Cocoon Review – Review – Nintendo World Report
From the brain of Jeppe Carlsen, lead gameplayer designer of Limbo and Inside, comes a mind bending puzzle adventure. Cocoon is a wild and mysterious world of techno organic bugs and ethereal vistas. Not since Thumper have we seen such a perfect mix of insectoids and technology to create something wholly unique. I originally played a demo of Cocoon at Summer Game Fest and instantly fell into a quiet fascination. With the aesthetic, the design, and pretty much everything about it. Now, getting to fully play it, I can solidly tell you, that fascination did not dissipate.
Cocoon presents as an adventure game, you sprout from your metallic cocoon as a beetle creature, roaming the desert lands to find and explore the world around you. That comes as a lovingly crafted set dressing for what is, at its core, a puzzle game. Sure, adventure games usually have puzzles but Cocoon is more than that. It’s full of handcrafted enigma encounters that are smartly tailored to introduce players to new game mechanics while implementing the old. Providing smartly timed audio cues that inform players that they are going into the right direction. There were several instances that I was unsure of what the game wanted from me, but hearing that cue set me straight and gave me the encouragement I needed to continue with my chain of logic.
The puzzles are a strange set that make more sense in practice than say told. As you explore the world, you will encounter colored orbs. While these orbs act as your key puzzle solving McGuffin, they are also entire worlds, filled with their own issues to solve. While moving about your desert world, you’ll find a platform that when activated, throws you out of it into a giant techno dystopia, think the real world vs the Matrix. So each orb has their own world inside, but they also get their own specialty powers. The orange desert planet orb, when carried, can activate laser platforms, while the green swamp planet can raise and lower gas platforms seen in your journey. Each time you enter or exit, it’s this striking visual of being shrunk, getting sucked into this whole other world. Then exiting, as you enlarge outside of it.
The powers are helpful but the design is such to limit you from using them without figuring out how to get your orbs to the right spot TO use them, building gates and other obstacles to work around. Once you’ve officially wrapped your head around all of this, another twist comes with bringing in orbs to other planets. Then even further, finding gates from one planet to another inside a planet. I felt my brain being contorted into all sorts of shapes as I attempted to figure out going into the swamp planet, then walking into the desert planet via a gate, but currently carrying the desert planet on my back. It all builds upon itself into these intense escalations of bewildering brainteasers, but like a book of sudoku, I kept wanting more.
To be frank, I rarely knew what I was doing in this game. When an obstacle was presented would use the tools in front of me. Either a combination of the orbs or going into another orbs world, to see if there was something to solve there. The game is intelligently designed to never let you stray too far from the problem at hand. Creating a solution to one situation, opens a pretty direct path to the next, while closing any alternate routes. This makes the game seem linear in a way but also removes a lot of distractions. In a game filled with complex puzzle mechanics, it does such a great job keeping out any extra noise. There are some extraneous elders to collect but they are few and far between, that never stray you too far from the real tasks at hand. I was always worried about putting the game down, only to return and not know where to go next. Luckily, the environmental barriers kept me on the right path and prevented needless backtracking.
Unlocking each orb’s powers comes with a boss fight. These are arguably less interesting, but at the same time, acted as a pleasant reprieve from the linear puzzle solving. Since there really isn’t any combat to speak of, the bosses consisted of pattern recognition, avoiding their attacks and then engaging with whatever mechanic is presented. These encounters range from some basic bug battles to massive light spectacles with laser beams. It’s a pretty interesting change of pace and enhances the already amazing art design.
Speaking of art design, Cocoons’ art design is a mix of H.R. Giger and a Bug’s Life. The world is made up of insects and metal. The creature breathes and pulses over its metallic sheen. Doorways are designed to replicate delicate geometric insect wings or fangs that split apart and reform in kaleidoscopic fashion. Cables sweat, and when bugs rub their pincers together, sparks fly. It’s mesmerizing and one of the strongest parts of Cocoon. This is all punctuated with an ambient soundtrack that’s built to inspire but also creep you out. Hypnotic tones and tracks that when added to the previously discussed audio cues flesh out a fantastic experience. Playing on the Switch, I found that it did struggle to handle some of the heavier transitions of going between worlds, with some slow down but that wasn’t common and didn’t hinder my experience.
Cocoon is a master class in game design. It pushes amazing puzzle construction, to guide players without being too heavy handed. Whenever I was stuck, it was barely ever for more than a few minutes that wasn’t solved by some trial and error. The sound design is used to enhance, never overtake. Giving enough to inspire awe, curiosity, tension and encouragement. The environmental details were beautifully hypnotic. Crafting such a fantastically curious world of psychedelic shapes and inorganic life is a feat of its own but with this combination as a full package, I can’t recommend this game to enough people. It’s greater than the sum of its parts and at the end of my time with Cocoon, my journey had felt meaningful.
