Recent reviews by sno0ks

I'm giving this a thumbs down simply because I think the reviews are too positive. I'd give it a thumbs up because of the atmosphere, price, and graphics, but I don't know if I'd actually say it's good. So I'm giving it a thumbs down just to get an opposing perspective out there.

It's not really a game. You can't die. There's no fail state. It's just a short, basic puzzler with jumpscares. For me, a lot of the horror/tension went right out the window when I realized I could not fail and the "threat" was nonexistent. You can beat it in like an hour. Maybe a bit longer if you get stuck on one of the puzzles. Kind of disappointing, but there's something good here. The graphical style is excellent, but it can sometimes make it difficult to see tiny objects in the world. If you like horror games, $5 isn't too bad to experience it. If what I've said so far doesn't scare you off, it might be worth it. I want to see someone make a full-on survival horror game with this perspective and graphical style.

It's like if someone took the Dungeon Synth genre of music and made a video game out of it.

A true masterwork of game design and artistic expression.

This game is truly great. I'm not the biggest puzzler buff out there, so my experience might be different from someone who is, but Cocoon has some of the most ingenious puzzles I've seen in a game. They make great use of the theme and continue improving right up until the end. They keep adding and combining mechanics, and the word "fractal" came to mind as I saw them evolve. I'm surprised they were able to cram so many well-designed puzzles into one game. It must have taken a long time for them to plan them out to achieve a "folding in on itself" feeling while simultaneously maintaining a very forward-oriented flow. The puzzles are constantly thrown at you. Some are easy, most are a bit challenging, and some are real brain twisters. There were only one or two puzzles that felt lazy/stupid, but they didn't detract from the experience at all. On top of the great, intelligent design, it also has an amazing visual aesthetic and soundtrack. They really knocked it out of the park on this one. Pretty much every element is done well, and it feels very unique and innovative. It's exactly what a great game is. I beat it in about 4.5 hours, which sounds short, but it really didn't feel like it. I wholeheartedly endorse this game. Again, this is not a genre I have the most experience with, so for all I know it was done better before, but I can only speak to my experience. Cocoon comes as close to a 10/10 as I can think of.

Terrible to look at. Terrible to play. Tells you absolutely nothing. You might get away with 2/3 but 3/3 and your game sucks, dog.

Solid soundtrack. Fairly unique story. Decent puzzles. Good sense of humor. It's crow time.

I played this to death on the PS4 when it launched. It's the only game I've ever platinumed (admittedly easy to do). People glaze this game to high heaven, but in many ways it is mediocre, so don't go in expecting a masterpiece. It has a lot of jank and is a very simple and derivative game. But it does do combat very well, and it's one of the best looking games ever made. I took probably 300 screenshots with the photo mode on PS4 and I'll probably take another 1000 on PC. The story is mid, but it has a few beats that are absolutely phenomenal. It's a solid 7/10 game that's elavated to an 8 or 9 just based on the theme and art direction. It's one of my favorite game worlds to be in. The Legends mode is also really fun in its own right.

Absolute piece of ♥♥♥♥ software. Also it lacks the Japanese soul of the original in favor of a notice me westpai vibe.

Really good game if you like stuff like Valheim. It's more of an ARPG-lite, so don't go in expecting an ARPG. It's more like Valheim with ARPG combat. It has one of the best base building systems ever. You can really design your castle down to minute detail and you have a lot of freedom in constructing it. There are a ton of decorations. The castle building is the draw for me. I'm sure PvP adds a lot to the game, but I prefer to just play solo and build epic castles and not have to worry about them getting robbed/destroyed. In EA, it felt a bit unbalanced for solo, but it feels like they nerfed normal difficulty, so that isn't really an issue anymore. Not 100 on the nerf, it could just be that I have more experience now, but it definitely seems easier. They also significantly improved performance since early access, so the stutters that used to plague it are mostly gone. Get it if you like base building. It's top tier for that. If that's not your thing, the PvP might hook you, but I can't speak on that. The PvE can be really good, but it alone might not justify the whole game. Everything feeds into base building so if you care about that, everything else is more fun.

This game is very much unfinished, but what is there can still offer 15-20 hours of some serious fun, maybe more. The overall vibe is really nice. The colorwork, the music, it all comes together to make for a really uplifting experience. The overall progression is still fairly limited, but there are already a ton of cosmetic options available and they give you a lot of fine control over placement. For example, you can place objects on top of certain other objects. I made a gazebo with a couple chairs and a table with a chess board. It might not sound like a big deal, but it really empowers player creativity being able to combine decorations like that. The space you're given to explore and build in is really big and feels fairly complete. Finishing the first chunk of "story" they gave us does feel like a coherent whole and satisifes without feeling as incomplete as it is. There are also clearly a ton of interesting and unique-looking islands with their own biomes you can see on the ocean horizon that we will almost certainly be given access to eventually. I really like this game, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how it develops. I can see so much future content just based on what is here already. I just pray to the gaming gods that Embracer doesn't dump the devs during this time of tumult in the gaming industry. There is something really special here, and I would he heartbroken to see it die on the vine.