COCOON

Если бы песня Tool была игрой

If you are familiar with Limbo and Inside you can see the semblance of minimalist philosophy, even though it is not as dark and somber, it still makes you contemplate for a deeper meaning. The game thrives from the minimal handholding, minimal UI, minimal everything - less is more and it is applaudable the feat which was achieved here. The puzzles are very balanced. For me personally, they felt very seamless, I never thought once when playing this game that I have to solve a puzzle, I never saw them as an artificial obstacle, thinking to myself “oh, another puzzle to solve, let’s get going”. The puzzles blended very well with the level and the focus was not on overcoming difficulty but rather gaining understanding of the game’s systems. Once you solve a puzzle you get the prerequisite knowledge to solve the next and you become more knowledgeable about the world. The “orb worlds” mechanic is very interesting, [spoiler] at first you would think that it is a clever way to transport more world orbs, [/spoiler] but close to the end of the game you get introduced to a mind-blowing application of the mechanic. It literally went from “huh, that’s cool” to “no way, you can do THAT?”. What truly stood out for me was that there was no handholding, no markers, no outright written quests, nothing was spelled out for you, but at the same time the game guides you so elegantly that it is eerie how well thought the levels are. Cocoon is different through the way it makes the player learn about the world and its systems, you are not forced into a failed state, not a traditional one at least, instead you are learning through the interaction with the puzzles of the world, logic and contextual queues taking care of the rest. A very relaxing and rewarding experience, not mind-blowing, not flashy, but memorable for entirely new reasons. It was not the story, it was not the conclusion either, it was the atmosphere and I am grateful to have enjoyed it.