Dubium is essentially when Among Us and First Class Trouble come together to make something really special.
MUMO Studio is a new contender based in Seoul, South Korea, in the game development arena, and while only being founded recently in 2019, they’re jumping from mobile straight to bigger things. With a not-so-well-known early release like Boxing Star that released on mobile, MUMO Studio took the plunge and started work on what might be a timeless classic to replace social deduction games like Among Us.
Their latest creation is called Dubium, and the name is as dubious as it sounds. To give you a rough idea, the game falls under the social deduction genre without a doubt, though it brings its interesting twists and turns that will leave you confused or amazed by the odd tropes and designs used. While the game was only released to Steam’s Early Access on 14 June 2023, it’s quite impressive just how much went into this game.
Naturally, social deduction games where you might have to backstab your friends or suss out the imposter don’t usually come with much of a story. However, Dubium has some semblance of a story that serves as a fun introduction to the game while also giving you a very quick rundown of what’s going on in an interesting cinematic.
It explains to you that a space station owned by Shadd Enterprise is under attack from an extremist organization, Blamane. They’re main objective is to cause chaos and discord among the Space Fronteers, turning them against each other and possibly even removing a few in their way just to get their hands on Keystones.
Keystones are a clean and nearly endless energy source that was discovered by Shadd Enterprise, so naturally, Blamane will stop at nothing to get it, even if it means infiltrating the ranks of Shadd to get it while possibly risking utter destruction. This is where the Space Frontiers come in. They’re mission is relatively simple – Destroy all the Energy Cubes on the space station. However, if even one cube is missed when the time runs out, it’s game over.
Unfortunately, this is where things can go either way. Alongside the usual matchmaking system to play with friends or strangers, there’s always 1 traitor in the group of 5 people, but the traitor is randomly assigned. For Space Fronteers, the objective is not so simple – Destroy all 4 Energy Cubes and get off the station in one piece; granted, this does mean having to spend a lot of time hunting down keycards, several parts for the Cube Destructors, any possible valuables, and still not get taken out by the traitor.
If you are lucky enough to be chosen to be the traitor, life is somewhat easier, but also just as difficult. Your objective is to collect 10 keystones, which will effectively take up every space in your limited inventory while avoiding being caught in the process. However, you’ll also need to slow down the Fronteers by sabotaging vital equipment, hiding keycards, and occasionally taking a few out while managing to get to the escape pod at the end.
To start your journey into betrayal or herodom, you’ll have to go through the basics. The first things to always keep in mind are your health and oxygen levels; running out of either means the obvious game over. While you don’t have to worry too much about health at the start of a mission, you’ll almost always start on borrowed time as the station’s oxygen supply system needs repairs. However, like with several of the odd repairs or sabotages you’ll need to do, it usually involves a mini-game of sorts that’ll leave your back exposed to any possible stealth kills.
Now that you’ve got oxygen, your next major concern is dependent on whether you’re a traitor or a Fronteer. As mentioned above, as a Fronteer, you’ll need keycards and several parts scattered around the mission area in storage lockers and corpses. Unfortunately, you can’t just ransack bodies and hope something falls out; you’ll need to examine this first, and then something will fall out… Luckily, you’re not running around blind or without directions; once you have a keycard, you’ll be shown convenient directions to where the keycard can be used, and it’s just a matter of following the directions.
Once you’ve found the keycard to unlock the Energy Cube, you’ll need to essentially hack the Energy Cube Transmitter because they’re locked to DNA samples, too, yet another random and back-exposing mini-game. From there, you’ll need to carry the cube to the Destructor along with a battery, sensor, and carbon fiber to start the destruction process.
This is where having a partner you can trust, and watch your back, as this part is also the most time-consuming and leaves you wide open to stealth attacks. You’ll need to go through another mini-game to stabilize and construct each part for the container that’ll destroy the cube. Once done, you’ll have one down and three more to go, then you can escape the station.
Unless one of your allies decides to jump ship and take the escape pod, this unfortunately leads to your ally getting away unharmed and being allowed to cash in their loot for rewards while you and the rest of the crew instantly fail. Working together as a team is vital to victory for you and the rest of the Fronteers, even if the entire process is lengthy and tedious, considering anything can go wrong and most definitely will.
However, getting to play the traitor role comes with its own set of drawbacks. Aside from only needing to find 10 keystones, finding them isn’t as easily done. Similar to Fronteer, you’ll occasionally find keystones on corpses, but you can also find keycards that will open up keystone transmitters or storage lockers. Easy, right?
If only… This is a social deduction game, after all, and doing anything suspicious will get you into a lot of trouble. Your not-so-malicious teammates might pick up on what you’re doing and start keeping a closer eye on you. A wrong move or being caught taking a chance at a stealth kill will instantly reveal you as the traitor, and you’ll have a massive target on your back.
In Dubium, you don’t start empty-handed; you’ll have your trusty Dart Gun, which does some damage or can at least slow down other players. However, you can also find other weapons in the mission area to make life easier, be it for taking down other players or hunting for the traitor to end his reign of chaos. If that’s not enough, you’ll be glad to know that there are also several different characters, each with their own unique gadget that can help you on your mission.
Each gadget brings its own fun and unique twist that can help you with survival like Zack’s gadget, Anyofus, which can disrupt any nearby Frontier comm signals and their gadgets for a short time, or Sobok’s gadget, Mulsoom, which will slow down her oxygen consumption in places filled with keystone gas at the cost of some visibility. There are several characters to choose from and they all bring a different twist to the game that will make things a lot of crazy. It’s up to you as to how you want to use them.
Naturally, in a game like Dubium, proximity voice chat is great because it can help you coordinate with your team while adding a little chaos to the mix. You can’t just expect the traitor to be honest and out themselves. You’ll have to play the deception game and possibly turn your teammates against each other through suspicion. However, if voice chat isn’t an option, you’ll also have a vast array of different pings you can use. Depending on what you’re looking at, your pings all have different messages, and this is an invaluable feature when you’re all over the place.
Unfortunately, for the Among Us fans, there isn’t an ‘Emergency Meeting’ button that can be used to vote other players out. You’ll have to fend for yourself and make your own deductions, then take a chance that may or may not make you a hero or the ultimate suspect. While some might miss that feature, the lack thereof does make things a bit more real because there is no team you can fully trust until the traitor is taken care of.
Dubium art style, between being in-game and for cinematics, both fit the overall theme of the game beautifully with its oddly wacky and retro feel. The cinematics being done in a very retro and very over-the-top cartoon style give you the first indication of how chaotic the game can become, while other cinematics showcase that Dubium is also quite serious in some areas. While in-game, the overall station details are quite well done in the sense that the game still maintains an overall light atmosphere.
On the sound design front, you’ll have your usual menu soundtrack, but the same can’t be said about when you’re on a mission. The station is typically quiet, with minor background noise from all the tech happily humming, beeping, or chirping away, with the notifications you get being made known. This contrasts in such an odd way with the visual design of the game in all the right ways because it keeps things light but also maintains the serious undertone, combined with some anxiety that you might meet your end with the traitor.
Overall, Dubium seems to have taken all the best features of the social deduction genre and made them even better with interesting gameplay and a good plot to back it up. While this game might not be for everybody, it’s well worth the time with a few friends to see who’s better at deception or has the fastest fingers on the mini-games.
