Gut wrenching hollowness, messy and beautiful emotion, tough and monotonous stretches of time, moments of collection and lucidity, moments of unforgiving disassociations and chaos, nerve-wracking new beginnings, and the end of things. The more I've seen this level, the more I fall in love with what it has to tell me. An unexpected passing of someone once close to me was revealed very impromptu and late one autumn. Unlike what would happen later to my elderly dog in the following weeks, their passing was completely unexpected; a gruesome freak accident caused by a force of nature that took zero remorse. Almost like viewing this art, I felt nothing at first, but then it hit me like a ton of bricks once I saw it for what it truly was.

This level doesn't attempt to portray death as inherently good or bad, and that's something I can respect as it is different for everyone's interpretation; it's usually both good and bad simultaneously. Another facet of this level's open ended design is the its ability to be holistically interpreted to fit multiple narratives. Feelings of dying, watching something else die, and the consequences of death are impossibly all summed up into a nearly 10 minute experience. Like the real concept we have come to understand, Death itself isn't exactly pretty, but it is powerful, crude, and an experience that grapples with life itself. Memento mori.