Mosaic Critic Reviews

Mosaic is a cold game in which you strive to find even a shred of warmth. It fills you with a desire to be better, to talk deeply to yourself and reassess your values. It doesn’t feel like a game, exactly, but more of an experience in empathy. Full of quirky dark humour that for once doesn’t come in the form of cringy dialogue, and enriched with concepts that could make even the most steeled among us weep, Mosaic does the heart some good.

Mosaic gives meaning to the meaningless; it’s existential nihilism in digital form. It's lovely.

It’s not a game you play, but more an interactive experience, somewhat an art piece that is a meditation on modern life or the difference between the commercial world and the artistic/creative world. It’s not a long experience but it’s worth a go, though for the length of it I would still wait for a special before shelling out money on it. But if a good special comes along I would recommend grabbing it and letting yourself float along with the story.

Although Mosaic’s gameplay is simple and the play length short, it boasts a powerful story with many unique elements you won’t find anywhere else.

Mosaic might only last a few hours, but within that time it has moments that can stick with you, bring you joy amidst the monotony of everyday life. There's a message here to say that there is always a glimmer of hope even if it isn't always obvious, which is a good message to send. Plus, there's a talking goldfish.

Are games meant to be fun, or simply something to distract us from the injustice around us: homelessness, deforestation? Mosaic's gameplay is purposefully opaque, the meaning behind your actions blurred to a point where continuing on may seem pointless. It may not always be engaging, but those with patience will unravel an uplifting message about human connection. The irony is hopefully not lost on the player; that a game about freeing oneself from your phone... is played on one.

Mosaic is a remarkable narrative game, suggestive in its small length, telling of a silent revolution in an oppressive dystopian society.

This is the beauty of Mosaic; it’s not just another tale made up for storytelling impact. These are feelings and situations I felt empathy with and that are a current problem within our world today. It’s great to see more developers wanting to go down this route when creating games and wanting to make a difference. I’d be surprised that when the end credits roll on Mosaic, you wouldn’t want to change even the smallest details of your own life for the better.

A surreal and nightmarish adventure with great art design and intense atmosphere, but not very challenging.

The game induces sleepiness here and there because of its low tempo and repetitiveness but it does so for a reason. It helps that the art style is both flexible with color tones and insanely modest.

Mosaic is the plight of the office worker reimagined for the not-to-distant dystopian future. The tedium, the soullessness, the loneliness — it's all here, presented with sleek, stylish art and simple, effective mechanics. But, the burden of virtual corporate slavery is perhaps too much to bear; the game is prone to frequent bouts of monotony that pull players out of the experience.

Mosaic is a game that tries to ease the player into a melancholy atmosphere, only broken up by small glimpses of light. There are no typical challenging gameplay systems or problems to solve, but that is kind of the point of the game.

Mosaic is a not so far dystopian future.

Although I wasn’t overly entranced by Mosaic — its approach is too straightforward for my taste — I tip my hat to the developers for making a game that punctures a hole in the noxious ideology that work, necessarily, gives meaning to our lives.

Mosaic will be a worthwhile experience for that certain type of gamer who can appreciate style over substance in the service of an artistic statement. Without much in the way of gameplay, it’s more of an experimental atmospheric experience than a traditional piece of interactive entertainment.

There are some brilliant glimpses in Mosaic, moments that really can bring you to some deep thoughts on your life, but these few moments are diluted in a quite tedious experience, overall.

A game about breaking free from monotony that gets, perhaps inevitably, a little monotonous.

Mosaic could have been a very good short animation movie, with it's great artistic touch and a nice story. As a videogame it's pretty lame as we're still looking for a gameplay. Proceed with caution, even if you love walking sims.

Mosaic tries to send some positive signals towards one of the most important issues that modern human is facing right now, and it deserves credit for that; but in the meantime, the developers forgot that it is a video game and should be fun and entertaining, rather than being boring and dull.

Mosaic was originally released as an Apple Arcade game, and it feels strange outside that context, where it would otherwise be a functional, fleeting experience among so many others, a small diversion.