Osmos - Review

Life in the world of Osmos is brutal; it’s kill or be killed. There, only the strongest survive. But this isn’t the same level of conflict that you’ll find hanging around the top of the recent Christmas charts, filled with rough-neck marines calling in missile strikes. No, this is warfare on an infinitesimally smaller level.

Those of you who have now had their interest piqued with the mentions of guns and soldiers will hopefully stay for the rest of the article, not put off by the fact that Osmos actually takes place within the confines of a Petri dish rather than any theatre of modern combat. In an environment teeming with life, the aim is to take your own tiny single-celled organism, or “mote”, and absorb those smaller than yourself until you grow to become the largest mote in the dish, all the time being careful not to be absorbed yourself. Picture Katamari Damacy, but under a microscope.

Conforming to the theory that “every reaction has an equal and opposite reaction”, manoeuvring your mote is achieved by emitting tiny portions of your own mass. Casting these parts of yourself away will not only move you in the opposite direction but also see you shrink slightly. A balance must then be struck between speed and size; too much thrust to chase down your quarry and you might just find yourself shedding too much mass and actually being consumed yourself.

Navigating your mote through the Petri dish, an environment akin to deep space, is very reminiscent of games like Asteroid and Solar Jetman. Tiny amounts of thrust can be used to coast slowly across the void, and the many minor course corrections places you more in the mindset of an astronavigation specialist rather than an amoeba.

As with Keita Takahashi’s psychedelic ball roller, it is the early stages of Osmos that prove most taxing. Your diminutive forms means that targets need to be picked carefully, and the act of reaching them with the right mass is as much a challenge as avoiding the larger motes that seem omnipresent. Break the back of the challenge however and your mote will be large enough to see the game morph from an exercise in precision manoeuvring to an all the more relaxed process. There comes a time in every successful run where, unless something catastrophic presents itself, you can coast through without fear, consuming all the other motes in the stage.

The score accompanying the game suits itself best to these moments. Ambient and soothing, it is not only a highlight but it fits perfectly with the imagery of motes drifting lazily through an environment that is comparable to both the black of space and the muffled depths of the ocean. It’s the kind of calming environment that yoga teachers might ask you to imagine when clearing your mind, with the ambience only ever disturbed by motes emitting squelches as they collide.

For those wishing for more than an interactive visualiser for their chill-out tunes, developers Hemisphere Games have included two further modes. Force mode presents special Attractor motes which create a gravitational force that causes all other motes to swirl around them as if they were planets circling a sun. Sentient levels see certain motes gain independent thought and either attempt to avoid your advances or, conversely, actively pursue you. The former proves an interesting twist on the standard formula whilst the latter can prove frustrating with dexterity at which the AI can navigate their motes, but all is possible with practise.

When examined obtusely, Osmos can appear to be a simple puzzle game with minimalist features and looks. Sitting almost alongside Rez, however, what players will find is a package that marries gameplay, sound and visuals in such a manner that at times it turns into something more than a game; it becomes an experience. Scoff if you may at that rather pretentious statement but subtly crafted level design throughout still keeps Osmos as a prime example of PC puzzle gaming. Be sure to have this on hand for your next bad day at the office.

8 /10

Osmos is available through Games For Windows, Steam and from Hemisphere’s own website.

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