The best of Cocoon is back-loaded, so you do have to make your way through some okay puzzles before you get to the good stuff.
Pros
1. Everything is so slick. All the animations (jumping in and out of orbs, opening up orb stations, upgrading orbs, all the different kinds of doors, elevators, etc) are exquisite.
2. Using the different orb's powers and upgrading them. The drip feed of new mechanics and combining them in satisfying ways.
3. The puzzle design progressively gets more interesting as new mechanics are introduced and expanded upon.
4. The sound design is phenomenal. The sound of depositing and picking up orbs. So good! I love that stuff. There is so much attention to detail. Moving through the grass and walking over the different surfaces all add subtle auditory details.
5. Something I found out while playing was that the music will change once you are on the right track and are about to solve a puzzle. I didn't even notice it at first, but after many instances, it was clear that they were giving a subtle nod to the player that they were going to solve it. It was simply brilliant. It felt like they were in your head, going "Yep, you're doing it correctly. Keep going!" I feel like I saw something similar in the game Creaks, but I may be misremembering. Another great game with generative audio.
6. Its presentation is gorgeous. I'm often caught off guard by how immaculate Cocoon looks. It's truly ensconced in stylistic flourishes that stop me in my tracks. It's a masterclass in visual design.
Cons
1. Orb backtracking gets tedious at points.
2. I wish the puzzles were more difficult.
3. I wish the story had more substance. It's the vaguest of Jeppe Carlson's games. With Limbo and Inside, I could speculate about their stories and meanings, but with Cocoon I don't have much to go on. You're running through the remnants of some dormant civilization. The ending was showing a metamorphosis or something. It wasn't very compelling.
4. The secret ending wasn’t worth the extreme effort required to pull it off.
5. Its boss fight design isn't that inspired and relies upon the design of many other games.
I think using the hidden and dormant guardian areas would have been a good place to add more difficult and optional puzzles for those inclined. That would have satisfied both camps: Those who just want a flow-like puzzler with little friction and those who want optional difficult puzzles. Maybe that is what they would have done, but ran out of time to implement them. That may have been the case since at least one guardian did have a puzzle attached to its activation.
Pros
1. Everything is so slick. All the animations (jumping in and out of orbs, opening up orb stations, upgrading orbs, all the different kinds of doors, elevators, etc) are exquisite.
2. Using the different orb's powers and upgrading them. The drip feed of new mechanics and combining them in satisfying ways.
3. The puzzle design progressively gets more interesting as new mechanics are introduced and expanded upon.
4. The sound design is phenomenal. The sound of depositing and picking up orbs. So good! I love that stuff. There is so much attention to detail. Moving through the grass and walking over the different surfaces all add subtle auditory details.
5. Something I found out while playing was that the music will change once you are on the right track and are about to solve a puzzle. I didn't even notice it at first, but after many instances, it was clear that they were giving a subtle nod to the player that they were going to solve it. It was simply brilliant. It felt like they were in your head, going "Yep, you're doing it correctly. Keep going!" I feel like I saw something similar in the game Creaks, but I may be misremembering. Another great game with generative audio.
6. Its presentation is gorgeous. I'm often caught off guard by how immaculate Cocoon looks. It's truly ensconced in stylistic flourishes that stop me in my tracks. It's a masterclass in visual design.
Cons
1. Orb backtracking gets tedious at points.
2. I wish the puzzles were more difficult.
3. I wish the story had more substance. It's the vaguest of Jeppe Carlson's games. With Limbo and Inside, I could speculate about their stories and meanings, but with Cocoon I don't have much to go on. You're running through the remnants of some dormant civilization. The ending was showing a metamorphosis or something. It wasn't very compelling.
4. The secret ending wasn’t worth the extreme effort required to pull it off.
5. Its boss fight design isn't that inspired and relies upon the design of many other games.
I think using the hidden and dormant guardian areas would have been a good place to add more difficult and optional puzzles for those inclined. That would have satisfied both camps: Those who just want a flow-like puzzler with little friction and those who want optional difficult puzzles. Maybe that is what they would have done, but ran out of time to implement them. That may have been the case since at least one guardian did have a puzzle attached to its activation.