(THIS REVIEW CONTAINS PLOT SPOILERS! Please experience this level on your own first before reading this review!)

...What the hell did I just play. This level is a complete mess visually with almost no polishing at all, the story borders on complete nonsense where events and places seemingly just happen at random, the level spends all 7 minutes committing fully into a joke that was dead on arrival, and it's just constant chaos the entire time...

...Which is why I'm scoring this level so highly. This is a truly unique experience I've never had before when playing GD, even after over 11 years of playing. I don't care about Ohio memes being dead at this point, this level goes all in on them to such an extent that it's one of the most creative and entertaining takes on the Ohio memes I've ever seen. cw2003 GB is known for this type of madness and batshit insane storytelling, but I feel Only In Ohio Dawg is him at his very best. Despite having a story that mostly exists outside the realm of logic, the plot is continually engaging and funny with some really good moments mixed in. For the first 5 minutes, the story restrains itself a good amount before the plot twist and the title drop once the guitar solo comes in. By the way, can I mention just how great of a choice Free Bird (or a cover of Free Bird) is as a soundtrack for this level? I don't think one of the greatest guitar solos ever recorded could've been used for anything less than a shocking betrayal that throws the player right into a bossfight against a Lovecraftian horror. The intensity of the level once the guitar solo kicks in shifts up to 11 and it makes me quite nervous playing despite this level being rather easy for an XXL+ demon. With all these factors in mind, the crude art and design choices in this level fit perfectly and any higher level of polish or quality in the visuals of this level would significantly diminish the experience.

The only reason I'm not giving this level a 10 is because of the gameplay. While it plays decently well for most of the level, there are some chokepoints and blind jumps/transitions that bring down the experience some. To give an example, I died in Downtown Cleveland (the final part before the guitar solo) around 10 times total but only died after it 3 times. The Cleveland City Limits have a couple blind jumps and one of my bossfight deaths was when teleporting into a ship transition and not being able to react in time. Outside of these issues I have with the level, I would strongly recommend this to anyone looking for another XXL+ demon to play or a level with a strong story. It's not too difficult either, I would place this at around a similar difficulty as Lonely travel.

A good execution of a concept I find unappealing

Extreme aura.