maybe i underestimate how broke the average gd creator is, but even in the best case scenario where echo delta won the space gauntlet and each creator got their third of the $1,000 first place prize, is that worth it when they had to release what could've easily been the level of the year in such an unfinished and clearly rushed state?

i think it goes without saying that the first half is phenomenal; no other level in the top 20 does such a good job capturing the lonely, desolate vibe of space, and the megastructure you enter hits that primal urge of feeling impossibly large in a way i truly love. so after such a great start it's a shame that the latter half drops off in quality so hard. audieovisual has gotten a lot of shit because the parts he had the most obvious involvement in were also the most rushed, but really i wouldn't expect any creator in the world to make a good part under the time constraints audieo said he was under. this level just should've been delayed

love the progression

This was going to be much longer, but in a rare moment of restraint, I condensed it. Slightly. You can read the rest here, where I don’t restrain myself from yapping about this level.

~

Maybe the real breakdown of reality was the friends we made along the way.

~

Echo Delta is a level about trying to navigate space while reality collapses around you. At least, that’s my interpretation of it. It also placed 18th in the Space Gauntlet Contest, which was 8 places too low. At least, that’s my opinion. It was made by two of my favorite creators and cometface.

~

0-31

What I love about this level is the abundance of small details that add so much life. That’s there even in this part, from the subtle twinkling of stars to the fireflies dancing in the night to the swirling bands of clouds on the distant planet. It prevents this whole part from getting stale, despite its 61-second runtime.

The song, Celestial Mysteries, was created by Serponge. Thanks for blessing my ears with this banger.

31-47

The sheer scale of this part becomes apparent very quickly with the reveal of many huge, flickering spotlights serving as the interior’s primary light source. However, these lights aren’t enough, and the interior remains dark. The scale is magnified by the camera zooming out, lending to an enormous, open room.

I don’t have much to say about this part. I realize that Hyperbolus is a sight for reviews, and this section isn’t much of a review. Oops.

48-56

As you exit the structure, the camera slams down to a slant, the music gets intense and sinister, and the calm setting from before is replaced with a chaotic mess of red and yellow lines and flashes.

This is my favorite part of Echo Delta.

I’m a fan of fast-paced gameplay. From the start, Echo Delta leads you into a false sense of security, thinking you’ll be playing a fairly chill level. Lots of Space Gauntlet entries were chill, such as The Beyond, Point of View, and Out of Place. But once you exit that structure, that illusion comes crashing down.

This part also looks pretty trippy because it uses the pinch shader, a trigger I keep forgetting exists.

57-60

Gee, I wonder who made this part.

This is the part where the clear structure of the level seems to break down. Like, you’re walking through the grass, then you’re flying through a space station, then the space station is crumbling (???), now you’re teleporting between platforms while a little black dot thing follows you around???

Although a few reviews I’ve seen of Echo Delta paint the second half of this level as significantly weaker than the first because of how abstract it is, I think this allows for more room to interpret what this level is trying to tell us.

Regarding this part in particular, I instantly recognized the dark red flying dot as an AudieoVisual element, because I saw his hour-long video about his level, Rivers of Nazareth (which I will not be reviewing for the foreseeable future), and listened to him get really excited about slapping subtractive blending everywhere.

I also died like three times to the orbs at 58%. They look like pads, man.

60-69

This part is where one of two things happens: you’re like “omg is that a black hole are we going in it,” or you’re like “what the heck is happening.”

Let’s start with the gameplay. It’s all over the place, figuratively and literally. It’s not bad at all, nor is it “unsightreadable,” as the kids say, but it is weird. The gravity is all wack. It takes getting used to, but it’s cool.

Now the visuals. Oh man this part is eye candy. Easily the best part of this is the enormous eclipse in the background. Or black hole. Whatever. The sense of scale that this level previously had so much of ends with this part, but it ends with a bang. At first, this massive object is hardly visible because whatever light it’s blocking keeps shifting around, creating an effect of mystery. After a while, the light becomes permanent. It’s red, almost as if it’s warning you not to get closer. But you do anyway, and now you’re heading into an unknown realm.

The buildup into the next part happens thanks to our good friend, radius 100 bulge trigger. Thanks to our buddy, the object turns into a Wulzy effect video.

The part ends with a big jump, and that’s—wait, is that an impact frame? That’s right, this part ends with impact frames. That’s a detail I did not notice until I started writing this section of the review. And honestly, I’m glad I didn’t notice, because I now have the excitement of knowing this exists.

69-77

Honestly, I wasn’t sold on this part before. The mirror concept is cool, but the gameplay is a straight-line simulator. I like how the sphere in the middle bobs up and down.

77-81

Initially, I thought this part messed up my interpretation of the level: you visit a space station, something happens, then reality collapses. Except this part seemed less abstract than the parts before and after.

Now I realize that this is because you’re basically inside the event horizon of whatever anomaly is causing all of this madness. As you get closer and closer to the singularity, beyond everything you’ve known, the music builds more and more, the lines move faster and faster, and then you’re hit with the climax of your journey.

Now that fits into my headcanon perfectly.

81-85

White. All important levels end with a white screen.

The parallels with Rivers of Nazareth are mind-blowing. A white screen with a trippy line effect. Wow. I guess there isn’t that much to talk about here. You’ve done it. You’ve reached the singularity. And it’s empty. Sort of. There are swirls of red and orange, but not too much else. The music implies that this is what you wanted. It’s majestic. Climactic. A perfect end to this grand journey.

86-100

Wake up, babe. New wallpaper just dropped.

Your icon is no longer flying through the anomaly, but now it is falling through the infinite void of space. The camera zooms out a ton to highlight your loneliness. I thought this was done with a slider bypass, but it’s actually done with a pinch trigger set to absurd values. Genius.

What appears to be the planet from the start returns for this cutscene, but the bands of gas are gone, and barely anything is lighting up what’s left. The world is truly dead.

Final Thoughts

I was initially hoping this level would get a mythic rating. That’s how much I loved it. The efforts of Serponge, cometface, and AudieoVisual combined to create something far greater than the sum of its parts.

Echo Delta is not just an atmospheric level with a weird modern art display near the end. It’s the story of a journey into the unknown. That’s why it is so good, and that’s why I wish it made the Top 10.

Also Serponge and AudieoVisual are like my two favorite creators so having them build a level together filled me with joy. And no, Audieo, your part did not bring down the level in the slightest. You did great, man.

Echo Delta really is one of my favorite levels in the game.

~

Dedicated to skibidigyatter69v2 – “here before you drop a review on echo delta”

If you were to tell me that three legendary creators, cometface, Serponge, and AudieoVisual, were all teaming up to create a Space Gauntlet entry, I would've been absolutely pumped. With three creators who have impacted the game and have been around for years as well as having a great lineup of solo levels, the stakes are high! And...

It's because of this expectation that makes me quite disappointed with Echo Delta. I'll get what I like out of the way first. This level nails being able to establish a huge sense of scale. cometface's part is visually stunning, easily some of their best work. I also really liked the ABEL-type wave effect Audieo was able to pull off in his part. There's a lot of things that are well done here, but what has me confused is where any of these parts belong in the collab. Echo Delta feels very incohesive and it almost feels like if the three creators all made solo Space Gauntlet entries and then merged them all together. It's pretty obvious who built what due to each part standing out too much from the others, from design to theme to gameplay.

While Audieo is a creator I really like, his part is easily the weakest and I feel he didn't put his all in the way cometface did. The sense of scale of gone, the theme is much more abstract compared to cometface and Serponge. He also uses that obnoxious color flickering spawn loop for the blocks I'm glad he has been trying to move away from in recent times. The transition from Serponge's part in Audieo's is a very grating stylistic switch-up due to just how different Audieo's part is how his part seems the most like one of his more standard solo levels.

I've also got some complaints about the gameplay. It's good for the most part, but there are some things I don't like. cometface's part plays well, but it's the easiest and slowest part of the level as well as taking up almost exactly half of the level's runtime. While their part is visually amazing, it did get a little boring to have to replay every attempt. Serponge's part also plays decently well, however the free-form spider part had one click onto blue orbs that was practically blind and I died not being able to anticipate several times. When it comes to gameplay, Audieo's part is once again the weakest. I really didn't like how the gravity strength in the cube part was constantly changing without any heads-up. Outisde of that, the part itself is quite straight-forward with its gameplay so these gravity changes don't make it too hard to play, but it always catches me off guard. I complimented how good the wave part looked earlier, but don't let it distract you from how the gameplay essentially just boils down to "stay in the center of the screen at all times." The ship part right after it is basically the same thing: just keep flying in the center of the screen and you're good. While it is thematically climactic and fitting for being the final part of the level, this "gameplay" barely matches it at all. Finally, this level ends with a nearly 30 second long cutscene. It is a really cool cutscene, seeing your cube drift away in the void of space, but it could've easily been cut down in length to being just 10 seconds at most.

All in all, this level does a lot right but when it's all put together it's an underwhelming experience. I think I would've enjoyed a solo Space Gauntlet entry from any of these individual creators more than I did enjoy them all working together on Echo Delta.

Man, such wasted potential. I was thinking this would be a candidate for a 10/10 rating when watching the first half, cometface delivered one of the most genuinely beautiful parts in GD history. Whoever created the terrible epilepsyfest the level sadly ends on should probably be banned from creating though.