Rating Curve

lavai lectea has the most eye catching use of blending masks I've ever seen and the experimentation paid off immensely here. The atmosphere feels almost fantastical in nature while the gameplay is so frenetic yet is extremely simple at its core.

Countless praises have already been sung about this level, so I don't feel the need to give my two cents. Fantastic level

capitalising on someone's death for cp >>>>>

the premier example of dadaism in a gd level, low death's alterations to the original level's gameplay and extremely dared jokes gives it an air of absurdity that cannot be matched by the original level. while obviously flawed, it's still an entertaining experience to have a misrated easy demon be transformed into this ludicrously difficult mess

it's literally just a copy clubstep but with the fading "invisible" blocks. also makes it look worse as a result thats about it.

difficulty: gddl 3-

rating: 3.5

rating i would give: n/a

Death is a very aptly titled level that simultaneously feels larger-than-life-like yet astonishingly simple. It never strays from its rudimentary gameplay flow, and while the individual gameplay of each section is trivially easy and relatively straightforward for an Extreme Demon, the nine minutes and forty seconds of runtime – and the possibility of making tiny errors navigating unintuitive structuring – compounds the difficulty to a mid-high end extreme demon.

Death sacrifices intricacy in its designs for intimacy, although it’s disingenuous to say that this level is not intricate in intent. While there is a clear sense of an arduous progression throughout, the message of the level isn’t laid out explicitly for the player, leaving room for interpretation, except in the level’s title.

Death does not use typical imagery associated with death like skulls, crosses or whatnot. Instead, it focuses on the more emotional aspect of death, which is pretty unexplored territory for a Geometry Dash level; traditional symbolism of death comes in the form of hell / horror levels which capitalise (to varying degrees of success) on the fear factor of death. Instead, Death’s progression parallels the creators’ perception of the experience in the hours before death. It is monochromatic throughout most of its runtime and mostly consists of simple, almost child-like forms and shapes, with celestial imagery gradually introduced, as if you’re recollecting your childhood and potentially your beliefs of the afterlife. Despite the level feeling comforting all the way through, you can sense that feeling of dread still looming in the shadows of the level, but without any real signs of a threat or a switch-up you can’t concretely pinpoint what’s wrong or when something is going to change.

Death suddenly ramps up in energy as if under a supernatural force around the 5 minute mark. In contrast to the rest of the level, the climax of the level is permeated by a bold white with limited vision, like a short period of terminal lucidity. The sombre atmosphere transforms into one that is nearly euphoric and blissful, and clarity is restored as the gradients and darkness that are abundant in the other parts are replaced by sharp edges of vibrantly-coloured stars in the background and the featureless jagged blocks.

Death, however, is inevitable. After this period of terminal lucidity, the level, along with the energy of the song, recedes back into its former shell. The contrast is nearly paralysing as now the simple forms have noticeably reduced colour as well, as if life has been sucked out in that one moment of bliss, and you can feel the end approaching. However, the level doesn’t end until about 2 minutes later as slowly, but surely, the block design becomes more and more minimalistic, becoming more and more agonisingly tense until

Death eventually arrives, as the symbolism of one’s final resting state is conveyed through the player being lifted by jump pads into a pure white endscreen.

Death adds no unnecessary padding to its runtime or story; it is masterfully pensive and somber, yet brings a glimmer of hope to whatever is waiting on the other side of the end wall. I wouldn’t really call its execution effortless at all, really. You can really feel the weight of every second of this level’s runtime, however this level’s execution is virtually unparalleled in its progression and its

Death is, hence, a perfect level.

diff: -

score: 10

rating i would give: Mythic

i’ve been trying to beat this titan of a level for over 2 years by this point. ever since i found it in april 2023 my love for it has stayed constant as my favourite level in the game. polymer 2 letting go is by far, and probably will be for a long time, the most stressful experience i have ever had with this game. although i’ve beaten much harder than this by now, given the balancing being weighted heavily towards the ending and it’s length it becomes more reasonable to say that *this* is the level that has gotten me the most nervous - a 17min 40s long unrated insane demon.

polymer 2 letting go is similar in structure and traits to commatose by rply, both being very long in length, both being geared emotionally and also being within a similar difficulty range. however, i think saying that commatose is a ripoff or a copy of p2lg (or eon, or death) is rather disingenuous. all four carve out their own identity and lumping commatose with eon especially (which i have seen some do) is not really agreeable at all

as cold and lowly the first few moments of this level are, polymer 2 letting go repeatedly blooms with indescribable energy to tell a journey through the fragile, vulnerable mind of its creator facing expulsion from their social circle.

polymer 2 is virtually partially human, as every aspect of it visibly comes from the heart, and it bursts with egoism and emotional fragility. the player, in this level, is a self insert that represents the creator. it is exceedingly cryptic about its messaging, yet cracks in its facade highlight in great detail its inability to hide its forlornness.

despite being only monochrome, and the entire level staying in only 1 gamemode, its beauty and intricacy are clear. it is vibrant, yet a great sadness undertones the journey through the level, as if under a great curse. it’s extremely varied in gameplay patterns too; the entire first half of the level is a prelude to the second half, with minimalist nature-inspired decoration accompanied by a lulling ambience. as tranquil as it is, you still reach out of your comfort zone into the uncharted lands of the second half and come face to face with your demons.

the second half of this level can be split into the predrop and the drop. the predrop is significantly more energetic now and you travel through an increasingly more grounded area of the creator’s headspace that is increasingly evidently damaged by an entity, later revealed to be a hostile messenger that broke off its relationship with the creator. it speaks in tongues, and symbolises the people the creator has wronged, constantly berating them while the player continues to chase them, seeking to right their wrongs with them. you are, in essence, indebted to the messenger, yet you haplessly continue chasing towards this lost relationship.

the drop section of this level represents your desperation. you ride a train (of thought?) that runs in the direction of where the messenger is heading. as the messenger rises into the sky to escape you, you flip upside down and continue the chase on the ceiling of the level as the entire realm breaks down around you.

i can’t help but feel that most of the drop is reminiscent of the ending scene in interstellar [spoiler] where cooper returns home and finds the view of his family home completely transformed. not only because the cylindrical terrain is evocative of the spiral and the flowers but also cooper’s isolation in this new world, parallels the creator’s isolation in their headspace. [end of spoiler]

in a dramatically tragic fashion, the player is eventually struck down at the end of the level, symbolising an ultimatum, while the end credits roll as if the events that unfolded were playing across the world stage, as it seems like the end of the world as the player knows it, and nothing is left except darkness and a single tree acting as a memorial.

gameplay-wise; 40%-42% is the hardest chokepoint in the first half of the level or act 4; it’s not hard by any means but is very easy to mess up and is very deep into the first half. 71%-83% is my favourite part of the whole level and extremely grueling for being so far into the level. dying far into the level, especially during the 2nd half, gives some sense of loss - coming so far into the level yet dying to some easy timing.

given that p2lg is a very unknown level, and the fact that the creator is banned on their old account, it’s safe to say this is not getting rated. but this will not deter me from saying this is one of the only levels that i think is genuinely flawless. it makes me really sad is all

10.0

experiment by mbed & more is definitely not a typical Geometry Dash level. Upon first opening the level, the player is greeted by a pulsing tech-styled UI layered over what seems to be a test facility, echoing an uncanny, surreal feeling. The player loops through a single section of gameplay, with literally no end in sight. However, by falling through the gaps between the blocks, the gimmick of the level becomes clear. experiment is a puzzle level with its gimmick being trying to find a method to break the gameplay loops to reach the next "floor" of the level. What I feel like greatly strengthens the gimmick of this level is how, besides the breakable blocks also breaking under the force of the player jumping, the level purely focuses on using the basic physics of the icon in its level design, making it feel more connected to knowing how Geometry Dash's game physics function, which I am a huge fan of. The one section that deviates from this a bit is "floor" 08 requiring the player to hit a series of orbs / pads in order. It took me a few restarts to notice a hint given out in the previous part showing the specific sequence of orbs / pads in order that is required to be hit. While this is a bit confusing to figure out as the hint lacks indication for it being useful information, this is also in spirit of the level design and indicates the creators' intention of requiring the player to restart the level from the beginning to pay closer attention to details, hence my mixed feelings on this method of showing the hint this way. The part also marks a turning point in the level where it opts for additional gimmicks alongside the base physics, like floating red orbs, the click counter and the regular gameplay of the final section, adding extra variation. The gameplay shift is warranted through a shift in visual style, from a laboratory aesthetic to an out-of-bounds purgatory -- the last part adds a rough tritone colour scheme complementing the level falling apart. The ending of the level forces the player to restart the level to break the loop and complete it, playing on the fear of the unknown of the player, which is, again, something completely alien to GD.

Overall, experiment masterfully executes its out-of-the-box gameplay, while not neglecting its visual quality at all. It takes full advantage of the new features added in 2.2 to create a completely unique experience. I do not have any real gripes with this level

the zone pirate v of mythic. for elaboration purposes, zone pirate v is probably one of the most controversial legendary rated levels due to its amateurishness and also it being generally not really being impressive in the spectacle or the creativity department. with these issues present, however, zone pirate v is generally inoffensive at best and quite sloppy in execution at worst

button masher is literally worse than zone pirate v

button masher has some parts that are actually nauseating to look at, and not in a way that serves its benefit like being hypnotic, extremely intense, or the like

the first half of button masher is an amalgamation of generally tired but alright looking styles, namely a non-stylised, somewhat flat looking art style, pixel style and this glowy simplistic design-adjacent style. spoiler: this lack of consistency throughout the level is a pretty big detriment to the level's core visual identity; it feels stuck in 3 different places simultaneously with the sum being more untasteful than the components

now, the elephant in the room -- the second half of this level takes all the comparatively minor issues of the first half, scales them up and adds some more. the glitching is rarely seen to be as messy as this lineup of creators' other works, is a nice deviation / experimentation but it is so messy and amateurish that it just makes the entire level look even more disorganised. the arcade part is ALSO completely disconnected in how its gameplay looks from every other part, with it being freefly and with relatively few inputs. nonetheless, neither the song nor decoration changes significantly in order to accomodate this gameplay change; in fact the song becomes even more chaotic and rough while you kinda just... leisurely fly through the arcade. the part proceeding this also has the exact same issue so i'm not gonna repeat myself

i've already touched on the song earlier but in summary: i am normally indifferent to mdk's music but this song has some of the most uncomfortable filtered vocals and basslines i have ever heard

points for the "hit it, slash it, slap it, ram it" part and the endscreen is fun i guess. just a patchwork of bland and extremely questionable design choices that mesh together really untastefully

as for the gameplay, no section of gameplay ever feels cohesive to interact with due to the rampant use of gimmicks, hand-holding the player with this new wave of chaotic-feeling yet underdeveloped gameplay compensating for insane effects that has emerged in 2.2, and, ironically, button mashing. i am not sure if this was intentional to fit the name, however i doubt this as this is also an issue with certain other high-tier levels as well by some of the creators in this lineup

i understand why this happened with the gameplay due to the recommendations for the ncs event levels showing off as many 2.2 features as possible, resulting in the over-reliance on gimmicks and all the other jank. this, however just makes the experience of playing it feel even more jarringly disconnected from the actual level, while the level does nothing to work around the disconnection being polished. with all the things i've said about this level the gameplay is actually not unfun to play; just mediocre. the gameplay's disconnect from the level also affects the visuals indirectly since it's very clear without even playing it that that very disconnect is there. i don't feel like my actual enjoyment of this is a help or a detriment to the level as a whole, hence my gameplay rating of 5 not contributing to the overall very much

in conclusion, the positives about this level are that i do see some merit in the deocration in some parts, especially the first half and the endscreen being quite nice. otherwise, yeah sorry to everyone who participated in this level :(

update: yeah this is no longer the worst event level lol. raising it because it is actually not as bad as i intially thought (2.5)