Rating Curve

Just wish it was a bit longer but it's very cool as it is. I always admired the pulsing work on this level, it feels like every sound is connected to each object and pulse and makes the level more immersive.

I wish some of it was translated into the gameplay as well. It would be so awesome if Thom's vocals were connected to the dual gameplay! They kick off just as it turns into a dual ship + ball and for a moment I thought they were connected to the ball while the ship was mimicking the instrumentation. Some gameplay later proved me wrong but if it had been that way it would've been such a good touch that would easily make me pump my rating up to a 9.

It's a shame that I'm not good enough at the game to be able to judge its gameplay properly, since it's very clearly the main focus of the level (it's in the name, duh). However I've always been a fan of this, even if as far as I know I never expressed any thoughts on it publicly. It's over a year old but, upon rewatching, I can safely say it holds up very well.

Design-oriented long levels like this have always felt like a showcase of individual parts put together in one level to me. I have higher preference for more progressive levels where every part is connected in some way. That's not to say Multiplicity doesn't do that though. Besides the gameplay based on orbs that you can use multiple times, stylistically all the parts feel connected. The whole level maintains a blueish color scheme and traditional designs while still featuring diverse fresh effects in every part. One thing I really like about it is that those effects seem very "pure". S3rios utilizes the best out of each trigger, but just enough. It doesn't overcomplicate itself with moving gameplay or anything similar, all the core effects are kept at the background and are just enough to give each part its own identity, although some parts are obviously more memorable than others.

Some highlights for me (effect-wise) are the glowy waves during the guitar solos, the distant backgrounds like the lighthouse part, which add a lot of depth that other parts lack, as well as the pixelated eye getting more and less clear (I find the gameplay in that part to be very fitting with the piano as well).

It's lacking that consistency for me to truly love it, as I think some parts (especially the more open ones) look a tad worse and are overall less interesting. I also find the ending to be a bit underwhelming; the last few parts towards the end kind of lack that personality that all the other parts have, and I wish they had a more progressive fadeout rather than being emptier. Overall though, this is a fantastic fresh take on the more traditional design side of GD levels. I really don't know why this never got rated.