negotiate. Once all thoughts are shared and both players have done their perusal, each decides whether to split the riches or steal them.
Here are all the outcomes:
- If both of you choose to split, the cash is divided 50-50.
- If both of you choose to steal, everyone goes home empty handed.
- If one chooses to steal and another to split, the cheater will take home everything while the one who decided to lay trust gets nothing.
But what do you do with all that money in your inventory? In Split or Steal, you can build your virtual empire. Start a conglomerate or live a leachy capitalist fantasy—it is all on you.
9. Town of Salem
In the pleasantly old-fashioned town of Salem, multiple groups are in conflict. Several people are disguising themselves as town folks and just want to cause an affray. While innocent people strive to survive, pesky traitors will try to deceive, murder, and disturb the peace.
The synopsis might sound like Among Us, but Town of Salem was released before Among Us, in 2014. It takes inspiration from Werewolf and Mafia party games. The game features 33 unique roles that are assigned to anything between 7 to 15 players per match. A new role, Coven, was added after the launch.
10. Enemy On Board
Nothing in Enemy On Board is antithetical to the social deduction formula where you betray your friends. Two of the eight people are aliens disguised as humans. While humans will try to repair the facility and kill aliens once they are identified, their alien counterparts will have to cleverly bait and kill all humans.
Unlike most games on this list, Enemy On Board puts a heavier emphasis on combat. There are multiple aliens and humans with unique abilities, and you can pick one that suits your style. While the game is in early access, there is a free-to-play version and a paid founders edition. The premium version will unlock all characters and several unique skins, not all of them are available in the free base version.
11. Werewolves Within
Werewolves Within takes place in a quaint medieval town and the premise is what you’d expect from werewolf folklore. There are folks in town and there is a werewolf who disguises as one of them. Each will use their brain to do social deduction and fulfill their objectives.
One thing to note, Werewolves Within is a VR game. This means more immersion than any other game on the list, but, the amount of time you get to experience the same can be sparse. Since it is a VR game, and, to top it off, the game is old, the matchmaking queue may be longer than usual. But when you get to play, it is a blast, and you can have some good and fun conversations with strangers.
12. First Class Trouble
In First Class Trouble, A.I. has become sentient. Anything that lies to your face and wants to kill humans is sentient enough. The game is human vs. AI madness—sounds very relevant to current world events—where humans are tasked with shutting down a deadly AI. However, one of the assigned humans is an AI that is going to disrupt humans so they don’t reach their goal.
Drink beverages, extinguish flames, maintain the facility, and coordinate to find who is the snitch. The game does put a heavy emphasis on customization. There are plenty already in the game, plus add-on packs and DLCs to extend them further.
These were all the games you can play on your PC. Here are 3 betrayal board games you can look into.
3 Best Board Games Where You Can Lie, Blatantly
1. Secret Hitler
Who a better betrayer than a politician? And who a better liar and propagandist than Hitler? Secret Hitler is a PvP physical board game. On one side are liberals, and on the other are fascists and Hitler. Although all their identities are hidden and known only to fascists.
Despite being a fascist game at heart, Secret Hitler starts democratically. Each player participates and chooses a chancellor, and then policies will be enacted. Those could either be fascist or liberal policies. If it is liberal, jubeln. But if it is fascists, die Revolution beginnt, tötet die Faschisten! Sich beruhigen, you just have to identify them, right?
2. Betrayal at House on the Hill
There is one thing missing from this list, a creepy horror game. It adds layers to your betrayal. Imagine seeing your friend piss their pants, and you put a menacing smirk on your face and look straight into their eyes, and then, you screw them off. Betrayal at House on the Hill is just that—all about horror, one that’ll have you even for a moment forget there is a traitor.
While the board game has been reiterated several times, all the volumes are largely the same. There is a board that you’ll navigate, roles to pick, and other basic elements like dice and cards. From start to finish, Betrayal at House on the Hill can take anywhere from 45 minutes to hours.
3. Resistance Avalon Board
Resistance Avalon Board is a spin-off of The Resistance board game, which in itself is a good social detection game. While The Resistance board games are classic government vs. resistance, Avalon is about King Arthur. Unfortunately, you’re not playing as Arthur himself but as some of his high-ranking people.
Arthur’s whereabouts remain unknown. Several of Arthur’s high-ranking people are not his loyalists but double agents working for Mordred. Their objectives will be to stop the good guys from attaining their noble motives. The general gameplay is similar to other games, which means there is a board, cards, rounds, and all the other basics.
