Cocoon review
After a short stint wandering the orange canyons of Cocoon's opening area, you come across a curved groove in the ground, like a smile with indented lips. At one edge sits a large metallic ball, which you grab and yank until it reluctantly leaves its rectangular base, yet remains connected by a chewing gum string. Once the gum's elasticity approaches its limit, the base starts to move too, gliding across the mouth as if you're opening a zipper.
What is it? A puzzle adventure game directed by Jeppe Carlsen, former lead designer at Playdead.
Expect to pay: £19.99
Release date: September 29, 2023
Developer: Geometric Interactive
Publisher: Annapurna Interactive
Reviewed on: RTX 2070, i7-10750H, 16GB RAM
Multiplayer? No
Link: https://www.cocoongame.com/
As a puzzle adventure, the joy of Cocoon is in figuring out how to overcome obstacles and progress, but it's also in the execution. Taking hold of the ball in this instance is an obvious action given that the beetle-winged humanoid you guide around can only manipulate the world via a single action button, and there's nothing else to work with in the immediate vicinity. You drag the zipper along the groove and that activates a platform. Job done. But it's a far more pleasing exercise than merely pulling a lever.
The tinfoil tint of the ball, the pliability of the gum, the pink flesh that ripples as the zipper makes its journey. It's all so very tactile.
Cocoon makes incredible meals of puzzles within vibrant worlds that could have adorned prog rock album covers, backed by moody synths that also could have blessed the vinyl inside. When you're pressing switches and activating bridges here, you're not simply pressing switches and activating bridges. Even the platform that
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