The small team at Hemisphere has crafted an alluring, captivating experience that is a nice change of pace from the frantic action videogames often provide. Looks like I've got some new artists to research. Osmos credits the artist each time a new track begins, but I (an electronic music enthusiast) didn't recognize the names. The soundtrack is full of some of the best videogame music I've heard recently. It could be described as minimal, but that just means there isn't anything extraneous here. The primordial ooze that makes up Osmos is brilliant to look at, full of glowing orbs lazily floating amidst the soup. Your mouse wheel will zoom in and out to provide a good lay of the land, and tapping the right mouse button will slow down time (which also produces a cool pitch bend effect in the music). You have a couple tools in your arsenal that may make things easier. Osmos starts you out at a Biology 101 level, but later stages can definitely get hectic as more aggressive motes are introduced and environmental hazards get in the way of evolution. So there is a bit of a race to eat as much as you can right when a level begins and food is plentiful. Although there is no time limit, you are competing against all the other organisms in each stage, and they're all trying to gobble up everything in sight. In an instant you can go from being the predator to the prey, and the mote you had your eye on may suddenly be gorging itself on your mass. That right there creates terrific conflict for the player. The real trick is that in order to propel yourself you must expel matter and sacrifice a little girth. You can swim, but it's a slow and awkward affair, creating much of the game's challenge. Any motes smaller than you can be consumed, but anything bigger will consider you a snack.
Your goal in each stage is to become the big fish in the pond.
I am more than happy to accept the invitation, as this is a beautiful, absorbing experience. Osmos invites you to relax, grow your amoeba-like mote, and enjoy the atmospheric electronica. You won't find any twitchy shooting mechanics, frantic timed events, or macho posturing heavy metal here. It's a term Hemisphere Games' Eddy Boxerman uses to describe slower-paced games like flOw, Crayon Physics, and his own Osmos.
"Ambient games" might not yet be a prominent videogame genre, but more and more of these tranquilizing experiences are popping up on the indie scene.
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