Review: Death Note Killer Within Starts Investigations Among Us

The concept behind Death Note Killer Within is great, given it uses everything we know about the manga and anime and adapts it into an Among Us style social deduction game. It works reasonably well, and I never had issues finding a match. It even plays smoothly. However, the details get in the way, ranging from things like being forced to silently watch your chalk outline if you’re killed or seeing a match immediately end if one person leaves or is disconnected due to other reasons.

As in games like Among Us, Death Note Killer Within hinges on everyone doing their best with the random roles they are given. Kira (Light Yagami) and Kira Follower (who looks like Misa Amane) want to eliminate criminals, L’s Investigators, and L. So Kira holds the Death Note, uses it to write people’s names in it after either getting their IDs or getting IDs from the Kira Follower, and build up their progress bar. The Kira Follower can steal IDs for Kira or hold the Death Note so if one of them are arrested, the Death Note and IDs aren’t on them. Both can also cause distractions to “force” L and L agents to areas of the map. The Kira forces win if L is killed or their gauge fills. 

Meanwhile, L and the Investigators just need to investigate the situation and find Kira. Like Among Us, this means essentially doing sorts of tasks in Death Note Killer Within by doing things like working together when L commands it and talking to NPCs to find out if Kira acted in an area. Of course, during meetings you need to discuss and determine if someone should be voted out for suspicious behavior and perhaps even arresting someone. Meanwhile, L gains even more power, as he can use cameras to watch the scene, force joint investigations, and create decoys to protect investigators.

It works as a gameplay loop, though a lot is being thrown at you at once and it can be complicated. It involves people paying attention, investigating, and looking for opportunities to catch people off guard. Knowing there are always only two Kira individuals in play can make it more difficult in larger groups, since they can be more easily hidden. Also, given how involved roles are, it can feel more complicated than Among Us at times. Though honestly, I do prefer the minigames there to the investigation execution here. Among Us also handles death better, as dying in Death Note Killer Within means you just are forced to sit and stare at the chalk outline of your dead body until the game ends and can’t follow anyone else around. 

The thing is, the actual gameplay isn’t really what gets in the way of enjoying Death Note Killer Within. It is some issues that can keep it from being playable. A recurring problem I experienced in Death Note Killer Within is that it is far too easy for a game to abruptly end. If one person leaves, the whole match is over. You need to completely restart and hope that the next folks showing up are more reliable. Even when playing with friends, it became a problem due to randoms also joining. It’s the most frustrating thing. I get if it was Kira or L dropping out, it would be a problem. However in one match this happened I was L and it occurred. In another, after consulting with people I knew who were in that round, the people who were Kira, Kira Follower, and L were all still around. 

Though, this might not be because someone is maliciously leaving the game. I noticed this was a more evident problem when I ticked the box allowing crossplay. When that was turned off and I was playing with only PC players, it was a little better. I still ended up getting kicked out of about 50% of games, but it could have been worse.

I would also say that the initial community for Death Note Killer Within isn’t ideal. You can opt for a game with no chat. However, it is necessary to help accomplish goals. With it on, a match with random players can feel stressful at best and deeply unpleasant at worst. In one match, I ran into some folks just screaming at everyone. In another case, someone was a jerk to me because they realized I was a woman once I started talking. Though mostly, the reaction to my being a woman was to possibly being hit on? But also, it’s difficult to accomplish things and get things done when everyone is shouting and off-topic when proximity chat kicks in or you head into a meeting. This isn’t on Grounding or Bandai Namco and the companies even brought up the reporting function as a means of calling attention to people behaving inappropriately or cheating, but sometimes it feels like a losing battle.

Death Note Killer Within is better than I expected it to be, but is also a game where your experience hinges on other people’s behavior and actually getting to complete a match. If you are only playing with people you know, everyone is on a PC, and you all are committed, it can be a lot of fun! If you aren’t, then good luck! My enjoyment tanked pretty severely once random players got involved in my matches, and I suspect it isn’t an isolated issue. If that problem gets fixed and we see more reaction to reports about bad behavior, I think it could be a solid 6/10. But because it becomes so difficult to actually finish a round, it might be better to wait for a patch. 

Death Note Killer Within is available on the PS4, PS5, and PC.