Cocoon Reviews
A puzzle adventure of rare ingenuity that thrives on its tactility as much as its design.
Cocoon is one to remember. This puzzle adventure builds on ideas from Limbo and Inside and creates a mind-bending, world-warping adventure unlike either of them.
Worlds sit within worlds in this properly magical puzzle adventure.
A wordless and atmospheric puzzle game that's just as ingenious and inventive as Limbo and Inside, but with more substantial gameplay and perfect pacing.
"It all evokes the same galaxy-brain mind-bending puzzles of Portal, Superliminal, Marquette, and Viewfinder"
I don’t know that I will ever fully understand what transpired during my molecular journey on Cocoon’s alien world, but its imagery and puzzles will stay with me for some time.
From its puzzles to its visuals, Cocoon is a beautiful and superbly designed game that delivers a meaningful message in a subtle way.
Geometric Interactive has created an impossibility with Cocoon. It’s a joyful, improbable experience that will leave you transformed.
The thing I loved most about playing Cocoon is how often I found answers without even seeking them. It’s so keen to share its secrets with you that it works harder at creating the illusion of being lost or stuck than it does at actually trying to stump the player or leave them feeling stranded. Like a complex sequence of sleight-of-hand coin tricks, its overwhelming layers are only there to disorient you long enough that you feel surprised and delighted when the object is revealed again. And Cocoon’s tricks are ones I won’t soon forget.
Cocoon is a beautiful experience that marries a gorgeous aesthetic with increasingly complex puzzles that really push you to experiment with the game's mechanics. Whilst it isn't a long or excessively challenging game, I would urge you to absorb yourselves in its dimension-hopping delights.
Like the previous Jeppe Carlsen games, Cocoon is a special title, a wonderful little puzzle adventure that plays with original concepts and ideas. It may be brief, leaving you wanting more... But it is one of those indie games that, as soon as you are attracted to the genre, you have to play yes or yes.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
I’ve reviewed hundreds of games, and this is the first time I can say with confidence that it’s pretty much impossible to find anything bad to say about COCOON. As such, I won’t manufacture criticism. It’s a must-play experience–a real 10/10, if I gave review scores. Which I never have. Even if I just did.
What impressed me the most about Cocoon throughout much of the adventure was the sheer intuitive nature of its puzzle-solving. You might think that with no dialogue or hints, jumping into worlds within worlds and carrying them around would be hard to wrap your head around, but this game does an incredible job in its presentation, making you aware of what you can do and what you want to accomplish. Just as well, it’s a beautiful and ambient game that drew me into its mystery and made me want to unravel more through the sheer joy of cracking each layer and digging into another. The team at Geometric Interactive made something truly compelling, mind-bending, and immersive in Cocoon, and though it can prove difficult to handle all its tools, solving its mysteries is an absolute delight.
While not reinventing genre mechanics, Cocoon is an intriguing puzzle game that immerses the player in an introspective journey through spheres that encompass entire worlds within them. Despite being notably simple, it offers well-constructed enigmas and a remarkably well-balanced learning curve. It doesn't reach the expressive heights of titles like Journey but represents a significant advancement in Carlsen's games, inviting the players to reflect on themselves and the worlds they've created. Highly recommended.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Cocoon is a beautifully designed puzzler with some fascinating ideas woven throughout the fabric of the world.
Masterful geography makes this world-hopping puzzler not only a series of clever problems, but a grand exploration of a wonderfully realised cosmic universe.
It has incredible art design and presentation, is so cleverly designed, and has a pace that makes it hard to put down once things get going. The surface-level view of the game is unassuming but digging into the worlds of Cocoon reveals an experience that is unforgettable.
COCOON captured my interest from its first reveal trailer, and now it's one of my favorite games of the year. This unique, beautiful, mysterious puzzle-adventure game enraptures you from the first few seconds of gameplay, and keeps you entranced for its short runtime with fascinating world design, genuinely clever and engaging puzzles, and some of best visuals in gaming this year.
If you feel longing for something like INSIDE, Journey or ICO, then drop everything and just buy Cocoon. It's one of the most important games this year, and one that will be talked about years down the line.
Review in Russian | Read full review