Cocoon Review
An instant hit in line with Portal 2 and The Witness
Cocoon is less of a puzzle game than it is an ethereal alien experience. These puzzles thrive from director and lead designer Jeppe Carlsen's experience creating Limbo (2010) and Inside (2016). Like its name, Cocoon has layers of life inside of it. From the outside, these layers seem like separate and contained worlds, but dive deeper into its puzzles and you will see that Cocoon seamlessly blends these worlds together in an experience you won't soon forget.
Cocoon is a difficult puzzle game with simple gameplay. That may sound counterintuitive, but in reality, it's a refreshing take on modern gaming, especially puzzle games. Only having to use the A (or X) button and a joystick means having limited ways in which you can approach the puzzles throughout the game. This limitation helps highlight the fact that the puzzles are deep and meaningful, without relying on input mechanics to keep the player hooked.
The memorable puzzle mechanics in this world flow so well that it's difficult to tell when one ends and another begins. It's also difficult to understand how you solved these puzzles. The game trains you so well that you eventually find the solutions instinctively. This instinct comes from easing you into learning a small handful of mechanics, ramping up to more complex puzzles, and ending with a boss battle/puzzle hybrid, progressing the narrative. A relatively normal gameplay loop that is made unique by its ever-changing dimensional layers.
Cocoon's sound design is tied tightly to puzzle-solving. Hearing an inspiring tune as you near the end of a puzzle sequence is as rewarding as solving the puzzle itself. Grouped with the minimalist and abstract art direction, Cocoon builds a world well suited to the puzzles it presents to players.
Cocoon successfully puts a third (and fourth, and fifth… and so on) dimension into the puzzle stylings of Limbo and Inside, adding a much-desired level of complexity. While the game benefits from masterful game design and art direction, it lacks in areas that some players may find themselves wanting more of. A typical playthrough length of Cocoon is about 4.5-5 hours, depending on the level of completion players are going for. With such great puzzle mechanics, the game would certainly benefit from being longer and slightly more complex, allowing players who see the whole game through to feel rewarded for passing final challenges exceeding the ones included.
With Cocoon's availability on Xbox Game Pass, this is the perfect game to dive into on an Autumn afternoon. Cocoon is an instant hit in line with legends like Portal 2 and The Witness that will shape gamers and designers for ages.
