Waking up, going to work, returning home, going to bed, repeat… All to make enough money to pay your bills. Modern life isn’t always that great, it can literally suck the life out of you and if you’re not surrounded by the right people, you’ll easily end up in the colorless vacuum of your mind. Mosaic tries to translate this feeling into a special ‘game’ but is it worth playing?
Doing the same thing over and over again
You control a nameless character that’s stuck in his daily routine. Five days a week, he goes to work, only to get the message he could do a lot better. There’s no human interaction, he’s isolated in his generic flat where the most noticeable feature is the total lack of color. Right from the start, you’ll feel the negativity around you, your character isn’t happy and going to work is a task rather than a joy. Just like everything around you, you move extremely slow and you can’t seem to find distraction anywhere. Your mobile phone is just an empty shell filled with passive-aggressive messages from your boss and some message from your friend who constantly tries to sell you useless junk. No, life isn’t always easy but Mosaic does an exceptional job portraying this.
Labeling this as a classic game is impossible since that’s not its purpose. Mosaic wants you to feel sad and heavy while playing, it wants to give you an insight into the harsh world of depression and burn-outs, although it’s not really ‘fun’ to play, it’s an experience that captivated my attention from the first seconds. There’s something about the atmosphere in Mosaic that’s hard to ignore. Although the life of your character isn’t exactly thrilling, you’ll want to do better, you’ll want to do more each and every day. It’s strange to notice that you’ll motivate yourself to keep pushing forward instead of just giving up and in the end, if you’re brave enough, you’ll see that the world has a lot of beauty to offer.
Find color in life
When you stay on your set path, you’ll never reach happiness or relief from your stress but the moment you start exploring, you’ll find color in the world. It’s the simple things in life that make it worth struggling for. Sunlight through your window in the morning, the sound of bugs in the park… Moments like those are priceless and can truly bring color to your life when you thought everything was lost. It’s amazing how well Mosaic is able to transfer this moment of joy to the player. It takes you away from your daily routine and it makes you think that life is worth living after all.
If this doesn’t bring a smile to your face, perhaps the irony and satire around you will. Everything in Mosaic just screams irony. From new papers claiming that privacy is overrated to adds trying to sell you medication for a better night’s rest… It’s easy to see where the developers went with this. It’s a powerful message that instead of working towards your downfall it’s crucial to see the world around you and appreciate it for what it is. Without the beauty in the world, you’d be lost.
Conclusion:
Rating a game such as this isn’t easy since it’s far from a classic experience. It’s not about the actual gameplay elements, it’s more about the message and Mosaic really delivers something incredible. It’s not a long game but you’ll remember every second of it thanks to its theme and near flawless execution. It won’t be for everyone but it’s worth trying as it delivers one of the most memorable experiences so far.
