Osmos Review

This is a very unique indie game, but the idea is rather simple and even primitive. It reminds me of Darwin’s theory – “Stronger survives, weaker dies“. It is an abstract formulation, but if you know what it is – you get the point, if not – Google is your friend. In this game it is presented in a very small scale – you have to absorb smaller molecules (technically it’s matter and you are called a “mote”) to get bigger and absorb even bigger molecules. The game however presents itself a bit differently – it is based on Newton’s theory – “For every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction“.
When I first downloaded Osmos, my first thought was “what a strange looking game”. After completing the first “introduction” levels, I started to think that Osmos is extremely easy, therefore boring. I still kept playing it and eventually I reached the harder levels, the “real” levels. I started to feel the therapeutic relaxation that Osmos has to offer, and I noticed that it is getting much harder, therefore much more interesting!
Osmos offers plenty of different levels, so you are not likely get bored. And if you will – you can randomize the level by pressing Alt+Z! Although your main goal in every level is to get huge. Sounds easy? Well it isn’t.
In the levels where you are orbiting an attractor, the orbit changes when you move. If you get too close to the attractor – you will likely get absorbed, because the closer you are – the harder it is to get away. However if you move carefully and patiently, by eating smaller molecules, you will be fine.
In other levels you will meet A.I. controlled opponents, which by the way are quite intelligent. In these levels you will have to sweat trough the relaxation and get huge before you get absorbed by the A.I.. This also means that in these levels you will have to be very quick, opposite to the slow-paced gameplay in other levels.
Despite all these awesome-looking and difficult levels, my favorite levels are the ones with anti-matter. In these levels you have to carefully navigate trough the green and red molecules and try not to absorb the anti-matter. If you do – you will shrink. Although you can cleverly push other orbs into anti-matter, so they both get smaller!
Lastly the levels where you will have to simply get huge will not appear so easy anymore. If you will make a little mistake, you will end up replaying the level after spending 20 minutes carefully absorbing other molecules.

There are some features which will make some of the levels a bit easier, as well as some things that you should pay attention to at all times. First of all, when you move, you will emit smaller parts of the matter, ergo you will be getting smaller each time you click a mouse button. What you emit will push other molecules to the opposite direction from the one that you are pushing yourself to. If you push it the wrong way – it might help an already big molecule to get even bigger, so you have to take that into account each time you click a mouse button.
As I mentioned above, there are some helping tools available. One of them is time control, which in my opinion is one of the coolest features of this game. You can manipulate time by slowing it down or making it go faster. Fastening the time will help you to complete the levels where you simply have to get huge, while slowing it down will help you to complete other levels. Of course it isn’t limited to that, but that is how I use it most of the time. Fastening time removes the impatience factor, while slowing the time down helps to do things precisely and helps you to keep up with the computer when playing against A.I. opponents.
Another helping tool is zoom. You can zoom in and out at all times to see if you should push a molecule or not.
The other two helping tools aren’t really going to help you to complete a level, more likely they are going to make your gameplay more comfortable. One of them is the ability to restart a level at any time. If you see that you will fail – you can simply restart the level! And the other one allows you to randomize any level. This is particularly useful if you are stuck – you can just randomize the level to possibly get the molecules placed in a better manner.

Conclusion

This game offers very cool manipulation of three thing – physics, time and evolution. It shows how Newton’s third law works for physics, it allows you to slow down or fasten up time for the time manipulation and it shows how the nature works – that is for the evolution part. I think it is truly amazing game, although it has one major flaw as mentioned above. Despite all this information in mind – this game is the game you should play if you want to relax. Even if you lose 10 times, it isn’t likely that you will get angry. So if you want to relax and game – this is a good choice for you!

Some screenshots I took while playing this game

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