My favorite of Split's.

Admittedly this 10/10 is probably biased because this is one of my favorite songs, but still.

WHY.

IS.

THIS.

NOT.

RATED!!!

It’s always exciting to see Split72 make something outside the box, like her year old level Elaboration. Being a seven minute long Easy Demon using only 30% of The Watcher by Cacola, this level takes you on a trip that matches the uncanny nature of the song.

Like a lot of Split’s other levels, Elaboration features a lot of solid-color block designs with few intricate details added. This level also features a lot of double layered backgrounds which always look nice. Although Split did not stray away from her style, this level builds an eerie character through the colors and shaders. This level uses an entirely black background and white blocks, making the player feel like they are in some mysterious place. Additionally, this level uses a lot of inverse shaders. Normally, I frown upon inverse shader usage, but they work well in this level, giving an unnatural sensation.

Unfortunately, this level is not perfect. I understand this was built as a simple vent project, but there are still some issues that hurt the quality of the level. For being a progression-based level, Elaboration lacks the key quality of slowly introducing aspects or assets that build the progression. This is very evident as the parts switch up decoration instantly. I think it would have been very nice to see the parts blend together, as this would have helped the progression a lot. Another issue I would like to mention is the lack of variety in the parts. Even though there are a handful of very different parts, the parts themselves last very long without doing much for variety. I believe Split could have easily introduced some occasional assets or trigger work found exclusively in certain parts to freshen up the level.

For being a simple and mysterious project, Elaboration does what it wants to do very well. The eerie nature of the level makes it an experience to play, but there are still some issues present. Regardless, I would love to see this get a Star Rate.