Review Date: Feb 24, 2010
Developer: Hemisphere Games
Price: $10 (Publisher's Site)
Platform: Windows & Mac
Genre: Puzzle
Score: 4/5
Osmos is a game about choices as much as it is a physics-based puzzle game. In it, you control a sphere with the ability to absorb any smaller spheres you come into contact with, while larger ones will absorb you. But propelling yourself forward means that your sphere will slowly decrease in size, so the game becomes a constant battle between deciding whether or not to conserve your size or risk it all to go after a larger sphere that will help you grow bigger faster.
Become The Biggest
The controls in the game are dead simple. Moving requires no buttons, instead you only use the mouse to control the direction of your floating sphere. Clicking around it will cause it to propel forward in that direction, while holding down the left mouse button will give it a big burst of speed. But the longer you attempt to propel yourself forward, the more mass your sphere will shed. It's a classic risk/reward scenario and it forces you to really think about every move you make. You can also zoom in and out or slow down time, which can make some of the trickier situations much easier.
The game is deliberately slow-paced and all of the spheres in the game move in a realistic fashion. Eventually you'll settle into the game's flow, utilizing your momentum to successfully grow and expand your sphere. In Osmos, being smart is much more important than being aggressive.
Most of the time the goal is to become the biggest sphere in the stage. You start out small, and progressively grow as you absorb other spheres. These spheres will also absorb one another, so getting off to a good start is important. Sometimes the game throws twists at you: you're tasked with absorbing a specific, very aggressive sphere, for instance; or you're sucked into a large sphere's gravitational pull; or you have to deal with spheres with specific attributes, such as ones that either attract or repel others. While your goal is essentially the same in each stage, the game does an excellent job of adding much needed variety.
Relax Then Enrage
It also creates an incredible atmosphere. Since the gameplay is often quite passive, rewarding you for not taking action in many cases, it's very fitting that the visual and audio components are likewise relaxing. The visual style has a very organic feel, as it often looks as though you're looking at cells moving beneath the lens of a microscope. The colors are dark and subdued and the visuals also make the gameplay much more simplified: you don't have to guess which spheres are bigger or smaller than you, you can simply tell by their color.
Similarly, the soundtrack is an integral part of the overall experience. The various songs are almost hypnotic and are important for getting you into the Zen-like state necessary for really succeeding at the game.
But while the game's style goes a long way towards making you feel relaxed, the difficulty level often works contrary to this. Some of the later stages can be incredibly difficult and you'll likely see yourself fail stages numerous times in succession. The game does allow you the option to remix some of the stages if you're stuck, which can be somewhat of a help, and there are multiple paths you can take through the game so you're never left with the option of playing only one particular level. But even with these conceits there are more than enough frustrating moments in Osmos.
The Bottom Line
And though these moments are fairly commonplace, they don't do much to detract from the overall experience. Osmos is an absorbing game, from its unique and clever physics-based play mechanics to its hypnotic visuals and sound. It's truly a rare game: as likely to cause you to boil with frustration as it is to lull you into a trance.