Both inspired with visually-arresting & provocative moments & otherwise overcast with a lack of original commentary. A short, emotional narrative game whose whole isn't as good as some of its tiles.

'See no evil and speak no evil' are very easy for these guys.

Mosaic is a game secretly about another game. Blip Blop, the bare-bones clicker game contained on employee 978-067443006's phone. In-between guiding him through his non-life, you'll find your brain defaulting to your Blop accumulation and when you can next stop to Blip. You'll reach for your virtual phone when ignored every morning in lifts and on train platforms and, to hell with it, stop in the middle of crowds. Even after the most harrowing visual set piece of late-stage capitalism's worst excesses and neglect you'll immediately open your phone to invest your auto-Blops, lest you be inefficient. This pernicious little app is the only source of stimulation - empty and soulless stimulation though it may be - in a world and game so utterly devoid of it.

Nestled within, then, my admiration of Mosaic's clever use of a dastardly game (I could definitely imagine taking the real world by storm given the chance), is a criticism of Mosaic's core gameplay.

What better to do in your mere blip than blip some blops?

I am absolutely Mosaic's audience in its narrative thrust (I'm as left-leaning as they come). In fact, unless you're the most die hard consumer or capitalist, I can't imagine you wouldn't be. Mosaic has some set piece moments I adore for various reasons. It leans heavily on some effective visual metaphors through 978's daydreaming and otherwise verisimilar dystopic spectacle. I'm no fan of the low-poly aesthetic, so that Mosaic charms with its visuals is down to sheer creativity.

At times it feels like an artist is individually pointing at all the constituent pieces of a mosaic image of the word 'capitalism.' 'That's one.' 'There's another.' Whether you can abide that your main experience with the world is in itself this rather unstimulating guiding of your character via mouse click for the cold, unrelenting observation of a broken world is probably down to personal taste. Whilst I was more than once swept up by its visuals and entertained by its black humour, its interminable depictions of 978's daily funereal monotony can equally become monotonous. It's apposite enough an interactive takeaway, of course. Either way, Blip Blop's shot of dopamine is a click away.

If I were gum, I'd be coffee flavoured.

More effective for me was Mosaic's use of phone apps. On top of Blip Blop as an app-based stand-in for purpose and achievement, you have 'Blipcoin' which promises an easy route out of poverty yet never goes your way and the tinder-esque dating app which rather unkindly offers a dispiriting tally of every dislike you've received. Acknowledging the way these apps exploit hope - that life-transforming change will be delivered to their users if they just remain on the treadmill - is inspired. It's those more subtle salt-rubbing details like how an ad occasionally pops up on Blip Blop over your options whilst you're clicking - forcing you to disrupt your combo gains to close it - that truly delight me. I'm also a fan of the 'work' minigame, which, if anything, is reminiscent of World of Goo without the physics. Suitably frustrating but not unengaging, it also provides one of the more satisfying visual set pieces of the game. I'm intrigued by the Mosaic 1% Edition DLC that possibly upends the futility of these apps.

The biggest issue with Mosaic is that it takes some very easy narrative routes. 978 obviously needs to tend to his soul. What is the opposite of the urban jungle? Parks and greenery. What is the opposite of corporate drudgery? Busking, of course! Given Mosaic establishes early on that 978 has a cash flow problem even whilst in his job, Mosaic's resolution just feels much too without nuance and predictable for my liking. If only a political revolution against corporatocracy and oligarchy was as easy as pulling wires out of the veritable corporate machine. Given it's mostly without dialogue, perhaps I'm being very tough on what are likely shorthand compromises Mosaic takes. It just makes me uneasy that it plays out like a parody or right-wing conception of how the left would address late-stage capitalism.

From womb to grave, you'll never escape your cubicle.

That's why Blip Blop is Mosaic's best inclusion. It's both one of your only reprieves from this nightmare as a player, but it's also a product of it. That you're placated by this thing whilst in a state of submission is in fact part of the systemic problem. Both friend and foe, its insidious nature is Mosaic at its best. It also helps that engaging with it adds considerably to Mosaic's genre-conforming short playtime.

Mosaic is a short narrative game and 'mosaic' of late-stage capitalism that's both intermittently inspired with visually-arresting and provocative moments and otherwise overcast with a lack of original commentary. More an emotional journey, its ingenious use of elements like Blip Blop lift the entire experience. Whilst a mosaic should be about the whole, I'm left much more impacted by some tiles than others.