How much do you read into a game’s marketing material? Certainly one can expect, on the creator/publisher’s side, a manner of promotion deliberately written to be as alluring as possible, without risk of misrepresentation. But what of the kind of situations whose very promotion can be read in both ways at the same time? That in one sense it comes across justifiable to lean in on certain keywords and phrases, but in another knowing full well it’s bound to lead many towards hasty conclusions, for better or worse.
Because when you utter the names Inside and Limbo – itself preceded by a simple, introductory “From Jeppe Carlsen, lead gameplay designer of…” passage in your game’sreveal trailer– you’re setting yourself up for some truly specific and specifically high bars to meet. Personnel aside – those named and those who aren’t that hold no former affiliation with such names – it’s hard to truly be convinced that making such a connection this pivotal to the marketing has been efficient. Not because Cocoon is bad by any stretch; for a game you can finish in a couple sittings, perhaps even one if you’re up to it, Geometric Interactive doesn’t stick around all that long for its shortcomings to feel all that worrisome. But so too, what it gets right to feel, by contrast, all that memorable.
Not for the first time I’ve come away from a game sporting a gimmick both visually and mechanically interesting – on a journey that will take you around three hours to reach credits – and the evaluating thought is simply: “neat, I look forward to the sequel that, hopefully, fleshes its premise out.” Not that Geometric’s debut is deprived of ideas, but it’s unfortunate that the best moments of Cocoon are those it saves for the final third. And while a lack of complexity or imagination with how weird the spacetime-breaking backdrop could get does leave you wanting more, a handful of smart design choices and the aforementioned final third does still in the end provide a sufficient, if not stupendous, look into how the world-hopping mechanics could unfold.
How this translates into actual progression through Cocoon is split roughly 50:50 between two methods. In one part, a linear series of events that have you transporting world orbs from one region of the overworld of sorts to the next – collecting new orbs as you go, totaling four by the end. In the other, by way of designated pedestals, activating said orbs to so seamlessly hop in and out of them to reveal entirely new self-contained environments to figure out. These pocket dimension worlds, first time round, culminating in a boss battle that upon victory grants you new abilities corresponding to a specific orb, such as spawning ground within proximity of yourself, or shifting the state of certain objects between two binary forms. The main objective, as it’s eventually revealed in Cocoon is the means by which worlds must be stacked inside one another Russian Doll-style. And deducing which order they must be placed inside one another, so as to progress forward.
Taking one world orb into another, which itself might already contain a world orb – the means by which puzzles are solved coming by way of a control scheme that’s both minimal but surprisingly varied given the game is handled with little more than an analog stick and a single, solitary face button governing all forms of interaction. But a more prominent and crucial detail is the benefit the short run-time lends to the fact that Cocoon’s near-seamless transitioning from one world to another rarely loses any of its novelty. There are no load times or even blatant suggestion of a back-end trying hard to keep up with the demand and speed employed upfront by the presentation. Transporting one’s self is quick and just the very animation placed during these parts – the way you leap in and out, not to mention how the game world shifts rapidly to accommodate – does admittedly draw a smile.
Aside from one recurring series of conundrums – having you figure out the correct sequence of symbols to interact with, which is complimented by a clever use of the environment to subtly provide the solutions – however, puzzles in Cocoon are for the most part simple to grasp as to what one needs to do. If not, by contrast, so simple to have executed in the desired way. Cocoon then shining at its best when it takes something as simple-sounding as guiding projectiles and so quickly turns it into a multiple world-spanning race against time to get every component both positioned right and in some cases, pointing in the desired direction. A breeze the first half of the game may likely feel to most players, Cocoon does eventually ratchet up the stakes. But if this lack of a difficulty curve were simply that, the main grievances might not have felt that detrimental.
Unfortunately these shallower effects spill over into the premise itself and the means by which Cocoon goes about truly experimenting and playing with its world-hopping antics, to some theoretical, dazzling effect. Because dazzling this game is not and it’s such a shame that the best it can muster towards its close feels more like a taster for what should’ve been a more substantially-bold attempt. There are hints of the game veering into crazier and more mind-bending territory, but Cocoon never truly delves deepest into its own setting’s grand scale. One example late on, in constructing the solution to a puzzle, requiring you to create a kind of paradoxical loop whereby a world seemingly folds in on itself. Going as far as to completely subvert a mechanic that up to then was a relatively simple endeavor.
In another scenario, Cocoon might’ve held up this reality-breaking paradox as something more impactful or revelatory, yet it doesn’t. Coccon sadly decides against stepping forth from out the simplicity of a proven concept, either through some story implication or crucially via a grander caliber of gameplay, to make its spectacle feel more profound than it winds up being. What you have then, beyond the puzzles themselves, is a game whose overall stature feels too rudimentary and hollow. Not bad by any means – certainly clever when it wants to be. But that’s precisely the point: when it wants to push things forward and build on what came before.
As genuinely delightful the prospect of its central gimmick may lead you to believe stranger details and revelations are in store, Cocoon doesn’t capitalize on its own suggestions of the surreal, in both a storytelling or even world-building department. The game is, for better or worse, as intentionally vague and “make of it what you will” as you can get for this kind of small-scale, independent release. But not in the way that, indeed, made a game like Limbo or Inside all that more intriguing and worthy of a second look come end credits. Again, there’s material to work with here – the game world’s oddly bio-mechanical aesthetic coupled with its low-poly art direction – is a sufficient-enough starting point. But once more, Cocoon commits more so to style (let alone a style we’re used to by this point) than necessarily the substance behind it all.
Closing Comments:
Geometric Interactive’s debut in Cocoon, though lacking in the kind of imagination and surreal creativity its premise might entail, still winds up a pleasant and solid-enough first attempt. A detail you can so much read as a plus as you can a negative, the relatively short run-time though requires less of a time-sink does on the flip-side inevitably reveal the most blatant of faults. Namely its seemingly conserved and all-too-aware nature as a game merely testing the waters, rather than going all-in to deliver truly strange outcomes. To some, that lacking inventiveness and willing subverting of its very nature will disappoint. For others, the simple pleasure in how the game delivers such a progression again and again – not to mention the ease with which it manages to handle so much with so minimal a control scheme – will prove sufficient-enough praise. While it may not fully capitalize on the draw of its main premise, satisfying puzzle design, boss encounters and that simplest pleasure of seeing your character hop into and out of worlds on a whim lends Cocoon well-warranted and ultimately long-lasting charm.
Designed by Jeppe Carlsen who worked on Playdead’s Limbo and Inside, Cocoon is a puzzle-adventure game with a world-visiting central mechanic. By unlocking and using orbs, players will steadily make their way through a series of creative stages filled with brainteasers and monsters.
