Rating Curve

huge

I like to let my levels speak for themselves, but this is probably the only one I'll ever "review", mostly because I want to put myself in the mindset that I was on 3 years ago when I made this.

It's very much a political level. Not in the sense of actual politics but in the context of Geometry Dash. More specifically, the mod team. This level came to life as a response of that dumb drama about deadpxrnstars (which I liked back then and still do), but this isn't really about the level but rather the context surrounding it. You see, back then I was relatively close to umru and overall very active in experimental creator circles, and I vividly remember pocke sending that level and getting removed from the sent tab afterwards (with him resigning not much after). Obviously the level name had to do with that, but it wasn't the first (nor last) level to get removed from the sent tab, in fact this one level that I'm writing my thoughts on also suffered from that, but I also remember some high power figures talking about how this level was overall unsendable because of how it looked. The whole "censorship" thing made me very upset, and at the time I also became pretty outspoken against religion in general, and somehow in my head I drew comparasions between the two. How the mod team determined what's right and what's wrong to have in a level compared to what the church would tell you what's morally correct and what's a sin. And so this level was born after just 2 days in the womb.

It's my only level to purely come out of unfiltered rage, and that's something I'll never get to replicate. For that reason I have a deep connection to it and also consider it to be one of my best artistically. The first half is a large progressive ship section where you start outside and wonder into a church. I'm so proud of the atmosphere in this part and the contrast between the simple purple blocks with the background. It's a kind of design I never dared to try but it still looks so good. The gravity changes are synced to the vocals and most of the effects are also synced (although not entirely accurate) to other sounds of the song. Later on the whole thing falls apart and is on fire. Had I taken more time with the level I would've spent more effort on different movements for the flames, but at the time I just wanted to put the level out really quickly so I didn't bother, which is kind of a shame. Most of the broken stuff like being able to see below the flames or the broken sunlight were creative decisions though, and I still like those. The last part is purely just object spam, which I just built very angrily but trying to make decent composition. My idea was to make what most people thought how experimental levels were made, with no thought put together. You're not really in the church anymore, but rather the church burnt down and with it its spirit is surrounding you with sin and wrong.

Most people's issues with the level obviously lie in the final endscreen with the mod flags burning down. Some find it too corny, others too explicit; and after some time has passed I believe more on the former opinion. I've thought about updating the level and remove them many times before, but I feel like that would take away the entire level's purpose. As childish as it looks, the level was made out of anger by someone who wanted to rebel at the time, and somehow that has also impacted my views on the real world for good.

I wish I could go back in time to have the mindset to build something like this again, but I highly doubt that's ever happening.

Not sure if this pioneered the "effect layout" concept, but it certainly is the best one of all of them. Everything that came out after Aleph 0 desperately tried to replicate the charm of this level.

Aleph 0 stands out because of how decomposed it feels. I'm pretty sure it would also get its deserving praise, but something about the 1.0 designs makes it feel even more corrupted, like a classic GD level where you're not supposed to be. The minimal gameplay effects are incredible (seriously, you can't tell me that the first wave part isn't the coolest thing ever) and not abused at all. Every sound in the song feels connected to the level in some interesting way, producing very iconic parts such as the last stretch or the pause/resume cube before the halfway mark. I however find the second half to be slightly less interesting, as well as weaker gameplay wise too (why is it like 10 times easier than the first 50% ?? ????).

Still, this is probably the closest an effect layout will ever come to perfection, and credit for that must be given to LeaF, author of the song. There's a reason both this level and Marenol were huge at their time, even though only one of them stood the test of time. It's a shame the concept of an effect layout became overused (see the GD Layout tournament results) to the point where every layout nowadays uses effects, not understanding why the effects made this level special in the first place.

As strong as cometface's evolution has been much after this level, LAKE ZURICH remains to be one of my favorites from him. Fantastic sense of progression and an eerie atmosphere and the execution was a hint of the perfection that was to come.

Might change this to a 10 depending on how I feel about it in a few days