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Osmos is a puzzle video game developed by Hemisphere Games for Microsoft Windows. It is available through Steam for $10 USD or £6.99 GBP. The aim of the game is to propel yourself, a single-celled organism (Mote), into other smaller motes to absorb them. Colliding with a mote larger than yourself will result in being absorbed yourself, resulting in a game over. Changing course is done by expelling mass. Due to conservation of momentum, this results in the player's mote moving away from the expelled mass, but also in the own mote shrinking.
There are three different "zones" of levels in Osmos: In the sentient levels, the goal is to prevail over active motes of various types that hunt and absorb other motes, including the player. Hunting them typically involves absorbing as many inactive motes as possible before chasing down the active ones with the extra mass one has gained. In the ambient levels, the player's mote typically floats in a large area surrounded by inactive motes, and must become the largest or simply very large. Variations on this theme involve, for instance, starting the game as a very small mote surrounded by lots of larger, fast moving motes, or the presence of "antimatter" motes which shrink normal motes during collision no matter which one was originally bigger, or starting the game stuck in a huge, densely packed area with a large number of other motes without much space to move about and having to nudge other motes out of the way by ejecting mass at them. In the force levels, special motes (Attractors) influence other motes with a force similar to gravitation. The player has to take into account orbital physics when planning movement in order to save mass when changing course. In these levels, the player is assisted by the game with a trajectory plotting tool that shows the course the mote will take up to a short time in the future. Force levels can be complicated in various ways, including level types involving attractors orbiting other attractors or attractors repelling each other and bouncing randomly around an area full of motes.
There are three different "zones" of levels in Osmos: In the sentient levels, the goal is to prevail over active motes of various types that hunt and absorb other motes, including the player. Hunting them typically involves absorbing as many inactive motes as possible before chasing down the active ones with the extra mass one has gained. In the ambient levels, the player's mote typically floats in a large area surrounded by inactive motes, and must become the largest or simply very large. Variations on this theme involve, for instance, starting the game as a very small mote surrounded by lots of larger, fast moving motes, or the presence of "antimatter" motes which shrink normal motes during collision no matter which one was originally bigger, or starting the game stuck in a huge, densely packed area with a large number of other motes without much space to move about and having to nudge other motes out of the way by ejecting mass at them. In the force levels, special motes (Attractors) influence other motes with a force similar to gravitation. The player has to take into account orbital physics when planning movement in order to save mass when changing course. In these levels, the player is assisted by the game with a trajectory plotting tool that shows the course the mote will take up to a short time in the future. Force levels can be complicated in various ways, including level types involving attractors orbiting other attractors or attractors repelling each other and bouncing randomly around an area full of motes.
Here is a game after my own heart. It takes the most basic of physical objects, a ball, and with a few physics principals, some random procedurally-generated levels, and a set of basic player controls, creates a world of beauty, complexity, and fun. An incredible game, to be sure.
I have to warn you, though. The first few levels are warm and fun, but prepare to lose a portion of your sanity towards the ends of each branch path. Not the hardest stuff I've ever played, sure, but you will definitely have to put your brain, reflexes, and patience (Epicycles 3... *shudder*) to work. Really fun stuff if you're up for it, though. Let me know how many achievements you manage to get.
Protip: Get good at adjusting time (middle scroll wheel) when you need to delicately maneuver your Mote. It'll be sorta like a gear shift for your level of control.
Post has been edited 3 time(s), last time on Dec 14 2009, 11:11 pm by Tuxedo-Templar.
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