Cocoon review: an impossibly good puzzle game that you need to play

The world jostles gently on my back. A planet is contained within an orange orb. Ich am either an organic or mechanical insect. This feat of strength, though impossible to me as I am not Atlas, is within my reach. Place the orb in a pedestal, kneel down before it and launch into the sky before plunging headfirst into an other world. Orb turns into orange world and there’s more mystery within.

CocoonGeometric Interactive is the first game by Geometric Interactive. It was created by Jakob Schmid (former Playdead) and Jeppe Karlsen. Carlsen worked as the primary gameplay designer on LimboYou can also find out more about the following: You can find out more about it here(There is still the occasional undulating biomass.) The occasional undulating mass remains. Similar to LimboYou can also find out more about the following: You can find out more about it here, CocoonIt’s a simple but unforgettable experience. A single button puzzler, with beautiful visuals. The game starts off quietly before ending on an explosive crescendo.

The exact nature of the problem is hard to determine. CocoonWhat is it about? Stasis and metamorphosis. Order and disorder. Cosmos and biosphere End, beginning and interrelation. The entire piece is wordless. Cocoon’s narrative is evocative but elusive. All is implied and gesture. It’s up to you what parasite is and what a symbiote. It’s the rare game that leaves this much room for interpretation, a deliberate ambiguity that complements Cocoon’s satisfying but linear puzzles.

Image: Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive via Polygon

A birth begins the game. One streak of light hits a mountain. This travels to a metallic cocoon that is at the base. When it opens up, you see your character. He’s a bipedal insectoid, most similar to a beetle.

The mind starts to wander. Initial puzzles are simple — just switches or pulleys. You find an odd apparatus quickly: a metal grate, with white tendrils peeping through the vents. Then, as you kneel, you suddenly find yourself taken up, out of your world and into a dimly lit room, with an orb. Then something evil awakens in the orange orb. The orb is carried into the new world, where it’s used to solve puzzles.

At first, the game may seem simple. The first challenges require you to place the orbs on containers in order to unlock doors and power bridges. Not very innovative. Defeating the first boss unlocks a new ability for the orb — the ability to reveal invisible orange platforms — but even that, audiovisually pleasing though it is, is mostly just a means by which to reveal more pathways to orb receptacles that open doors or power bridges.

But simplicity, in CocoonIt is only a temporary phenomenon.

Image: Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive via Polygon

It isn’t until Cocoon introduces a second orb to the equation that the game’s complexity comes into focus. Suddenly, it isn’t just about bouncing between two worlds, but three. And now, it isn’t just about moving between them, but layering them. The green orb can be placed inside the yellow orb by leaving it in the orange world and returning to the Overworld. You will then pick up the orange ball again with the green floating inside. Confusing? Hold on. I won’t spoil how many orbs you’re expected to juggle by the game’s end, each with their own special ability, but by Cocoon’s conclusion, my initial hesitations had all but vanished in the face of the game’s inventiveness and pitch-perfect pacing. Devious, but fair CocoonThe ability to bewilder or challenge is never lacking.

Cocoon’s sound design deserves ample praise alongside its visuals and gameplay. The journey is accompanied by a beautiful synthesized soundtrack, sometimes interspersed with dampened piano glissandos that always inspire fear. The game plays a particular melody when you’ve solved a puzzle, but cleverly, it begins to play just as you’re approaching the solution, creating this pleasing interval where you feel not only smart but sure of yourself — which is good, because you’re going to need that surety to see the game through to its conclusion.

Image: Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive via Polygon

CocoonIt is short, but dense. After my initial four-hour playthrough, I spent another two hours searching out all the Moon Ancestors – optional puzzles hidden in the game. I wouldn’t want it to be longer, however. CocoonIt is an edited, streamlined game that has been stripped down to the essentials and presented in a logical manner. It’s the kind of game you’ll wish you could experience again for the first time, delighting at the complexity its developers were able to wring out of a game controlled with a single button.

Late-game puzzles involve creating an impossible situation. Something that seems to break the game’s rules, and yet doesn’t, under the ever-thickening logic of Cocoon. The moment I saw the sign, I was certain. Cocoon was a complete game — one that sees through every permutation of its conceit. It’s a game that is complete, in my opinion.

Geometric Interactive’s newest product, Geometric Interactive Impossible, is a game changer. Cocoon. It’s a joyful, improbable experience that will leave you transformed.

CocoonThe game will be available on September 29th on Nintendo Switch as well as PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Windows PC. Xbox One and Xbox Series X are also included. Annapurna Interactive gave us a download code to play the game on PC. Vox Media partners with affiliates. Vox Media earns commissions from affiliate products, although this doesn’t influence the editorial content. Find out more about affiliate links. additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.