It’s crazy how packed this fall season has been when talking about video gaming. We have new games coming out every week, and at least one of them is a big release. However, this has led to a larger number of games falling through the cracks between bigger releases, which leads us to the puzzle darling for the season. That being Cocoon, coming to us from some of the people who helped make Limbo and Inside. However, when compared to the last time an ex-PlayDead employee used name recognition to promote a game, that being Somerville. Cocoon is actually what you would get if PlayDead did two things: put a little color into their game and switch from 2D to 3D.
Cocoon is an interesting game to describe to people, because most of the game’s moments come from the element of surprise and awe at what you are doing in the game world. So, I’ll quickly sum it up here, the game is amazing; it grabbed me and kept my attention for all three hours it took to beat it, and if you have any interest in it, go play it on Game Pass. Now I’m guessing if you are still reading, then you have beaten the game, but if not, be warned, I will go into gameplay spoilers from here on out.
The game starts off with an actual cocoon, you fall out as a bug creature, and you start to wander around this environment that feels very alien-like, which this is where the game’s strength starts off, because all of the story is told through the environments. No cutscenes and no pop-up text boxes, and there aren’t even button prompts though the game only has two controls: move and select. This was a choice to let the scenery do its job and be the main method of storytelling.
So, you do some simple puzzle solving and come across a boss battle, then get an orb, click on it, and then you realize you were in a world that is the size of a marble, followed by you being able to carry it on your back like an ant. Soon later, you are shifting between multiple worlds and taking worlds within worlds to solve some of the game’s insane puzzles. Pretty soon, you will have a sheet of paper to help solve the puzzles, but for anyone else, it will look like the scribbles of a madman.
The design helps a lot because it’s both complex and easy to understand; there are many moments that I thought I had soft-locked the game, but soon realized this was the path I was supposed to take. That an unlike Somerville, which had the tone of PlayDead’s games but none of the design aspects; here, it’s mostly people who helped design Inside and Limbo, which it does show. Except unlike the physic-based puzzles of the previously mentioned, like mentioned earlier, it’s entirely based on the world-shifting mechanic. When you think the game has reached the limit on the puzzles, it then gets complex gradually; something puzzle games nowadays should take notes from with pacing.
All this praise is not to say the game doesn’t have a few issues, because it does. Primarily with the boss battles, which the fact that there are bosses in this game is an interesting addition. However, it’s more like a moving puzzle than a test of combat, but I did come across some glitches during the battle, mainly getting stuck on the side and having to restart the game because the boss wouldn’t kick me out of the world. But sometimes the boss battle solution would be obvious, while other times it requires a bit more thinking, they aren’t hard, but I did view some of the battles as a pace killer.
So is Cocoon worth all the hype that has been floating around the internet the last few weeks? Yes. I haven’t played a puzzle that was this engrossing and took over my life as quickly since The Witness back in 2016, where just like Cocoon had scribbles all over my desk to solve the puzzles. This will be a game that, if it was a less packed year, it would be an easy shot for Game of the Year, but I think it will be on the top of other people’s lists and have some form of placement on a large majority of people’s lists. So, all I can say now is if you have an afternoon to kill and want to play one of the year’s most under-the-radar games, then by all means, give Cocoon a shot; it will be one memorable experience.
Score: 9 out of 10
Reviewed on Xbox Series X