Xbox Game Pass’ latest mind-bending puzzler is almost impossible to put down

Despite having not played it since its release in 2016, I haven’t really been able to stop thinking about Inside. I bought it on a bit of a whim, and started it late at night, probably the best way you can experience the kind of game that it is. Of course, I told myself “I’ll just play for an hour and go to bed.” Reader, that did not happen. In fact, I finished it the same night because I just couldn’t put it down. There was something so compelling about its mysterious, dystopian setting that the idea of stopping felt impossible; ironically, that almost seemed to parallel the very story it ended up telling. And here I am again with Cocoon, struggling to pull myself away from the controller because I just need to keep going.

If you haven’t heard of it, Cocoon is the debut title from Geometric Interactive, a studio formed by former Playdead developer and lead gameplay designer of Limbo and Inside Jeppe Carlsen. I think on the face of it, Cocoon might be a little difficult to explain. You play as this alien, bug-like creature, and you can’t really do anything other than walk around. Eventually, you find this futuristic looking pad that, once you interact with it, transports you outside of the world you were exploring, showing you that the entirety of it is contained in a simple glass orb.

That’s the main concept of the game, travelling to and from different worlds, shrinking and enlarging yourself in and out of them, carrying them around from place to place. As you progress, you essentially collect more and more of these orb worlds, some of which you’ll have to visit more than once, and even take one world inside the other. If you think too hard about it, you might start to feel some kind of existential dread, so maybe it’s better to just think “wow video games are cool!”