Very strong conceptual foundation getting you to experiment around with the gameplay, can't praise that enough, and in fact I think it's been praised too much given that a lot of the execution is lacking. Color puzzle will have you stuck in there for 10 minutes wondering what the fuck the solution is until you finally give up and watch a showcase which not only teaches you that you should've been paying attention to the colors in the ball but also that the order isn't random which is a major missed opportunity. And speaking of missed opportunities, #9 feels like such a waste of potential I couldn't help but feel disappointed when I figured out it's so simple. You have all these orbs flying around and for what?

The worst offender in the execution though is after you've solved all the puzzles. I really would've preferred... Literally anything else over "regular level with a different song", thanks. Some suggestions include

• The rest of the original song

• A little bit of the original song (ideal)

• Nothing

extremely creative and fun to figure out, in fi ni ty was already one of my favorite levels

We lowering the average with this one 🗣️

Real talk, I actually love this level on a conceptual level. The concept of playing rooms that endlessly repeat and trying to find some way out of them is actually really novel, and I think it was executed pretty much perfectly here. And that’s not even mentioning the great aesthetic, with some cool machinery and symbolism to give a testing facility vibe. It’s ominous, but still feels pretty straightforward and approachable to a casual audience. My only real complaint with this level is just that it’s, like… not very fun? It’s not because it’s super awkward or janky, so it has that going for it, but the level really lacks substantive gameplay once you’ve figured out all the puzzle solutions. It often boils down to “click an extra time in this one place with semi-accurate precision,” really meaning that after you play the level once, or hell, play through a puzzle once, there’s very little else to do in it. The rating mostly comes down to matter of replay value. After discovering the main route… I mean, what else is there really to do? Deaths feel kind of monotonous, since there’s not much to engage with beyond a first attempt.

And speaking of death, that really brings me to my other major complaint with the level. I just find this level to be too hard for what it’s trying to do. Sometimes, to get that essence of “replay value,” I might hand this level off to a friend or family member to see them try it. A couple have made their way through, but more often than not, they hand the phone back to me because the gameplay was just too difficult for them to grasp. By easy demon standards I still think this level is pretty chill, but I would honestly argue that this level just shouldn’t have been a demon. Maybe that could be done just by nerfing the difficulty of the trials, but I think the much more reasonable approach would have been to add some sort of makeshift checkpoint systems. One that, when you die, will just put you back in the trial you’re on. I think that would make the concept stand out far more, because in its current state, it feels a bit overshadowed by the stress of dying and running it back from square one. This would be especially beneficial at the end, since that part just plays normally, making added deaths just… extraordinarily frustrating.

There’s definitely much to love about this level, but I think the structure is highly flawed. With some tweaks to the gameplay, mainly through some light nerfs, this could have been a really great time. Currently, though… while I don’t hate it, it’s rare that I ever have a desire to revisit it.

Experiment is everything that “IN FI NI TY by AudieoVisual” tried to be but even better, a true classic of experimental 2.2 gameplay that I believe will be remembered for decades.

The core gimmick of this level’s gameplay is that you play through the same loops of gameplay over and over again, potentially forever, and your job as the player is to figure out how to escape the loop. This is a rare classic level that can take arbitrarily long - you can either speedrun it and break out of each loop as soon as possible or you could spend hours playing the same loop forever. This gimmick has been attempted in a few other rated classic levels, but none do it nearly as well as experiment and for that reason I think the gimmick will forever be associated with experiment by mbed

The first loop does a great job of introducing the concept - the loop repeats very fast telling the player something is not as it seems and there is a very clear opening in the floor after the pink orb below the two green orbs that clues the player as to how to escape this loop. By simply hitting the pink orb and skipping the other orbs it is easy to escape this loop, a gentle introduction to what could be a mean gimmick.

The second loop is a bit trickier but still approachable. You have a sequence of a black orb, than a dash orb, than another black orb followed by some breakable blocks in the floor. The breakable blocks are clearly visible which clues the player that they might need some height to jump onto and break those blocks, continuing the downward escape route from the first route. By skipping the black orb and taking a secret way to gain height, you can jump through the floor breaking the loop.

The third loop is possibly the easiest loop so far - you have a sequence of three spider orbs, but one spider orb is noticeably close to a floor platform which clues the player that if they time that spider orb late they can flip gravity and jump below the floor.

The fourth loop is the most sophisticated so far. You have a pulley system between two platforms - jumping on either platform causes that platform to fall and the other rises. There is a clear exit below the second platform, but it can only be accessed if the first platform is low while the second platform is high. This clues the player that they can do a well timed jump on the first platform that skips the second platform on one cycle to expose the exit on the next cycle, at which point exiting the loop is easy.

The fifth loop is probably the jankiest as it relies on the unorthodox nature of the spider. The exit is again clearly visible at the bottom of the screen, which clues the player they need to flip gravity at the very edge of a ceiling to access the exit. This timing is a bit precise and may be tricky for beginners. That being said, I like that the exit is obvious in this loop and that it teaches the player some niche spider tech.

The sixth loop repeats the gimmick from the second loop with the breakable blocks in the floor. This time it’s a little more involved as you are a robot and need to be normal sized to be able to break the floor (being mini and having enough height isn’t enough). This clues the player they need to skip the mini portal and jump on the breakable blocks to escape this loop.

The seventh loop breaks the pattern of the exit being at the bottom of the screen. This loop uses the new 2.2 green portal and is a great example of why green portals are fundamentally different from blue / yellow gravity portals. By abusing the ball’s gravity change mechanics at the right time you can enter a green gravity portal with the opposite of the intended gravity which allows you to access the exit that is clearly visible in the ceiling. This loop is also worth noting because one of the platforms has a colored pattern - purple, blue, red, green, black.

The eighth loop is the most cluttered loop up to this point. You are now the ship gamemode and must dodge a bunch of orbs and jump pads. By interacting with orbs / pads that follow the color pattern from the seventh loop, it is possible to escape this loop. I think for most people, myself included, this is the worst loop in experiment. First of all, the clue to escape is in the previous loop and will be missed by most players. Second, this is the first loop where the escape route isn't visible. That being said, it is possible to pass this via trial and error, it’s just annoying to do so. I appreciate there are no obstacles here, that makes this a little less frustrating.

The ninth loop is a mini cube part. No escape route is visible, but there’s noticeably no ceiling which clues the player they need to go up. By using a red orb to access a high platform to fall and buffer the top of a dash orb, it’s possible to get the trajectory you need to dash into the air which escapes this loop. I like this loop gives you the feeling of being outdoors which makes it feel like you’re close to escaping.

The tenth loop involves repeatedly jumping over 4 spikes. Some indicators reveal if you tap in the other half of the loop, you will fill a progress bar. This clues the player they need to spam to fill the progress bar before getting to the next set of spikes to escape the loop. I don’t like this loop as the window to start spamming is unclear.

After passing the tenth loop, you finally get to a normal classic GD gameplay part. First you have a short mini cube part and then you have a janky mini ship part where slopes redirect you between different straightfly corridors. I appreciate this part is mostly sightreadable despite being demon difficulty. After passing the ship, you are redirected to the final loop in the level - the cube repeatedly crosses the entire screen in front of an image with meme text that simply says “experiment” - no escape is visible. To escape, the player needs to manually reset the level (WITHOUT EXITING THE LEVEL) from the menu.

After resetting, the player is brought back to the first loop. After a few iterations the background goes dark and the level ends.

As many others have stated, this is the best example of puzzle gameplay in a classic level - all the puzzles are sightreadable meaning you could potentially 2-attempt this level. It’s really impressive how mbed used the 2.2 song feature to make the audio sync with the loops perfectly. Everything about this level came together perfectly to make the perfect easy demon puzzle experience.

This isn’t necessarily a level I’d rewatch often, but it’s such a once in a lifetime experience and a must play for any new GD player that I have to give it a 10/10

mindblowing experience that one can only have once in their life. the coolest gameplay concept to date and will probably stay like that for a while