Played On: PC Game Pass
Also available on PC, Switch, PlayStation and Xbox
Starting our October reviews with another Indie game which was recently launched (in Sept 2023) but I finally took out some time to play this one.
Synopsis: Cocoon is a unique take on the puzzle adventure genre, where each world exists within an orb that you can carry on your back. Wrap your head around the core mechanic of leaping between worlds—and combine, manipulate, and rearrange them to solve intricate puzzles
This game is brought to us by Jeppe Carlsen, one of the lead designers of previous indie greats: Limbo and Inside.
Story and Atmosphere
Well, there isn’t a story right off the bat. The game begins as soon as you hit ‘start’. No motive, no directions, just begin roaming around and figure things out. It was odd, yes, but the beautifully created world design did push me to go on!
The playable protagonist is a beetle (sort of?). As you go on, discovering places and solving a couple of basic puzzles, you’ll encounter an orb, which is the main element of this game. You carry them on your back, using them as keys to open doors and solve puzzles. But soon you’ll discover that inside every orb is a new world of puzzles and challenges to overcome.
Gameplay
Cocoon doesn’t tell its story with voiced interactions or dialogue, but instead through visuals and gameplay. Things might seem vague or hard to follow at first, but the game does an impeccable job of bringing everything together over time.
But the major turn-off (for most of the players) would be its way of saying - go ahead and figure things out yourself. There is no prompt or a hint throughout the game which tells you what to do next. You go with the flow blindly 😄
Graphics/Visuals
I really can’t stop praising the visuals and the environmental designs this game offers. There were no glitches or bugs which I came across and everything went so smoothly throughout. Each world design was different but beautiful and the transitions of travelling through them were fantastic.
Audio/Sound
The background music does a lot of its work keeping you engaged. The atmospheric music creates and maintains the whole synth vibe wonderfully. Highly suggested to play Cocoon with your headphones on!
Length and Replayability
Cocoon is a short game of around 3-4 hours (can be more if you take your time with it) but never it feels stretched out. The puzzles, the atmosphere and the music really conjured up an amazing experience which is definitely the selling point for this game.
As for the replayability part: The game contains a number of hidden collectables that can be found across areas. You’ll be able to see how many have you found when you near the end of the game. For completionists, this isn’t an overwhelming task (there are only 10 of these collectables)
TSHC SCORE: 8/10
CONCLUSION:
Cocoon is definitely one of the best indie games to come out in 2023. With its marvellous game design, soothing synth background music and fun yet simple puzzles, it is a recommended game for folks who enjoy playing games to relax. As much as I loved almost everything about Cocoon, there were some pointers due to which I was still on the fence about whether it really deserves a high score. No story or non-defined motive and it's short gameplay time, you can wait for a sale to pick it up (or play it on Game Pass).
OpenCritic Rating:
Beautiful game 👌🏽