Osmos: Eat Or Be Eaten

[scotth266]

Ah, Christmas. What a joyous time of year: especially when it comes to holiday deals. But instead of going to my local mall, Walmart, or electronics store to buy my games this year, I decided to stay home, spare myself the yearly trampling at the checkout aisles, and buy most of my games off of Amazon and Steam. One of the games I grabbed over the holiday season was Hemisphere Games' Osmos.


Osmos is a game all about physics, mass, and Snoop Dog [http://new.music.yahoo.com/snoop-dogg/tracks/strong-will-eat-the-weak--2032757] the food chain. The player stars as a tiny, white blob. Your objective is to absorb other blobs floating in the ether by running into them. However, in order to jettison yourself around the screen you must expel bits of yourself: and if you wind up being smaller than the blobs you run into, you get sucked up instead. Osmos uses color to show the player which blobs you should go after: those which are too big to absorb are darkly colored, while lightly-colored/clear ones are acceptable targets. The other blobs will also interact with each other, absorbing and being absorbed in turn. In order to keep things from getting too hectic or too slow, the game also has a mechanic that allows you to change the speed at which time passes; but you'll rarely (if ever) use it, to the point where you forget it was even there in the first place.

The visuals and audio of Osmos are terrifically relaxing. The minimalist electronica soundtrack, coupled with the pretty (if simplistic) graphics, works well at drawing the player into the experience. Unfortunately, this sense of immersion is cut short when the difficulty curve comes into play: specifically, when it switches from "gentle slopes" to "sharp peaks." While the early stages are fairly easy, from midway on playing Osmos turns into an exercise in frustration: the odds are stacked against you in every way, shape, and form to the point where you want to give up the moment you start the level. The game does include a level randomizer that (in theory) would've made this a non-issue. However, because the randomizer works by a process that makes the Expert AI Director from Left 4 Dead seem BENEVOLENT, it only adds to the problem. Case in point:

OH GODDAMNIT-​

When faced with such suck-tacular odds, it quickly becomes hard for the player to maintain an upbeat spirit... and when you consider that the rest of the game seems to be trying to calm you down, it strikes me as odd that the its difficulty level is so focused on driving you mad.

Osmos doesn't have a traditional sense of progression: instead of being linear, the game has three seperate "trees" that the player can progress along. The Force Tree has you playing with various physics objects, the Life Tree pits you against other (intelligent) blobs, and the Ambient Tree forces you to use your wits to escape dangerous situations. While this may sound like it involves a nauseating amount of repetition, the diversity of the levels is actually pretty decent. However, there IS a big problem with Osmos' levels: there's just not enough of them. This is a game that, were it not for the obnoxious antics of the randomizer, would be completable in under two hours. A total lack of story makes Osmos' absence of length even more obvious: there's no real reward for playing the game through to the end other than self-satisfaction (and a few Steam achievements.)

All you really wind up getting for your money spent on Osmos is a short, (mostly) cathartic puzzle game. I honestly can't recommend it for the original price ($10 American) but if you happen to notice it on sale, Osmos is worth a shot. If nothing else, you can use the earlier levels as the video game equivalent of a squeeze toy.

Spoiler: Editor's Notes

[HEADING=3]Editor's Notes:[/HEADING]

I had originally planned to submit this in the Indie Review competition, but it was two hundred words too short! IRONY!!! Ah well. There will be other competitions, I'm sure.

This is my first review to use alt text for images! If you don't know what I'm talking about, mouse over that picture there for a moment.

The next review will definitely be the freeware indie game, Osu! After that, I might try my hand at reviewing an anime or two. I recently watched Heroic Age, so maybe that? All I know is that I can't really review any of my 360 games because it's bricked.

Spoiler: Like this? Here's some of my other stuff to distract you while I write some more.

Spoiler: Video Game Reviews:

F.E.A.R [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.157200]
Batman: Arkham Asylum [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.145031]
Space Seige [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.143924]
Jade Empire [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.119321]
Mega Man 9 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.119167]
Deja Vu [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.117801]
Braid [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.110777]
Max Payne [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.110027#1897580]
Indigo Prophecy [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.108202#1817369]
WarCraft 3 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.107685]
Fallout 3 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.105151#1683250]
Mirror's Edge [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.102291#1586312]

Spoiler: Manga Mashups:

Manga Mashup #4: To-Love-Ru Isn't Quite True Love. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.135795]
Manga Mashup #3: Dance of the Loli. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.132642]
Manga Mashup #2: Prepared to be Schooled. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.115803]
Manga Mashup #1: Attack of the A's [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.111313]

Spoiler: Movie Reviews.

James Cameron's Avatar [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.168948-When-Blue-People-Wage-WAAAAAGH-Avatar]

 

[Pimppeter2]

I couldn't agree with you more. The level randomization was just plain silly on their part, and while it takes the frustration out of having to replay the same exact level over and over again, its much worse when your stuck on one level that you just can't beat because you don't know what to expect. It angers me because there is no way to master a level to get through it, you just keep pounding at it till you get a lucky turn. Anyways I'm rambling. Good work.

 

[Radeonx]

I bought it for $2 during the Christmas sale, and was somewhat disappointed due to the points you made. I beat it very quickly, but didn't particularly enjoy it as much as I could have if they had changed some things.

 

[DeadpanLunatic]

I have removed my words from this site.

 

[Internet Kraken]

Ah Osmos. I really wanted to like this game. The immersion was just fantastic. Shame it always had to be ruined by the constant deaths. The game easily become frustrating. Though I find it amusing that I also used the ambient impasse levels in my review [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.161590-Osmos-Reveiw] to represent the games absurd difficulty, even though those were actually my favorite levels.

I disagree on your opinion of the time mechanic though. I found it to be very useful in many situations. Other than that, I mostly agree with your review. It's a bit short, but then again I suppose there isn't much to say about Osmos due to it's minimalistic gameplay and complete lack of a story.

 

[scotth266]

I feel obliged to point out that you could have still entered the indie game review contest with this.

I personally felt that this review was too short to be considered for submission.

Ah Osmos. I really wanted to like this game. The immersion was just fantastic. Shame it always had to be ruined by the constant deaths. The game easily become frustrating. Though I find it amusing that I also used the ambient impasse levels in my review [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.161590-Osmos-Reveiw] to represent the games absurd difficulty, even though those were actually my favorite levels.

Personally, I preferred the Life tree. Chasing down the various blobs in the interacting ecosystem felt like a more challenging version of the Cell Stage in Spore, and it didn't get uncomfortably difficult. The Ambient Tree and Force Tree though... those gave me no end of troubles.

 

[NeutralDrow]

That sounds like a more advanced version of several flash games I play to relax. This strikes me as a good thing. I'll look this up...

 

[Internet Kraken]

Ah Osmos. I really wanted to like this game. The immersion was just fantastic. Shame it always had to be ruined by the constant deaths. The game easily become frustrating. Though I find it amusing that I also used the ambient impasse levels in my review [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.161590-Osmos-Reveiw] to represent the games absurd difficulty, even though those were actually my favorite levels.

Personally, I preferred the Life tree. Chasing down the various blobs in the interacting ecosystem felt like a more challenging version of the Cell Stage in Spore, and it didn't get uncomfortably difficult. The Ambient Tree and Force Tree though... those gave me no end of troubles.

Well the life stages bothered me because of the randomizer. It would sometimes spawn you right next to a much larger cell. I found that I could only beat those levels by getting lucky.
However, I really liked the impasse levels in the ambient tree for one reason; immersion. You weren't constantly being killed in those levels. You could take your time to figure out what to do and allow yourself to become fully immersed into the experience.

That sounds like a more advanced version of several flash games I play to relax. This strikes me as a good thing. I'll look this up...

The problem is that it quickly goes from relaxing to frustrating.

 

[NeutralDrow]

That sounds like a more advanced version of several flash games I play to relax. This strikes me as a good thing. I'll look this up...

The problem is that it quickly goes from relaxing to frustrating.

Something I've learned from years of gaming is that, for me, there's occasionally no difference between the two. That said, I'll take the warning into consideration and not let my guard down...