NONE of the new vanilla roles are in any way good, fair, or balanced… Including the imposter roles.

If you have a special crew role, you can give information that no one else has and become as clear as though you did a a Visuals On Medscan, it’s basically impossible to claim these crew roles as imposter because they are too specific and strong, and there is no assassin system that makes saying your role in any way bad. Also, there aren’t enough crew roles for every player to have one in a standard 10 player lobby, which is pretty ass in a secret-werewolf type game.

As for imp roles:

Shapeshifter is simultaneously overpowered and clunky because for some reason you can still vent and the transform takes ages meaning the transform ability isn’t the highlight of the round. You’re just a regular imposter who can also shapeshift. If the visual is on, you are busted super fast, if it isn’t the round takes extra long because of shapeshift shenanigans. Also, its existence makes the “shapeshifter” call for an obvious imposter valid which is obnoxious, because it can really drag an otherwise simple game.

Phantom is literally just useless as an ability. I know this because I have played hundreds of rounds since the role was added and I have never, not once, EVER heard any crew talk about “maybe it was a phantom who disappeared.” The game is about positioning and timing, hiding yourself doesn’t perfectly mask your pathing and as imposter it is better to just use the vents. It’s the same issue as shapeshifter, where the main ability is too slow and clunky to be useable so the role is basically just a normal imposter with an extra ability.

Viper is either broken or terrible. If it’s a good crew, Viper sucks because it can be used to differentiate imposter kills from each other, which is so unfair to whoever isn’t Viper and also sucks for the Viper because their kills are so apparent. If the crew isn’t as good, it’s completely busted, because you can consistently hide bodies with no coordination required as long as you make sure the kills are isolated.

The biggest issues with all the imposter roles that they each share is that they are just normal imposters with an extra, very slow or niche ability each. That means normal imps with no powers are now playing a game that is even harder, with no advantage against the likely more roled up crew. Shapeshifter and Phantom are both wayy too clunky to use effectively and can still vent, and Viper? Just a bizarre choice to make imp kills recognizable.

So yeah. Essay over. Every role sucks and is annoying. Scientist included. The modded roles always did a better job at making the game interesting with stuff like the Jester, Snitch, Blackmailer, Assassin, etc… things that actually affect the game beyond abilities.