I have no qualms about the exercise of depicting quite a serious topic in an ostensibly immature medium, and I do on some level appreciate how easy this level was/is to chalk down to "GLITCH HORROR - MULPAN GD" - it radiates confidence in itself and the medium. That said, SAVE AS is a swing and a miss. The first third-ish is more than satisfactory, degradation of gameplay is plainly visible/playable and PAHC and triplebarrel are foreboding as you'd like. It's after the first few sequences that the level starts floundering and progression feels empty; SAVE AS doesn't really become any more strained or unplayable after roughly the halfway mark; there's only so much deconstruction you can do when the level is still calculated and on-rails in some way while still also requiring player input - bit of a rough catch-22 where the level might be worse off as a playable (and thus breakable) experience after a certain point. I do appreciate the discussion on GD that this level helped to continue, but I also understand PAHC's disdain for its singularity - his catalogue is a lot richer than this.

I'm glad both versions of the song are gone from NG rather than just the original because that was the worst update done to any level ever (not counting being made free)

Before I start this review I need to give some background: I lost my grandmother to dementia in October 2022. It is brutal to watch someone who you have known and loved for so long become unable to walk, confused at her surroundings, and forget who you are other than "the little one." Dementia is a very personal topic to me and I take it very seriously. If you think you are ever trying to be funny when you depict dementia in any way, I will wipe your ass with sandpaper until it is dust.

With that said, my main takeaway from SAVE AS is as follows: good intentions and a willingness to treat its subject matter with the respect and sincerity it should, but stumbles on the execution.

SAVE AS tells its story in a similar way to The Caretaker's 'Everywhere at the End of Time' (one of my top 5 favorite albums of all time), where you sink into the void of dementia over time. A lot of details are never explicitly explained, allowing you, the player/listener, to come to your own interpretations on what a certain aspect means. I love this kind of stuff when it comes to art relating to neurodegenerative diseases, and I am glad SAVE AS honored that.

The visuals are amazing and help tell the story better than any words can. The level starts with this somewhat standard rainbow-grayscale modern style, which starts to fall apart and glitch out. The glitchiness is really well done and makes the level feel unstable and deteriorating in a very natural way. The block designs progressively degrading into being an absolute mess is also really well executed. You slow down into speeds far slower than the slowest speed GD speed portals have to offer, and by the end just moving one more block forward feels like it physically hurts to do. Overall, the level nails its goal of the level slowly forgetting everything it was and what it means to be a level, but at what cost?

SAVE AS is a Geometry Dash level, and not a YouTube video or a music album. It has gameplay and is meant to be played. It's also supposedly a pretty tough level, assessed at medium demon difficulty. The gameplay? It's not good... at all... the gameplay becomes just as unstable and buggy as the design of the level, but in a way that is detrimental to the playing experience. I want to appreciate this level so much more, but this holds me back a lot from doing so. If the gameplay remained bug-free throughout the level, I'd say this is a low-end easy demon, mostly because of the level's length. When the level repeats itself and moves the gameplay you just did back in front you, there are a bunch of unique ways you can die every time, most of which are unintentional. You start to lose control of your player as the level progresses, with the player getting thrown around violently with the level. It's a cool effect, but it really sucks when this results in your wave getting placed inside a block design and dying automatically or when a block moves to a spot which bounces your ship far up/down, also sending you diving into a wall and dying. More of my time spent trying to beat the level was learning how to get around these deaths that should not be happening, while the rest of time was spent feeling bored because the level is really easy for the most part.

I'm also not big on the song that was made for this level. A few years ago, I was super obsessed with The Caretaker's work as well as a frequent member in the scene surrounding fan-made works of The Caretaker, and the song just isn't a good depiction of dementia. The way the song distorts, reverberates, and repeats upon itself does not feel natural or realistic, as well as the original melody the song makes to later destroy is just lacking in general. While tripplebarrel did eventually take it down and make a new THE NOISE EXPERIMENT that's a bit better, it wasn't THE NOISE EXPERIMENT that SAVE AS was built around. PAHC plays the hand he is dealt rather well, but I still feel the song is a disappointing and lacking depiction of dementia.

This level does a lot right in trying to depict dementia, but I'd still say it is "getting there" as opposed to perfect. Despite that, I'm still glad a level like SAVE AS exists and that PAHC was the one to make it, since it is clear he gave the subject matter the respect and intent it deserved. SAVE AS was also just an influential level in general. Almost no one was making artistic statements like these in their GD levels in 2020, but PAHC helped push for more of them to exist, which is almost a greater accomplishment than what SAVE AS set out to do in depicting dementia.

On release, SAVE AS made people begin taking GD seriously as an art form and medium, and I heavily fuck with that. Though, it does suck that PAHC had to endure all that mindless scrutiny from people for no reason at all.

Still though, really great level and holds up pretty well.

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wonderfully succeeds in what it tries to portray, horrifyingly progresses to a state in which nothing can be recognized.

a well-favored portrayal of dementia, which appears to have received all the care it needed.

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