Osmos (Mac, iOS, Linux, Windows)
On one hand, Hemisphere Games’ Osmos is the most relaxing game I’ve played in ages. It’s ambient soundtrack and simple absorb-smaller-entities-to-grow gameplay combine to make a perfect one-minute or one-hour playing experience. In fact, it’s one of those games you boot it up, blink, and suddenly think, “crud, I’ve been sitting here for how long?” Not in the “uh, six years, dude” World of Warcraft sense, but in the “40 minutes – but didn’t is feel like 5?” sense. But to write this game off as casual and ambient alone would betray the shaky nerves Osmos has left me with right now. It also has a number of less well-meaning levels that will take practice, time, and patience to complete, giving all sorts of gamers something to enjoy.
Osmos comes with an array of game types, from simple “become the biggest” levels to “survival of the fittest,” in which you compete against AI-controlled characters vying for the same goal (dominance). However, gameplay at every stage is pretty much the same on a basic level. You propel your single-celled character, called a “mote,” through a low-friction environment by ejecting your own mass behind you, shrinking bit by bit as you expel. By clashing with smaller motes, you absorb their mass and become larger, and larger motes steal your mass when rubbing against you.
The title screen simultaneously functions as a level select screen, allowing you to play past levels or progress to new stages. After finishing the first few tutorial stages, the game map splits three ways. You can play the new levels in any order, and each one offers a different play style. This is when Osmos gets tougher, and you’ll start losing right away. But not to worry – developers Eddy Boxerman and Dave Burke anticipated these potential woes for casual gamers and added a level randomizer function, allowing you to play old stages with new layouts at any time. So if you don’t want to get hardcore with Osmos yet, you don’t have to.
I only regret that I haven’t had a chance to play this on an iPad. The control scheme on a track pad is sort of awkward, especially on Mac pads that don’t have any buttons. I think non-iOS Osmos iterations need to allow players to substitute a keyboard button for left click. Flight Control did it, and it works wonderfully.
