Cocoon Preview – An Excellent First Impression

Since Cocoon’s reveal last year, I’ve been excited to one day check it out. Coming from Jeppe Carlsen, a former lead designer behind Playdead’s Limbo and Inside, its reveal trailer in 2022 made splashes amongst fans of the games Carlsen worked on. During Summer Games Fest this year, I finally got to play roughly 30 minutes of this strange, sci-fi puzzle game, and I don’t think it could have made a better first hands-on impression. 

Immediately, Cocoon’s visual style is striking. Its minimalist sci-fi aesthetic feels right at home within the lineage of Playdead games, although it’s important to note this comes from Carlsen’s new independent Geometric Interactive studio. I control a metal beetle-like with no apparent objective: I try to explore the area I’m in deeper because that seems like what I’m supposed to do. 

I quickly find puzzles in the alien surroundings. To solve my favorite puzzle I pulled a geometric prismatic sphere over a semi-circle and rotated the spire. This spire has shapes on it. I must memorize their order and walk into symbols placed in the ground based upon that order. Another time, I’ll look to the horizon and see which shapes I have to work with. 

These puzzles are not difficult, but they do fit in well with Cocoon’s chill atmosphere. As peaceful and chill as Cocoon is, it’s also mysterious and somewhat spooky, thanks in part to its excellent sound design. Sci-fi womps and siren-like sounds, along with drawn-out notes, create a score which feels more like aliens talking through music than a melody. 

During my entire 30 minute exploration, I moved large ethereal orbs around. Every time I put the orb in its designated place, something happened, allowing my exploration to move forward. The elevators work, the horizontal platforms are moved left or right, and pathways open. Sometimes, the orb on my beetle’s back reveals pinkish-orange crystalline walkways previously hidden from sight, allowing me to reach new areas. Sometimes, when I solve a puzzle, a drone-like honeybee follows me around and destroys barriers before me. This is another way to access previously forbidden areas. 

It was a boss battle that brought the demo to a close. After diving into the orb I’ve been transporting on my back, I reach a new area (and I dive into other orbs, too, to reach new areas elsewhere in the demo). A giant moth alien creature emerges from the ground after solving some puzzles. 

Because Cocoon doesn’t have traditional combat, or at least this demo didn’t, my goal is to survive during the boss fight. It releases a stream of deadly pinkish-orange Crystal below, which I must dodge. Also, it shoots at me a stream metallic bugs that I shake off quickly by pressing A. The dirt beneath me will shake every so often as though something crawls underground. Tapping A causes a black and purple bomb to appear. Then I can use this bomb to smash into the dirt to destroy the boss. 

My demo ended shortly after I began my exploration in this swamp. 

Cocoon is strange and mysterious, and I have no clue what’s going on narratively in it. This game’s world, ambiance visual style score and puzzles are all enough to convince me that I will be buying the complete version when it comes out on Xbox Series X/S Xbox One Switch and PC this year.