To be honest, I didn’t think this game looked like much when it was announced. I didn’t like the graphics, the colors or the concept. It’s not a very screenshot friendly game. But I was determined to try it before judging because both Limbo and INSIDE are among my favorite games.
Cocoon is a third person 3D puzzle game. It starts with the character being born from a large cocoon. The game drops you into a world that is unfamiliar and alien with no instructions on what the game expect from you. It’s up to you to learn how this new world works.
The world is the best thing about Cocoon. It’s so otherworldly and surprising. The first hour you just gawk at everything because it feels so unlikely. The sound design is amazing and it makes these mega structures feel mega, and it makes stone structures feel heavy and it makes what you do feel important.
The game manages to keep me surprised all the way through to the end, and this is what I love about the game. Every time you think you’ve figured it out, the game pops up with a new thing which keeps it fresh all the way through. It doesn’t have a big reveal like INSIDE. Instead it unfolds gradually until the end.
The puzzles starts off easy, and gradually teaches you the rules of this world. Then it builds and builds with more complexity, more dimensions and by the end I couldn’t anymore. I had to play the last quarter of the game following a guide, because it got too complex. I’m glad that I did because I got to experience the ending, but the game got way too hard for me. (like Jonathan Blow hard)
There’s no fighting in this game except for the bosses, but you can’t really die, you just need to try again when you fail. The bosses are like the rest of the game very surprising. They don’t look or play like any other bosses or how you would expect bosses to play in a puzzle game. They manage to be cute and menacing at the same time.
I’m a bit sad that I didn’t manage to finish the game on my own. I do tire quickly when a puzzle game is too hard. The game itself gets repetitive when all you do is carrying orbs back and forth without making any progress. I can sense a background story, but it’s not really communicated in a way that makes sense to you. This can be a hit or a miss, and in this case I think it’s a miss. The game is being mysterious for the sake of it, when it’s already alien enough.
I rate this game as GREAT.
Replay 