Rating Curve

The sole exception to my general disdain for icedcave's aesthetic. If there is a time and place for unashamed vanity and mindlessness, it's in service of the mystique of the game's most unambiguous, alluring, iconic difficulty sequence, a worthy enough idol for such fanatic self-importance.

Such a perfect microcosm of that cynical, ritualistic, performative black-metal hatred that's become so fashionable to modern conservatives that it may well have been cooked up in a lab, especially with that insufferable tiktok song accompanying it. I dont imagine anyone besides a few select inhumans particularly enjoys the mix of disgust and tedium that Krasniy Tuman brings out, but it is certainly worth exploring - I think if a less boring, more personal, more competent creator like Devin had ran with this brand of bigotry they might have come up with something truly intriguing.

There's an attitude reminiscent of those late 00s flash games (like Trap Adventure or The World's Hardest Game) in the stark, amateurish execution of such "unfair" gimmicks, painting Cautious as a relic of a more carefree, ironic, irreverent time. Sometimes I think defthlow must be a genius given how masterfully he was able to weave together the audio-visual-tactile experience to evoke both the airy sharpness of a classic ozpectro and the memory-based tour de force triumph of a LunarSimg demon. Immediately afterwards, though, I am forced to consider that he might actually be a total dumbass, since he somehow decided that making such a masterpiece unplayably difficult was the move. What The Hell Man. Seriously. Download a copy and nerf it until it's beatable, and it turns into an absolutely exhilarating time.

How can a level trying so hard to be guttural still feel so strictly representational, meticulously calculated? Seriously some of the most kitsch execution in any level - I don't think the two halves are very different at all in terms of tastefulness or intrigue when the visuals carry themselves with the tact of your average Banksy painting.

One of the game's largest levels (if only in a spiritual sense), happens to be an intense, stark, deeply gratifying landscape to maneuver through.

Full Review (YT)

So steeped in nostalgia one can pick out individual influences (like Dorabae's striking color work, Yume Nikki's RPG Maker-flavored surrealism, or Magritte's unorthodox object sensibility) with presumably reasonable accuracy, and uses said nostalgia to craft dozens of immersive, memorable sequences that manage to still feel ephemeral even despite their generous runtime. That's partially because of how easily these timeless yet abstract visuals evoke specific memories - of course, the 8-bit aesthetic is reminiscent of earlier levels and games that the average GD player might have their own experiences with. The snaking robot part, for example, reminds me of a day my now-lover and I spent playing browser games in high school economics class. It's this reliance on external experiences that makes 9Lives difficult to pin down and even more so to judge. The nostalgic atmosphere is obviously intentional and expertly executed, so I'm more than willing to hand out points for my own daydreaming here, but I'm sure I'd be almost as charitable even if I were to judge the physical level's immersion alone.

How the hell did this get Rob's approval? Even if I ignored the health concerns of these disgusting visuals, I cannot imagine a more worthless and ungratifying concept for a level than "pxttxrn sxxkxr with indicators". A massive stain on Darwin's career.

The first level made exclusively for people who keep picking the fourth dialogue option in Disco Elysium. The VOTE COVID VOTE part is always good for a chuckle.

I've always adored the concept of this one - the uncanny nature of art pieces in gd has consistently become more and more difficult to overcome for years as creators become more technically proficient and have more tools to work with, and the way THE LIMIT pulls on that thread is super satisfying. What I hadn't noticed before is how expertly paced the whole level is. I recently watched a few scenic and slow "ambient horror" movies like Midsommar and 28 Days/Years Later, and Skywalker is a real pro at knowing when to let scenes breathe for a minute and when to have them swell and intensify their staunchness. I feel like most other creators would have tried too hard to fill time and space and mishandled a format as unique as GD levels.

While it's disappointing that SADOMASOCHISM doesn't live up to its name visually, there certainly is something very intimate about the brutal, overtly adversarial position challenges occupy in relation to the player. I quite like how reminiscent the visuals and song are of classic rage game aesthetics, too. It does add a bit of personality to your mistress.