Osmos Review

Osmos is a truly unique video game that has surprisingly engaging and entertaining game play. You control a small circular organism called a Mote. Your goal is to grow by swallowing smaller Motes as you move around the screen. You propel your Mote through space towards other Motes and absorb them. The bigger you grow the bigger motes you can swallow, until eventually you're the biggest, baddest Mote of them all.

Osmos starts out visually fun but eventually the screens and atmospheres become mundane. They need to add more visual variety for this video game to keep you visually engaged longer in the game play. The environments eventually start to look all the same the longer you play and become visually boring near the end.

The most challenging levels of Osmos take place later in the adventure. These levels are extremely challenging but they are a little more energetic than the first levels and don't match the peaceful ambience of the game play.

Osmos has a very engaging graphical presentation that entertains in the beginning of the adventure but near the end your eyes will be grateful for the break. The colors are bright, crisp and clean but the color palette appears to be missing a few shades that would have added to the visual variety. The animations of your Mote are smooth, clean and satisfying to watch as you move around and swallow smaller Motes. This is a dynamic visual environment that keeps your attention and requires you to concentrate on the action to succeed.

The relaxing ambient sound track included with Osmos is beautifully combined with the action occurring on the screen. The softer and slower songs play during the slower parts of the game play but when the action picks up the energy and pace of the music increases to keep you in the action.

Osmos is similar to video games like Flow, Katamari Damacy, and Art Style Orbient. The main difference in the game play is that in this adventure your Mote will loose mass as it moves around. Mass bubbles are left in your wake as you move to intercept smaller Motes, which decreases the size of your Mote. You only swallow smaller Motes, so you have to be careful that the amount of mass you loose traveling to intercept your intended target doesn't make you smaller than your target. By the time you get to your target you could be smaller than your target, which means you'll be swallowed instead. They also added Attractor Motes which you have to avoid or be swallowed. The levels with multiple Attractor Motes are the most difficult levels and beating these levels is a difficult task. You can also shrink Motes down to size by pushing anti-matter blobs into them using your ejected mass bubbles. In addition, you can even slow down the flow of time as you play. Speed up time or slow it down to a speed that allows you to enjoy the experience. This is a nice feature that really increases the playability of this video game for casual gamers.

Osmos is one of the best constructed puzzle video games I have played. The production values are excellent and the game play entertains you for hours on end. This video game is suitable for all ages and types of gamers. You do need patience to play this video game but gamers who enjoy this kind of fun will find Osmos to be an outstanding puzzle game.