Ice Carbon Diablo X is a fascinating piece of GD history. Its status as one of the first “official “Top 1s””, its age and its name are things that come to my mind immediately. Its very much achieved a classic status in the community and while a more cynical me would say its mostly for its difficulty i do think that there is more to it than just that. Its very rough and uneven in texture. The way the claustrophobic 64% ball part transitions into the deceptively more open ship, the harshness of the beginning contrasted with the spaced out move towards the drop of the level. Roadkiller has good sense for what makes an intense segment. He often builds up the tension from the very beginning with vibrant bright colors and brutal gameplay and lets it loosen over time to lull the player into a false sense of security, allowing more open space and darkness to seep in between. This structure forms the best parts of ICDX, its first 30% and 64-80%. What makes up the rest of it spectacularly fails at being nearly as impactful (with the slight exception of the ending perhaps). Its biggest flaw is inconsistency. The whole middle section clashes harshly with the rest of the level for seemingly no good reason and past 80% its almost all filler. This is a real shame since it takes a huge toll on the level as a whole, despite its formidable achievements. With old levels this is especially regrettable since the missteps are so simple to correct! Perhaps with more time or better ideas Road couldve made a really solid or great map but sadly its only left a mild feeling of disappointment in me.

GD's biggest aura merchant. Decoration's nothing special, but the fact that players back in the day couldn't tell whether this or Silent Clubstep was harder is a testament to the success of its layout's intimidation factor, and it's still pretty fun and novel these days with its notorious chokepoints. I will always love the 95% corridor in particular. Just perfect.