- Tested on PC (RTX 4070 IT in 4K)
- Steam code transmitted by editor
- Game also available on the Game Pass
- Finished in six hours thirty of a milking!
- Home gameplay and screenshots, giff editor.
Gamescom after Gamescom, there are games that we learned to flar over the years. Already identified during our preview Colognaise, we explain why you should let go Starfield and go to play Cocoon Hey! Ambitious environmental game puzzle, Cocoon Is he the illegitimate child of Playdead?
I'll survive you like a comeback!
Behind the name of Jeppe Carlsen hides the lead gameplay designer at the origin of Limbo and its spiritual continuation Inside. For those who did not follow the Danish adventures, the Playdead studio at the origin of these two video game monuments was amputated from one of its two legs. After enjoying a dithyrambic critical success, to the general surprise, these two founders Dino Patti and Arnt Jensen had separated in 2016. Like any good divorce and the image of a boys band which bursts at its peak, there is always one that succeeds better than its former partner. If for the hour Somerville produced by Dino Patti had cooled usWould the Danish good star have gone to the Geometric InteractivAnd his new captain: Jeppe Carlsen?
We will have to wait a little while before we know whether this defector will impact the next Playdead production, which is currently increased to about fifty members to develop a third game, moreover announced as a work of science fiction and a first entry into 3D. Somewhat hungry since InsideSo it was with an unhidden curiosity that we plunged into Cocoon. After six and a half hours of a treat yesterday, we came out delighted by this reflective journey between dreamism and lunar exploration. In the pure tradition of Playdead games including Cocoon does not hide his kinship, tutorials, texts and cinematics are banned to let the player simmer without any other fireworks and to the benefit of raw gameplay.
A dream within a dream
No HUD therefore and a gameplay that holds in one button. We control a kind of humanoid cicada that evolves in worlds contained in orbs that can be carried by a simple press of the action button. Some receptacles allow to deposit the precious sphere and dive inside it to discover an entirely different planet. Impossible to jump and only our reflection will allow us to move forward.
Simple but never simplistic, this idea of gameplay will be declined throughout the adventure until the worlds are intrigued to solve puzzles. Each orb has a specific power that will be used to advance to reveal passages, change the structure of certain objects or draw projectiles to name just a few examples. Every idea is deepened without recycling and combined with the mechanics of travel and return by the orbs.
In the image ofInception and its logic of dreams in cascades, we will switch from one universe to another with an elegant animation in real time and without any loading time. Like an Ariane thread, these orbs should be used and moved to the end. Very quickly the mechanics become complex because one can put one orb in another, like a Russian doll. In the last chapters, the game even goes so far as to offer internal portals that return to a host orb, which will give the vertigo and make our neurons smoke.
Simple. Basic.
Like the whole wave of independent games since Limbo, Hollow Knight or more recently Scorn (read our folder), Cocoon is based on a perfectly controlled environmental narrative. We take pleasure in interacting with these alien biomes, these massive proto-industrial structures that leave the part to imagination. Are all these interconnected organic devices the result of extraterrestrial intervention? It doesn't matter if the imagination generates its own reality. Cocoon immediately succeeds in making his labyrinthic universe credible, as if an ancient civilization had abandoned these lands, where he wanders as a returner.
In the absence of texts, it was probably essential for the player to have feedback on his own actions. Music acts as a binder and thus plays a fundamental role since it will only occur at key moments. The OST is marked by powerful basses and an atmospheric electro with a legacy assumed at the work of Carpenter. To build his game, Jeppe Carlsen adopted a clear and devilishly effective approach as he explained recently on X:
«When I stopped wondering if this puzzle was full enough and instead I asked myself whether it was quite stimulating, the game became much better. Some puzzles are real puzzles, but others are simply used to connect to the world(s). »
The best of the worlds
The progress is finally marked by fighting against bosses, the opportunity to experiment with new gameplay ideas. No game over in Cocoon, since in case of failure the monster will project us outside the host orb. Each skirmish has its own grammar and recalls the best of the mini-boss in three stages of Nintendo productions. It is only after they have been defeated that the latter will turn into a cloud of black particles (like the creators of Prometheus) before turning into an orb.
With its rich colour palette and texture flats, Cocoon immediately manages to impose its style. One likes to evolve in its fantastic universes where puzzles chain with flexibility unique to the great games. Devilly effective, gameplay is declined until its concept is exhausted. If you only block on rare occasions, fluidity in learning and solving puzzles is an example of intelligent level design. We imagine how complex the development must have been. Every world is interconnected inside and outside could be said. Brilliant both in form and in substance, Cocoon takes over some of the elements that made Playdead's success while opening its own path. Cocoon's wealth comes from its ability to communicate its worlds with the player. The game speaks to us in silence and we have to listen to it. The mark of instant classics.
For
- Artistic direction with small onions
- Example of environmental narrative
- Level design costaud
- Gameplay declined until exhaustion
- Fluidity in progression
- Beautiful part left to the imagination
- No HUD
- No (con)text
- The Russian doll side
- Originality of bosses
Against
- No (yet) ultra-large screen support
I finished the game too and what an experience! He reminded Hyper Light Drifter about certain aspects. I also strongly advise him. The RB of Disasterpeace, twilight, is fantastic.