Osmos (PC) review "Hemisphere Games put some real thought into this game. They didn't want you walking out thinking it was a loveless affair. Each new situation adds to the addiction and stimulates your gray matter and your gall, putting together a solid plan on the fly and having the brass put it into effect, even when it seems you may fail."

No falling blocks, no cute mascots peddling license titles with minimal effort, and definitely none of that junk you can play on Facebook. Osmos is a puzzler of a different species, one that works with physics and features gorgeous HD graphics and a sweet ambient soundtrack. Hemisphere Games leaves the dull sorting tasks to less capable and better funded companies while they contribute a title that's beautiful, engaging, addictive and challenging as all get out.

Our hero is a small heterotrophic orb much like one you may have seen under a microscope. The object is simple: guide your little orb around the screen into smaller orbs to absorb (read: devour) them. Take in the single-celled scrumptiousness and you'll increase in size, allowing you to snack on larger targets.

The catch is that you have to use miniature pieces of yourself to propel your hungry little procaryote from meal to meal, causing you to progressively shrink. Holding down the mouse button will allow you to machine gun bits of yourself in exchange for going much faster, building momentum and bowling over lesser eaters to satiate your eternal hunger. Swing that cursor around and blast bits into other directions and you'll slowly alter course. Just bear in mind that flying out of control and chewing through propellant with reckless abandon usually leads to flying into a much larger competitor and becoming lunch. Learning to counterbalance your momentum and gauge your speed in relation to the distance of your next entree becomes key.

But this isn't an endless cytoplasmic buffet. You have objectives to meet, usually focused on becoming the largest or eating a certain other organism.

Each level isn't just a feeding frenzy in a mosh pit of succulent smaller consumers. Advance levels and you'll know that frustration and brilliance can sometimes go hand in hand. Some levels really are just a cluster of cells all swimming together, ravaging one another like starving cannibals. Most of the time you're one of the small ones, trying desperately to work your way up the food chain by eating small and eventually devouring big. Others stages will have you:

• In tight quarters with stationary cells, leaving you to use your propellant to nudge some of the bigger ones aside and gain access to small pockets of edible tidbits,
  
• Racing another eater by trying to gobble up as much of the surrounding environment as you can to become larger faster all in the hopes of eating your opponent;
  
• Or floating in orbit around a larger cell, defying gravity in an attempt to gulp up others.
  

Community review by JoeTheDestroyer (March 16, 2011) Rumor has it that Joe is not actually a man, but a machine that likes video games, horror movies, and long walks on the beach. His/Its first contribution to HonestGamers was a review of Breath of Fire III.