Atop my again, the world gently jostles. An orange orb comprises inside it an entire planet. I’m an insect, presumably natural in nature, or mechanical, or each. I’m no Atlas, and but this feat of unattainable energy will not be past me. I place the orb on a pedestal and kneel earlier than it, launching into the air earlier than diving headfirst into this different world. Orange orb turns into orange world, and inside it, there are extra mysteries.
Cocoon is the debut sport from Geometric Interactive, based by former Playdead workers Jakob Schmid and Jeppe Carlsen. Carlsen was the lead gameplay designer for Limbo and Inside, and his affect is prevalent right here, albeit with about 100% extra shade and 85% much less horror. (There may be nonetheless the occasional undulating biomass.) Just like Limbo and Inside, Cocoon is a brief however memorable expertise, a single-button puzzler with evocative visuals that begins quietly and ends on a spectacular crescendo.
It’s tough to say with precision what Cocoon is about. Metamorphosis, maybe, but additionally stasis. Order and dysfunction. The cosmos and the biosphere. The top, the start, and their interrelation. Totally wordless, Cocoon’s narrative is evocative however elusive. The whole lot is gesture and implication. What’s parasite and what’s symbiote is left so that you can resolve. It’s the uncommon sport that leaves this a lot room for interpretation, a deliberate ambiguity that enhances Cocoon’s satisfying however linear puzzles.
![The small protagonist of Cocoon travels down a giant hive-like being](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/o7n8Aiy_uMQvdl-MxAlDfbDyJX8=/0x0:2560x1440/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:2560x1440):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24954372/cocoon_hive_brain_.jpg)
Picture: Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive through Polygon
The sport begins with a beginning. A streak of sunshine strikes a mountain, touring down and right into a metallic cocoon at its base, which shudders and opens, revealing the participant character: a bipedal insectoid most carefully resembling a beetle.
You start to wander. Preliminary puzzles are easy — simply switches or pulleys. Rapidly, although, you discover a unusual equipment on the bottom: a metallic grate with off-white tendrils poking by means of its vents. You kneel on it, and instantly you’re launched up and out of the world, right into a darkish room with an orange orb. Then, one thing sinister awakens and dives into the orange orb. You carry the orb out and away, into a brand new world the place you employ it to resolve change puzzles.
The sport can initially really feel simplistic. Early challenges contain putting the orb on receptacles to open doorways or energy bridges. Hardly novel stuff. Defeating the primary boss unlocks a brand new potential for the orb — the power to disclose invisible orange platforms — however even that, audiovisually pleasing although it’s, is generally only a means by which to uncover extra pathways to orb receptacles that open doorways or energy bridges.
However simplicity, in Cocoon, is short-lived.
![The titular Cocoon in Cocoon, before it opens up to reveal the insect-like protagonist](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/b4ybPKL-m73rjG3VCGv03_lH6Ag=/0x0:2560x1440/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:2560x1440):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24954374/cocoon_puzzle_game_inside_limbo.jpg)
Picture: Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive through Polygon
It isn’t till Cocoon introduces a second orb to the equation that the sport’s complexity comes into focus. Abruptly, it isn’t nearly bouncing between two worlds, however three. And now, it isn’t nearly transferring between them, however layering them. You possibly can place the inexperienced orb contained in the orange orb by leaving the inexperienced orb contained in the orange world, then popping again to the overworld, the place you possibly can decide up the orange orb once more, now with a inexperienced orb floating inside it. Complicated? Strap in. I gained’t spoil what number of orbs you’re anticipated to juggle by the sport’s finish, every with their very own particular potential, however by Cocoon’s conclusion, my preliminary hesitations had all however vanished within the face of the sport’s inventiveness and pitch-perfect pacing. Devious however honest, Cocoon doesn’t lack for problem or the power to astound.
Cocoon’s sound design deserves ample reward alongside its visuals and gameplay. A beautiful synth soundtrack accompanies your journey, sometimes threaded with a dampened piano glissando that by no means fails to encourage dread. The sport performs a selected melody if you’ve solved a puzzle, however cleverly, it begins to play simply as you’re approaching the answer, creating this pleasing interval the place you are feeling not solely sensible however positive of your self — which is nice, since you’re going to want that surety to see the sport by means of to its conclusion.
![The insect-like protagonist of Cocoon pauses before a bridge in a desert environment](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/fHanLHnfvuEK3gRyHWmQEyK-Tbs=/0x0:2560x1440/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:2560x1440):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24954390/cocoon_bridge_desert.jpg)
Picture: Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive through Polygon
Cocoon will not be lengthy, however it’s dense. My preliminary playthrough clocked in at round 4 hours, and I added one other two hours to my playtime by looking for out the remaining Moon Ancestors, optionally available puzzles which can be hidden all through the sport. I wouldn’t need it to be longer, nevertheless. Cocoon is a wonderfully edited sport, narrowed right down to its most important components, introduced with out filler. It’s the form of sport you’ll want you may expertise once more for the primary time, delighting on the complexity its builders have been capable of wring out of a sport managed with a single button.
A late-game puzzle includes the creation of an impossibility. One thing that appears to interrupt the sport’s guidelines, and but doesn’t, beneath the ever-thickening logic of Cocoon. It was at that second that I knew Cocoon was a whole sport — one which sees by means of each permutation of its conceit. Thorough, I feel, is the very best phrase to explain it.
Geometric Interactive has created an impossibility with Cocoon. It’s a joyful, unbelievable expertise that may depart you reworked.
Cocoon might be launched Sept. 29 on Nintendo Change, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Collection X. The sport was reviewed on PC utilizing a pre-release obtain code supplied by Annapurna Interactive. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These don’t affect editorial content material, although Vox Media could earn commissions for merchandise bought through affiliate hyperlinks. Yow will discover extra details about Polygon’s ethics coverage right here.