Osmos – Review

Our rating:

By: Hemisphere Games

Version #: 1.6.3

Date Released: 2010-08-25

Developer:

Price: 4.99

User Rating:

Loading...

Download App

The iPhone platform, with its integrated app store and low barrier to entry development program, can be a boon for independent game developers. Many small or one man operations have found great success creating fantastic games that break the mold and offer something gamers are not use to. It reminds me of the halcyon days of shareware/freeware when DOS and Apple games where written by people in their homes and became huge hits by word of mouth. Osmos, by Hemisphere Games, certainly looks to be one of those underground hits with its particular blend of contemplative game play that mixes arcade action with puzzle solving to give a new spin on familiar game mechanics.

The question is: can Osmos really capture the action loving gamers with such a slow paced game? Lets take a look at the game to see what makes this game of cellular life and death such a provocative experience.

Osmos’s recipe is one part space physics and two parts micro biology. Now don’t let that those words scare you into thinking you are stepping into your high school science class. In Osmos you control a single cell organism they call a Mote. Your mote must survive by absorbing smaller motes around you. This absorption causes your mote to increase in size. This is all fine and good, but there are larger motes that are also absorbing smaller motes and one of those might be you if you are not careful.

To make things even worse, moving your mote around the screen requires you to fire off a tiny piece of yourself. This is fine for slow careful movements, but if you become to aggressive with your control of your mote, you will find yourself shrinking fast. This is mainly why Osmos is such a slow paced game. Careful movements are almost always the more prudent move, while hasty actions will land you on a collision course with a larger mote.

Beyond these basics, Osmos throws a variety of different motes your way, which gives you eight different game types to add variety. Some of these are sentient and will either run or chase your. Others have their own gravity and must be used to catapult yourself across the level. All of this is wrapped in ambient sounds that, as the opening screen states, sound "best with headphones."

My general impression of this game reminds me a lot of games like Zen Bound, where half the fun is the experience of the game as much as playing it. The campaign is very short and serves mainly as a primmer for playing the arcade modes, which are randomized each time you play them. It would love to see more game types in time, but the game as is ranks among the best in quality and style. Do yourself a favor. Sit down in a quiet room, put your headphones on, and prepare yourself to be absorbed into the world of Osmos.