This is the first platformer I've beaten where I left feeling like it was just achieved everything it wanted to do and it's just perfect. I thought it was really cool when I first saw it albeit really confusing, but once I figured out how to go about this level and I beat it it was so satisfying and that experience was what heightened the experience for me.

When you start PCB, you're just dropped into the level without any form of introduction. You see this alien language, some text you can't read, some values you can interact with and change, and a small sense of dread from the music, beeping sounds, and this background of a vast, expansive, yet inhuman place. You have no idea what anything you're looking at is nor do you know what to do, all you know is that you need to do something. Pretty much everyone will spend their first attempt just trying every button they can yet nothing happens, they feel helpless and confused. Their time runs out, they could not escape. Time to start over.

If playing the level was the only thing the player did, this seems like everything PCB has to offer: an inexorable countdown towards an inevitable death that will always happen. To understand what's going on here, the player will need to look in the description, as there are resources to tell you what is going on and what some of the values mean. Having to use external resources to solve a GD level may be a turn-off for some people, but I really like when levels are able to incorporate external resources since this allows the creator to think outside of the metaphorical box they're locked into if they choose to only use the GD editor and nothing else. Here, I think X Future incorporated external resources to just the perfect extent. He struck a good balance between giving some useful information but not too much to the point where the path becomes immediately obvious. I've seen some comments which are like "I've read the accompanying documentation and I still have no idea what is going on!" and I think comments like those further show the brilliance in the accompanying documents. You need to really analyze everything you're looking at if you want to have any hope of breaking free of the death loop. Once you get a grip, the level essentially becomes a game of Wordle except you got sent to hell on an alien planet. It's something more digestible than the esoteric nonsense PCB looked like upon first impression, but it isn't by any means free.

Alright, we know what's all going on here, let's take a crack at trying to get out of here. Once I started to get runs where I had figured out some of the values, the amount of stress this level puts on you and the strong atmosphere this level is able to create are some of the best I've ever felt from a platformer level. You get to feel the anxiety a little bit even if you're just watching the level pass you by as you struggle to understand anything, but once you know what you're doing the level shifts into feeling like a fate you can avoid, you just don't know if you have enough time to. This level does so many small things that, during attempts, just causes the critical thinking part of my brain to just shut off. The most obvious things are the song shifting into a much more urgent despair and the level turns red and becomes distorted, but there's much more than that. PCB is rather minimal with its sound effects (using only 5 total), but X Future gets a lot of mileage out of these. There's this constant beeping throughout that almost sounds like a heartrate monitor. Halfway through, these alarm beeps come in and they feel like the type of sound that would play when there's a deadly leak somewhere (and judging by the particles that come in, maybe there is). There's this loud, deep alarm that comes in and it sounds like something that would play inside a facility that needs to be evacuated immediately. They're all things integrated so well they initiate your fight-or-flight response and take up the space in your brain you're supposed to be using to process the information that's on your screen. Another example would be the 5 seconds it takes to get results every time you submit a code. It's not too long, but it's just enough time for the player to start praying. As you start to run out of time near the end of the level, the weight of each of these seconds becomes heavier and heavier. This little wait you have to get results each time also comes with its own HR monitor-like sound to further add to your anxiety as you wait. My final example has to be the glitches that happen later in this level. There are glitchy shaders, however there are moments where a letter or number will glitch out and show the wrong value for a split second. When watching the level, this seems like something trivial but when you're sitting there fighting against your own brain to think straight, seeing the wrong number in the wrong place for just a split second sets off all the siren bells in your head makes you think you did something wrong for that split second. There's all of these things PCB does to try to get you to just stop thinking, give up, and die. However, once you know everything you need to do, the level starts to feel like a fight against your own brain and to keep concentrated and keep thinking clearly despite everything trying to get you to stop, and you have some hope. It's because of all these things that make solving the code and getting out so satisfying. You were able to control your nerves and you feel like you were able to escape an impossible fate.

I think that's everything, this level is just perfect in its execution. I've historically been terrible with puzzles, yet I absolutely loved this. If you think you're up for the challenge this level offers, please give this level a shot. Escaping has never felt so rewarding.

We love a good puzzle level. Honestly, I cannot for the life of me figure out how to solve this, so I can't comment much on the actual puzzle design, but aesthetically this ticks just about every imaginable box. Using an alien language for the codes is a good way to add more mystery to the puzzles, and combined with the vaguely industrial backgrounds and the low-quality CRT-like display the player has access to does a good job at making PAIN CONTROL BUS feel like you're tasked to solve an impossible puzzle in an alien civilization. I like this, as it adds more mystery and provides a pretty unique setting for the level.

The emphasis on the impossible part is important - it adds another layer of stress and panic as you're forced to solely rely on memory and pattern recognition rather than any linguistic skills. This is accentuated by the ticking timer and the slow, burning build of both the song's intensity and the progressive breaking down of the level as the colours shift from blue to red and the screen distorts. All of this makes PAIN CONTROL BUS a really enthralling experience (despite my absolute inability to actually solve it), and one of the most stressful levels I've ever played despite the lack of any traditional gameplay. The payoff at the end is really nice, too, as the colours fade to white and the level slowly fades away as if expressing its own sense of relief at being solved and averting whatever consequence might have followed failure. I would recommend this level for Legendary, and think all other puzzle-type levels should take notes on what I previously mentioned makes this such an effective experience.

This is one of my favorite platformers. Music representation is perfectly shown in visuals. I really like the vibe of going through a mysterious place. Gameplay is very well made, but the less you know before playing, the better experience you can get. Overall a very good level, that I rebeaten a few times.