Cocoon review - mind-boggling recursive world puzzles
You're an insect-like creature who just emerged from a cocoon and landed in an beautiful alien world. Despite having wings, all you can do is walk around and activate buttons. Oh, you can also carry an entire world on your back.
You can go in and out of this world you're carrying. You can already imagine that you will have to go in a world to do or find something and come back to the "parent" world to progress.
Cocoon uses these seemingly simple elements to build some of the best puzzles I've had the chance to play in recent years. The puzzles near the end were particularly satisfying to solve. Even though the puzzles are mind-boggling, they were never that difficult to figure out, but they still made me feel smart and that's always a good feeling. New mechanics will appear as you play, but they're always introduced at a good pace and they always make the game more interesting.
Beside the clever puzzles, Cocoon also looks and sounds great. The worlds feel distinct from one another and the soundtrack fits perfectly. Check out the trailer below if you want to have an idea of how it looks and plays.
Cocoon is a very relaxed game for the most part, you can take your time with most puzzles, only a few require some timing, but it's pretty lenient. The only parts that require more reflexes are the few boss battles that never take too long and that you can try again quickly when you fail. The game is very linear and doesn't have a strong narrative, you're simply an insect-like creature existing in an alien world.
Cocoon takes about 4 to 5 hours to complete and is available now on PC, PlayStation, PC, and Xbox. It's currently on Xbox Game Pass if you have that.
I strongly recommend you pick this one up, it's definitely one of the best puzzle games of 2023.