This is everything I've wanted in a love letter to one of my favourite games

This is a level all the people on twitter would think everyone on Hyperbolus hates because it has good art. Well I'm here to tell you there are many reasons why those levels end up with bad reviews. They don't have any actual gameplay to them, or at least, any gameplay with thought or care put into it. In "The Depths Above" the creator clearly shows they care about this game and their level. They managed to create both good art and good interactive gameplay that fits well with the theme and style of the level. This is how you make a good art level. Creators please take notes!!

Feels like a love letter to the game it's centered around in a way that a lot of these levels based around games don't really capture. Also looks very pretty in its own right, which helps. Has a slight case of predropitis and some other awkward gameplay sections scattered around, but it shouldn't matter as much if you've beaten harder levels. Overall a very nice showing from Bram.

The Depths Above is a level heavily based on the game Outer Wilds that is faithful in its approach while still adding a fairly unique spin on the "game remake" genre of levels. The choice to not make this a platformer level is interesting considering how heavily Outer Wilds prioritises a free-roam, exploration-driven approach to its gameplay and storytelling, but Bram4Real pulled this off well and it helps differentiate the level from the game. The Depths Above reuses many of the planets, environments and story elements from Outer Wilds, but pieces them together in a more linear fashion in line with the intended player progression of the game - I won't elaborate on this too much in order to not spoil Outer Wilds' story, but I would highly recommend playing the game if this interests you.

Each individual part and cutscene is recognisable as its comparative element from the game, but the way everything fits together feels like the player is watching an advertisement for the game rather than playing the game itself, which I think is a much better approach than directly remaking the game. It allows Bram4Real to exercise far more creative freedom over how the gameplay works with each individual part's theming, backgrounds, block designs and some of the transition effects like the Mask. There are also lots of little details included that reference the game itself, such as the gravity on Giant's Deep being much higher than normal and the memory rewind after running into the anglerfish in Dark Bramble, which I quite like. (edited)

I do wish that more effort was made to incorporate some of Outer Wilds' gameplay elements into the level. The aforementioned gravity trick is interesting, but I think there's plenty to be done with elements like space's natural lack of gravity, the black hole in the centre of Brittle Hollow, and many other things that feel oddly left out. Ultimately, The Depths Above feels a bit half-hearted in its Outer Wilds-esque approach because of this, considering that ultimately this is a level that is meant to be played, and I would have loved to see more creative incorporations of major elements from the game in order to better connect the two. With that said, though, this is still an excellent showing from Bram4Real and I am very happy to see some representation of Outer Wilds in GD, being one of my favourite games of all time. I would personally recommend this level for Epic and look forward to seeing more from this creator.

Great level. Intensity is quite muddled which is my main issue with it but the worlds you traverse and how exploratory this level feels is absolutely commendable for being a classic level. Would probably like this more if my PC could run Outer Wilds

I love outer wilds but lowkey playing this level is more fun than playing outer wilds