Be Excited for the Release of ‘Cocoon’
Playing Cocoon is a seamless experience that feels intuitive. This may not seem noteworthy, but the game’s unique feature is that it compels players to utilize its levels to solve puzzles. During my half-hour playthrough of the game’s opening at Summer Game Fest 2023, it left a lasting impression on me and stood out among all the other games showcased.
Cocoon is the debut game of Geometric Interactive, founded by ex-Playdead employees Jeppe Carlsen and Jakob Schmid. Carlsen was the lead game designer for the award-winning puzzle platformers Limbo and Inside, and Schmid was the sound programmer for Inside. The pair also collaborated on 140, a minimalist indie platformer, and have been working on Cocoon with a small team in Denmark for over five years.
As in Limbo, Inside, and 140, controls and interactivity are generally kept to a minimum. On an Xbox controller, this means moving with the analog stick and interacting with only one button. Complexity comes from environment, narrative from exploration. It resembles Tunic or Hyper Light Drifter in the lack of dialogue and tutorials.
Orbits are all in Cocoon. They’re assets that open doors, trigger switches, reveal hidden paths, and solve puzzles, but they’re also levels themselves. Remember the scene in Men In Black where the entire galaxy is in a little marble cat collar? Geometric Interactive has taken this idea and made it a core mechanic. Each sphere is a separate world with its own atmosphere, original puzzle mechanics and boss fights. You can jump in and out of these worlds by placing a ball in sockets around the game, and you can even bring balls into other balls, which, due to the abilities they unlock, is likely to be crucial to finding paths to progress.
I say that each sphere has a “boss fight”, but there is no traditional combat in Cocoon – after all, there is only one interaction button. You defeat the bosses by using something in the environment, such as a water pipe or an explosive mine. These fights are also forgiving: I got “hit” once, and it revealed a delightful mechanic: Instead of the boss dealing damage or killing me, he kicked me out of the world. Then I had to go back into the fight to end it. Defeating the two bosses I found gave me new powers in classic Metroidvania fashion, allowing me to progress to new areas and find new orbs.
There were other simple environmental puzzles to solve. One determined the order in which switches were pressed, and the other forced me to move turrets around to open a door. A slightly trickier case involved doubling back to navigate a hidden path. Since this was the beginning of the game, I’m sure the complexity will increase significantly. By the end of my round I was already jumping in and out of worlds to get the balls where they needed to be.
A colleague of mine who watched the demo said he could tell I’ve “played a lot of these types of games” – thing is, I haven’t. Cocoon is a game where everything makes sense, but you can’t explain why. I’m sure, as with other puzzle adventures, I’ll stumble in some places, but exploring this world felt completely natural. After a while I stopped being amazed that everything I tried just worked. Solving the puzzles became a state of flow as I waddled around giddily carrying my precious orbs.
Cocoon is already firmly at the top of my Wish List, and it’s hard to imagine anything surpassing it. It is published by Annapurna Interactive and will be coming to Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation and Xbox consoles later this year.
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