TIMEsink REVIEW: Osmos

You control a small circular organism called a mote, and as a rule, your primary goal is to grow. You do this by propelling yourself through space toward smaller motes and absorbing them. As you grow, you are then able to absorb larger and larger motes, until you "become the biggest," as the game itself so eloquently phrases it.

This basic concept seems simple enough and bears more than a passing resemblance to games like Flow, Katamari Damacy, and Art Style: Orbient. There's one very important difference, however; in order to shoot your mote forward, you have to sacrifice some of its mass. Bubbles of mote matter are left in your wake and float into the void, where it can be absorbed by other motes. In the meanwhile, your own mote shrinks by a proportionate amount, while other motes absorb each other and gain mass. This simple variant means that you must make smaller initial sacrifices to earn greater gains, all while avoiding the threat of getting sucked into a massive blob.

Consider this scenario: You are close to a mote that is just smaller than your own, and your strategy requires that you absorb it. Yet you need to change your trajectory lest it float right past. If you aren't careful, you could eject too much mass when thrusting and become smaller than your target. Then, you'll need to adjust your tactics or be sucked into the larger mote.

Last thing its a simple and beautiful game with real choices to make and will you survive.

Crawley's Timesink Rating: ***** out of 5

Osmos can be found on the iOS Appstore and Google Play.