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Osmos

85%Game Brain Score
music, gameplay
grinding, stability
86% User Score Based on 1,848 reviews
Critic Score 80%Based on 1 reviews

Platforms

LinuxPCTabletMac OSAndroidPhoneiPadMobile PlatformWindowsiPhone
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About

Osmos is a single-player arcade game known for its ingenious gameplay, splendid visuals, and sensational music. Your goal is to grow by absorbing other motes while carefully propelling yourself, and you'll encounter various challenges in different levels with attractive electronic music in the background. Dynamic time-warping and procedural content add depth to this IGF-finalist game.

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Osmos screenshot
Osmos screenshot
Osmos screenshot
Osmos screenshot
Osmos screenshot
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86%
Audience ScoreBased on 1,848 reviews
music234 positive mentions
grinding12 negative mentions
  • Osmos offers a unique and calming experience with its beautiful visuals and soothing soundtrack.
  • The gameplay mechanics are simple yet engaging, requiring players to think strategically about movement and absorption.
  • The game features a variety of levels and challenges, providing a satisfying sense of progression and accomplishment.
  • The difficulty spikes significantly in the later levels, leading to frustration and a sense of unfairness.
  • Some levels rely heavily on luck, making it difficult to progress without repeated attempts.
  • The game can become repetitive, with a lack of depth in gameplay as players advance.
  • music
    416 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The music in the game is widely praised for its soothing and ambient qualities, creating a zen-like atmosphere that enhances the overall experience. Many players appreciate the tranquil soundtrack, which features tracks from notable ambient artists, and find it complements the gameplay well, although some suggest it can become repetitive over time. Overall, the soundtrack is considered a significant highlight, contributing to a relaxing yet engaging gaming experience.

    • “The game has a very tranquil ambiance to it and the soundtrack helps it to be a sort of meditative experience.”
    • “The music is a nice selection of ambient artists such as loscil and biosphere.”
    • “The ambient soundtrack is incredible and features well-known artists in the genres such as gas and loscil.”
    • “The music is boring, uninspired, and uneventful.”
    • “The music is either a highlight to feed into that zen ideal, or a nonentity, something to just be ignored throughout the game.”
    • “Fun for about 10 minutes, after that a nice demo, after that a boring music video.”
  • gameplay
    348 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay of Osmos is characterized by its simple yet engaging mechanics, where players absorb smaller entities to grow larger while navigating through various physics-based challenges. While many find the game relaxing and visually appealing, some criticize it for frustrating controls and a lack of variety in later levels, leading to a mixed reception regarding its overall enjoyment and replayability. The game effectively combines ambient soundscapes with intuitive mechanics, making it a unique experience, though opinions vary on its depth and long-term engagement.

    • “Simple but addicting gameplay.”
    • “The beautiful minimalistic world of Osmos provides a tricky yet relaxing action-puzzle experience, providing difficult physics-based gameplay alongside a wonderfully relaxing ambient soundtrack.”
    • “Osmos has a unique gameplay mechanic that is executed well and its presentation is superb but ultimately the game is just too short.”
    • “Perhaps in 2009 it was innovative gameplay - but in 2022 it's definitely not worth it.”
    • “The music and atmosphere are relaxing but the gameplay requires real focus and quickly becomes frustrating once you leave the tutorial zone.”
    • “The game doesn't really offer any new mechanics or anything that you see in the tutorial, so the game gets stale pretty quickly.”
  • graphics
    180 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The graphics of the game are widely praised for their stunning, minimalist art style that creates a mesmerizing and immersive atmosphere. Many users appreciate the calming visuals and how they complement the soothing soundtrack, contributing to a relaxing gameplay experience. While some find the graphics decent but not groundbreaking, the overall aesthetic is described as beautiful and fitting for the game's theme, enhancing the enjoyment of the gameplay.

    • “The game's presentation is stunning, with a minimalist and elegant art style that creates a mesmerizing and immersive atmosphere.”
    • “Beautiful graphics and mesmerizing soundtrack.”
    • “A simple ruleset, stunning visuals, and ethereal music give this game a really unique atmosphere that I haven’t seen anywhere else.”
    • “I love the art style, I love the mechanics, but for what this game is, I think it's severely overpriced and underdeveloped.”
    • “The serene aesthetic is merely a ploy concealing the true rage-inducing nature of this dreck...”
    • “But don't let the smooth visuals and serene atmosphere fool you, behind this game are some wicked hard and puzzling levels.”
  • atmosphere
    51 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game is praised for its beautifully immersive atmosphere, characterized by stunning visuals, a minimalist art style, and soothing ambient music that creates a zen-like experience. While the atmosphere is relaxing and inviting, the gameplay introduces a level of challenge that requires focus, making it engaging yet occasionally frustrating. Overall, players appreciate the unique blend of tranquility and challenge, making it a perfect choice for casual gaming or unwinding after a long day.

    • “The game's presentation is stunning, with a minimalist and elegant art style that creates a mesmerizing and immersive atmosphere.”
    • “A simple ruleset, stunning visuals, and ethereal music give this game a really unique atmosphere that I haven’t seen anywhere else.”
    • “This elegantly atmospheric game is great if you've had a rough day, and need to end it with something pleasant.”
    • “But don't let the smooth visuals and serene atmosphere fool you, behind this game are some wicked hard and puzzling levels.”
    • “The music and atmosphere are relaxing but the gameplay requires real focus and quickly becomes frustrating once you leave the tutorial zone.”
    • “The visuals are very suitable and quite nice indeed, the soundtrack is absolutely fitting and plays a huge part in the atmosphere that the game creates.”
  • replayability
    28 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Overall, the game offers significant replayability, particularly through its endless mode and random level generation, which keeps the experience fresh and engaging. While some players may need a strong affinity for the game to reset progress and replay levels, many find the simple mechanics and casual gameplay provide ample motivation to return. The consensus highlights that even after completing the main content, there are plenty of opportunities for enjoyable replay.

    • “A very simple mechanic that makes for an endlessly replayable experience.”
    • “After you complete the main levels in each mode, you unlock endless random levels of that type, giving the game great replayability.”
    • “Hours of relaxing gameplay plus great replay value (just press Z to randomize the level).”
    • “Should you come to master this, replayability is there, but a love of the title will be needed in order to motivate you to reset progress and go through the level set once more.”
    • “It is a creative, top-down arcade game, but it simply does not have the creativity or replay value of ten dollars.”
    • “The game's levels will only last a few hours, but each one can be randomly generated again for some replayability.”
  • story
    22 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's story is minimal, focusing primarily on the gameplay mechanics of survival and growth in a microscopic world. Players navigate through increasingly challenging levels that require strategic thinking and reflexes, but the lack of a narrative framework means the experience is more about gameplay than storytelling. While the mechanics are engaging, the absence of a compelling story may leave some players wanting more context to their actions.

    • “It’s very clean and simple, but without a story to go with the fun (not that it needs one); you just want to survive and get bigger than anything else around you.”
    • “The sentient levels, however, are a different story.”
    • “Story: /5”
    • “You know that first level of Spore where you're floating around in prehistoric goop or whatever their story is?”
  • grinding
    12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessively tedious, particularly in the later levels where trial and error, luck, and precision are required. While the initial levels are enjoyable, the repetitive nature of resetting and replaying harder levels leads to frustration and a loss of enjoyment. Overall, the grinding experience is seen as a significant drawback that detracts from the game's potential.

    • “Near the end of ambient and force paths, levels become a tedious chore of trial and error, extreme luck, and an unimaginable test of patience with almost no room for mistakes, requiring near pixel-perfect movements.”
    • “I want to like this game - I really, really do - but I can't, because I'm too busy grinding my teeth every time I have to reset a level (and trust me, you'll be doing it a lot).”
    • “I did find some of the harder levels get a bit tedious, as I ended up playing them over and over in order to solve them.”
  • emotional
    10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The emotional aspect of the game is characterized by a sense of vulnerability and sacrifice, as players must navigate the delicate balance of absorbing smaller entities while risking their own existence against larger ones. The mechanics evoke feelings of both empowerment and loss, highlighting the tension between growth and the potential for destruction. Overall, the experience is described as a poignant journey of survival and self-preservation.

    • “A little, touching, vibrant gem.”
    • “You eat things smaller than you by touching them, but to move around, you need to sacrifice bits of yourself, and shoot them in the opposite direction.”
    • “You can absorb smaller motes upon touching them and enlarge yourself, but larger motes will eat you.”
  • humor
    6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game is noted for its humorous take on the player's role as a tiny cell navigating challenges, with developers enjoying the reactions to the game's more frustrating levels. While the gameplay is brief, it offers a comedic perspective reminiscent of the early stages of "Spore."

    • “A funny little indie game where you are a cell that absorbs other cells to complete puzzles.”
    • “The developers are laughing their behinds off reading any frustrated comments on the final force levels.”
    • “Not many hours of gameplay in this, but it will give you a funny perspective of being the smallest thing on the food chain, like in Spore, if you ever played the beginning cell stage of the game.”
  • stability
    4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game generally performs well across multiple platforms, but some users have reported freezing issues when pressing the spacebar, requiring them to exit the game.

    • “Runs great on multiple platforms.”
    • “When I press space, the game freezes and I can only exit.”
  • optimization
    4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game emphasizes the importance of optimization in gameplay, encouraging players to refine their actions for better performance. Additionally, using headphones is recommended to enhance the overall experience.

    • “Wear headphones for an optimized experience.”
    • “Simplistic game that requires optimization of your actions.”
  • monetization
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game is praised for its lack of microtransactions, which enhances the overall experience, complemented by a great soundtrack.

    • “Io without microtransactions and a great soundtrack.”
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80%Critics’ scoreBased on 1 critic reviews
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