Osmos Review

No, it's not a ovary simulator...

Ever wonder what it’s like being trapped in a zero gravity atmosphere, lacking in hope and with only the tiniest amount of propulsion between you and certain death?  Well, that’s not the “official” summary of Hemisphere Games’ puzzler Osmos, but that’s certainly how it felt to me during certain points of the game.

Osmos is a game based on physics and, possibly more importantly, mass.  Players take control of a mote, a sort of amorphous orb, that you can propel around the game space by ejecting small amounts of it’s mass.  The objective is always to become the biggest mote in the play field, which you can achieve by absorbing motes smaller than yourself.  If you come into contact with a mote larger than yours, it absorbs you and if you can’t get away in time it’s game over.  In this sense, Osmos could almost be described as an asset management challenge.  Except of course it’s too damn good looking.

Sounds simple?  It is … or at least the concept is.  I was somehow lulled into a false sense of security by the games early levels, which are a relaxed affair, which led me to become unpleasantly surprised when the game cranks up the difficulty level to 11 in the higher stages.  What begins as a very paced, quite elegant game in it’s beginnings, quickly managed to become a fast-paced cuss fest as soon as I’d advanced far enough.

Don't listen to your traffic light conditioning on this one

This is because the game has three different styles of play.  The one they use to lure everyone in is called Ambient, and this is the mode that just has the core mechanics at work.  Make your way around the play area, absorbing smaller motes and staying out of the way of the larger ones.  Ambient is what makes the game sound attractive to begin with, because it really is a challenging yet forgiving puzzle, unique each time, that is good fun to solve.

Where things start to get out of control, however, is Osmos‘ two other modes.  Force mode brings gravitational pull into the equation, setting every single mote in the play area swirling.  Ejecting mass can alter the orbital path (always helpfully displayed on screen) you follow around the single, or sometimes multiple, gravitational motes.  However, altering your orbit too drastically can send you spinning off into the automatic death of the level’s border, or accidentally plunging orb-first into the mote you’re orbiting.  Osmos then throws multi-directional orbits into the mix, and finally (in the level you’ll need the patience of twelve saints to complete) removes all but a precious few consumable motes from the field, leaving you in ultra-conservative mode when it comes to propulsion.  Eject too much mass and you won’t be big enough to absorb.  Eject it ever so slightly in the wrong direction and you’ll never come into contact with your target.

The big ominous green one is the Ferax

The whole affair reminded me of the Apollo 13 film, except I don’t have Tom Hanks’ deft touch when it comes to finding the optimal trajectory.

Finally there’s survival mode, which is as close as you’ll come to a speed match in Osmos.  Survival mode sets you against other AI controlled motes, that move around the map in the same fashion you do.  Get too close smaller than them and they’ll take chase.  Attempt to absorb them yourself and they’ll flee all over the map.  This doesn’t get extremely frustrating until the final levels, where you’re asked to absorb a rival mote called the “Ferax”, which moves dangerously fast and will seemingly zero in on you the moment it thinks it’s strong enough.

While most of the game is quite soothing to the player, the higher level challenges present such a difficulty spike that it’s difficult to know what’s gone wrong at the time.  It also seems that in the more difficult sections, you’ll be learning by unending restarts, which was definitely the case with me in the top tier Force levels.  It’s also quite easy to make one mistake and doom yourself too, which means that it’s back to the beginning to build up your preciously gained mass all over again.

Oh. Right.

Granted, Osmos does attempt to ease a little of that tension by allowing the control of time.  Players can slow time to allow themselves maneuverability, or speed up time if the level requires more of a coasting approach.  At the beginning of a level, it’s often best to have the time slowed to give yourself the greatest chance of absorbing smaller motes, but once you reach a large enough size you can usually speed time up to maximum and allow your mote to simply float and bounce it’s way around the play area, absently steam-rolling all opposition.

Visually the game is quite striking.  The levels appear like a magnified slide that’s under examination in outer space.  Motes softly flow, bounce and absorb into one another effortlessly, and it’s not hard to see why many people consider it one of the most relaxing games of modern times.  The game’s music enhances this effect, providing soft, ambient electronica that seems to focus you and lullaby you at the same time.

I suppose it’s inevitable that a puzzle game reaches frustration point.  The only thing that makes it such a stand-out point with Osmos is it’s otherwise quite soothing setting.  I think I could quite easily recommend this game to nearly any caste of gamer, but I’d definitely have the good manners to warn them in advance that it’s not always as friendly as it looks.

The Verdict:

Pros: Gorgeous ambience. Visual and audio works in concert to present an almost medatative experience.  Simple, easy to learn gameplay.

Cons: Unexpected jumps in difficulty will come as a rude surprise to many players.  The game asks you to learn from your mistakes, but doesn’t offer much in the way of help to fix them.

Overall: Osmos is an original, enjoyable puzzle game, and without a doubt a great value purchase.  Don’t let my complaints about difficulty put you off trying the game yourself, because you’d certainly be missing out.  It’s 3.5 out of 5 from me.

You can pick up a copy of Osmos from Hemisphere Games, or via Steam.