Holding down an office job can be a safe, yet tedious way to earn a living. It's certainly not a vocation many people dream of having, and pushing paper can become a stale routine that makes you wonder why you even bother getting out of bed in the morning. Understandably, this kind of inactive career isn't something that can easily be translated into a video game. Mosaic takes on the challenge of showing the effects of a 9 to 5 career, although it doesn't say anything that we didn't already know about being miserable while you're making money.
I'm Just An Average Man With An Average Life
The story of Mosaic focuses on a nameless young man who seems to be sleepwalking through life. He wakes up, brushes his teeth, stares at his negative bank balance, fools around on his phone, goes to work, and contemplates his sad, meaningless existence. You know, the standard daily ritual. When we join our hero, he's starting to see things that he hasn't seen before in his grey, joyless world. Things like sunshine, color, talking goldfish, etc. It's obvious that he's not happy and is lacking any kind of human connection, and it seems to be our job as the player to give this schlub the push he needs to get out of his doldrums.
The overall theme of Mosaic seems to boil down to: "working sucks, doesn't it?" This may be true, but it's not really a new idea. The protagonist walks slowly through a faceless sea of other worker drones with his shoulders slumped, and he discovers that when he goes off the beaten path he can experience things like nature or music. There are even some allusions to the company he works for being some kind of oppressive machine that's enslaved the general populace, although it's hard to tell whether this is actually an Orwellian future or just this character's point of view. It all feels like something that's been done before. The dull horror of having to work a crummy corporate job is something that mostly got covered in movies like Office Space or Fight Club. Mosaic doesn't expand on the idea all that much.
Sad, Broke, Millennial Simulator
This is a game about the mundanity of office life, so the gameplay tries to reflect that as accurately as possible for better or for worse. You push our poor little lead forward, occasionally having him stumble into scenes that hint at the sinister nature of this nameless city, and give him hope that he can find a better lot in life. You click on icons to interact with them, like turning on the TV or calling an elevator, and that's really about it. He also controls very slowly, and while that makes sense considering he's a tall, chubby guy with child-bearing hips, it doesn't make for a particularly engaging experience.
I did like the phone you could use, as it felt like the most true to life aspect in the entire game. You'd get texts from your family wondering when you'd be home to visit, or your employer would repeatedly threaten to fire you for being late. You could play a mindless mobile game called "BlipBlop" which is nothing more than a very bare-bones Cookie Clicker clone (not that that stopped me from getting a bunch of Steam achievements related to it.) There's even a dating app that never seems to match you with anyone, which seems like a pretty accurate depiction of online dating.
The other major part of Mosaic is the puzzles that represent the mind-numbing tasks your character has to do. You have generators that create little squares called "Resources," and you use them to make hexagons. You then continue to build these hexagons which allow the resources to travel upwards until you reach a massive hexagon called a "Milestone." The puzzles get more complex as they go on, but aside from some initial confusion about what I was supposed to do, they're not difficult. Although that may be the intention, as they're supposed to be an allegory for the pointless busywork office employees are forced to do at their computers, which, admittedly, this does a good job of emulating.
The Beauty Of Boredom
The art style helps drive the game's point home, as it consists of muted greys and blues, and the environment is blocky, pointy and polygonal. Every other inhabitant of this place is a faceless, emotionless void, and the main character seems to be the only individual born with visible eyes (maybe because he's the only one who can see the world for what it is, man.)
I was quite impressed by how cinematic some of the hallucinations, dream sequences, and walking segments looked. There are some pretty interesting visual touches, with locales and scenes looking they could have come right out of a professionally shot film. Mosaic isn't afraid to get weird, and there are some truly surreal moments that play with perspective, size, and shape. The only negative I have with the presentation is the significant loading hitches that occur whenever the game transitions to a new setting, which almost seemed like Mosaic was struggling to load up its next bit of absurdity.
Definitely Not Dunder Mifflin
Mosaic's message is one that's a bit worn-out, especially in these days of the stereotypical broke millennials struggling to make ends meet. The game is ostensibly saying, "Wouldn't it be great if you could throw off the shackles of the oppressive oligarchy and just live wild and free?" It is a nice sentiment, except that a lot of people have bills and student loans to pay, so that's not really an option. It's blatantly obvious that most of us don't want to work in an office building, so making that the central thesis of your game is like beating a dead horse at this point.
It's not especially original, and at this point seeing any piece of media where someone quits their job, magically overcomes all their debt, and runs off to write poetry in the woods is something worthy of eye rolls and tongue clicks. It doesn't help that the game controls like a hapless man in his late twenties who can barely muster the energy to move his spinely legs. Quitting a bad job to pursue your dreams is a worthy goal. I just don't think Mosaic is going to be the game to drive people to the unemployment line.
A PC copy of Mosaic was purchased by TheGamer for this review. Mosaic is available on PC and Apple Arcade.
Mosaic