Rating Curve

[removed my review - incomplete and didn't feel like completing it]

I know I'm criticizing A) the last 2.1 level ever made and B) a level made by some 8-year-old but I don't care.

Gameplay (0/10):

The entire "level" can be beaten within 3 clicks if you're skilled enough. (Although that's not really a criticism as the 3-clicks way uses a secret way to bypass the cube portals).

Going the "intended" way (hitting the cube portals) just makes the level impossible as you can't even go up the stairs (due to them being ONE-block stairs that don't have pads on them). This also makes the only passable-looking part of the level (a kinda-abstract representation of you climbing the stairs of heaven, complete with clouds) basically impossible to see unless you go into the editor.

Do you now see why gameplay is 0/10?

Visuals (1/10):

Most of the level looks either bland or actively garbage. The only good part is the heaven stairs, however, you can't access them in gameplay so that's only ONE point added.

Overall:
If you're into the history of Geometry Dash and want to see the last level ever made in each update, then this level certainly serves as the last level of 2.1. However, it's not good at anything else.

If it wasn't for the fact that this is the first level in the game, I would've gave this an immediate 0/10 as the gameplay is just... boring.

Visuals have purposefully been left empty because, like I said, this is the first level so it wasn't going to be a masterpiece anyway.

Fire Temple by Michigun is probably one of the most iconic Temple levels in the series, and one of the easiest (being a Medium Demon).

It has a few good elements in it:

• Once you get the pattern right, the 25-29 ship is almost always consistent.

• This has some of the most unique gameplay I've seen for a 1.9 level. For example, the ship part after the 34% jump is pretty fun.

• The decoration in the ending part is superb.

However, it's not without it's flaws:

• The jump at 15% is technically not a blind jump but you have very little reaction time so it might as well be a blind jump.

• The 34% jump... no, just... no. If you jump too early, you clip the top right corner of the last spike. If you jump too late, you clip the top LEFT corner of the FIRST spike. Both of these things are EXTREMELY likely to happen in a run from 0%. However the part that comes immediately after that jump is probably one of the best ship parts in the level so that's the only saving grace.

• The 52% UFO beginning is annoying. Firstly, you've gotta get REALLY low. Then, at around 53.05% you've gotta double input but you can't double input TOO quickly because you've gotta JUST BARELY avoid the pillar at 53.80%. However, the rest of the UFO part is a 6/10, a bit too boring for my standards but eh.

• 56% - at first I thought you had to get in between the TOP gap (which is actually possible but would immediately turn this level into around a 30/100 on the difficulty scale). Then, turns out it's just some memory section where you've gotta go through a spike gap. That makes the part way easter.

• The 63% wave, you've gotta either A) form a click pattern or B) spam just inconsistently enough to be able to easily go up and down. Either of those are easy enough to do as a solo, but as a dual you've gotta take BOTH waves into consideration.

• The yellow orb at 75% is entirely dependent on how you enter the 74% pad, so if you forgot to jump at around 73%, then OOPS you just missed the platform.

• The UFO -> ship transition at 82% is kinda finnicky, as you've gotta hold JUST enough to get the ship out of the spike pillar but not TOO much otherwise you hit the spikes on the floor.

• The other decoration is mid-tier all the way to just layout territory.

I found this while looking for good challenges via the tagging system. I still have yet to achieve my goal though, as the only challenges here are trying not to die to the bad transitions with INVISIBLE portals (which is already bad enough on it's own).

If I had to say something good about this level, the first clubstep monster is passable.

Gameplay has been tanked massively due to obvious reasons, but the decoration is really good. The only problem is that the decoration can feel crowded at times.