I've got Osmos on Mac and I find it slightly frustrating in a way. Since it's possible to fail you have to keep on the move, only the movement is really slow and I find myself trying to speed it up, but then the faster you go the more likely you are to fail. It's a good game, but the feeling of zen isn't quite there.
I have both, and like them both.....but i'm not sure someone looking for the same experience or mood will be satisfied. There is really no pressure on the player in zen bound other than your own desire to get the highest coverage of any puzzle. Osmos has zen like music, but the underlying game is quite difficult IMHO and a more pressured experience than ZB. The controls in osmos, while very smart for the game, are very touchy and sensitive. Also given that most of the puzzles in osmos involve out growing other blobs, in-action is not an option....where in ZB you can take as much time as you like to consider what you want to do. I found both to be good, but i don't think i'd call Osmos relaxing like a lot of reviews and advertisements call it.
Agree totally John. I find both games frustrating to be fair. I'd definitely assume you'd like both games as much. I personally lean towards Osmos.
I hated Zen Bound because it always frustrates me. Osmos on the other hand relaxes me and I prefer it much more. With Osmos I don't really have to think much. Zen Bound requires a lot of patience and thinking. But I find it fustrating because I'll end up planning and wrapping the object for ages and then not be able to reach 100% because I have either run out of rope or the area left is inaccessible. And I have OCD (especially with games) so I have to get to 100%, nothing less will do.
Wouldn't that mean when you play Osmos you have to keep going after level completion until you're the only thing left on the screen? I did it a couple of times, and it took far longer than 100% on Zen Bound does.
Dude, you sound so much like me it's crazy. I started disliking ZB because I couldn't get some levels from 98% up to 100%.
As backwards as it sounds, I agree for sure. Zen Bound also frustrated me a lot at times, being the OCD folks you and I seem to be XD. Since perfectionism isn't quite a part of Osmos, I find it to be an overall more relaxing experience, even though there is more danger involved. I find Osmos to be a fair bit more immersive than Zen Bound, too. The soundtrack and setting help it a lot, but the time manipulation is what really makes me dig in (with the music slowing down and such ) I don't know... something about Osmos grabs me in a way that Zen Bound tried to, but failed in the long run Zen Bound is a good game, but after the first week of having it, I didn't find myself wanting to play more. It was feeling more like a chore than anything else. I mean, I'm a very patient person, and I can think things through, but my thinking doesn't apply in that way. I can't really think in terms of how much ground I have to cover with how much rope Midian, I think the thing is that in Osmos, you don't see a completion percentage or counter. It doesn't show you that you're missing 20% of the level, whereas Zen Bound loves to make a note of it and constantly shows your percentage. I think another part of it has to do with the fact that you don't have to eat everything up in Osmos to fully complete a level. It's just something fun you can try to do. I, personally, do try to eat everything in the levels even though that's not the goal, but I don't get frustrated if I'm unable to, simply because my completion of a level does not depend on that.
Not quite OCD enough if you need a percentage, that's just a normal gamer's line of thinking You didn't go collecting every single coin in Mario 64 because there was a %, you did it because you had to drain the levels of every last item.
I have done that sometimes, but it's not quite the same. You either complete a level or you don't. I don't really feel that I haven't completed a level fully. Whereas if I complete a level on Zen Bound at anything below 100%, I feel annoyed that I didn't get 100%. Another good example is Just Cause 2 on my PS3. I've been playing it on and off for ages now. I'm trying to reach overall 100% completion, but in some cities it can be hard to find everything to get 100%. In the residential district of Panau City I reached 100% but there was no green tick for it on the map. I then realised that the game just rounds up 99.5% to 100%, but it doesn't give you the green tick. So I spent about 2 or 3 hours searching, just so I could get the green tick. I eventually found a hidden water tower (which counts as 0.5%) and then I finally got the green tick.
Ah God. 100%'ing games used to be all I did at the end of 2009. I was getting Platinum after Platinum on my PS3, to the point where I'd get games like G-Force and Larry etc... Hardly enjoy them and then move on. I remember doing Uncharted 2 in ONE night and probably being one of the first people of Platinum the game. I can now officially announce that I am no longer that sad.
Ok, well I'm glad that my OCD isn't as bad as I previously thought Well done for completing JC and JC2 to 100%. I remember playing JC back on my PS2, I never got to 100% though (some idiot robbed my house and stole the PS2). But I will definitely complete JC2, that's for sure.
We took ZB2 a couple of steps closer to game from simply entertainment when we added achievements to the latest version. Before the update we were concerned if the casual gamers would give negative feedback for their presence, but nothing like that happened. For the 100% OCD types, the Perfection achievement is a hefty goal. And beyond that, I'd like to hear from anyone who's gotten the Nirvana achievement All levels can be completed at 100%, that I can personally guarantee.
