Rating Curve

While very nice to see some aromantic representation, I don't have much else to say about Aroma. The overgrown architecture seen throughout the level is a nice thematic decision, as the calmer song brings to mind tranquil environments like a garden or a forest, which the visuals do capitalise on. The secondary design elements like the hedges in the last two parts add a bit of depth despite the very flat designs, and also help the mainly grey and light green block designs contrast much better with their surroundings, as the dark green leaves make them pop much more than the lighter green backgrounds.

Aroma's other aspects, though, are not very noteworthy. The first two parts are quite standard modern designs save for the aromantic flag's colour scheme, the gameplay is effectively stock standard despite being balanced well, and the designs themselves do the job of bringing to mind the aforementioned themes of the level, but nothing more due to their lack of detail, interesting structuring shapes, movements, effects, etc. Aroma is overall a forgettable level; while not particularly bad in any area, it doesn't stand out in any way either. I'd recommend this for Star Rate.

Thematically, Corruption is quite one-dimensional, focused around a malicious program destroying (presumably) the level. This is conveyed to the player through broken code, copious glitching effects in both the foreground and background, and some memory sections with broken, monochromatic decoration. I like some aspects of this; I think the theme is best translated through the block designs, such as the part at 0:14 where the design interiors are constantly glitching and shifting, and some of them even completely fall away or break apart. This does a good job letting the player know what the overall theme of the level is, while also adding a layer of memory to the level to confuse the player as the structuring layout is quite wacky and unintuitive, which feels like something malware would naturally do.

However, the overall execution of the theme is pretty lacklustre. The theming is quite inconsistent between parts; the aforementioned block design effects are never used again throughout the level in favour of more typical squares/rectangles connected by lines, and while this does still resemble technology, it sticks out noticeably against the aggressive glitching used in the backgrounds of most of the midsection. I also think the inclusion of the text and code segments left a lot of potential out; Killbot (which is a clear inspiration for this level) used code to turn the whole level into something resembling a bossfight as the virus is constantly messing with the level and the player (there's even a whole deletion sequence at the end to finish off the level in a satisfying way). Here, it feels more like an afterthought and really only serves as an occasional visual accent, with the smooth animations on the windows feeling pretty out of place, and the actual code being used infrequently enough to not feel important. The text as well feels too edgy for something themed around malware, with the massive "why won't you stop" and "critical failure" setpieces particularly standing out as feeling quite out of place. In general, I just wish this level went all in with a specific idea like Killbot does, rather than trying to maintain a specific aesthetic and "edgyness" while still using some elements of malware, as it leaves the level lacking on both fronts. I would not recommend this for rate, but it's far from a bad level and I'd be interested to see TacticalFahrrad's current and future works.

Demiwolf is a very odd level in Alpheia's catalogue, and a fairly unique level overall for making use of a strange mix between 1.0 and 2.2 blocks for its designs. Despite the structuring being quite standard, this does make for an interesting and memorable aesthetic, with the newer 2.2 blocks creating some pretty unique shapes within the structures as well as strong contrast between the 1.0 and 2.2 sections.

Aside from this, though, the level is quite unremarkable. There's a sideways spider section, which is an okay use of 2.2 features for the time, but it's pretty standard and doesn't add much to the level. The gameplay is basic and lacks any real depth, but is serviceable enough for an easy level and is sightreadable. The colours, effects and backgrounds are generally simple to a fault, but not particularly bad in any section and generally just lackluster.

Demiwolf serves as a pretty barebones exploration into newer 2.2 features on the part of Alpheia, and is ultimately fairly unremarkable aside from the block designs. I would want to see more care put into other elements of the level like the effects and structuring, and better usage of gameplay movements and sync to make for a more engaging level. I would recommend this for star rate.

Frankly, I have no clue what this level wants to be. LIMIT OBJ is something of a collage level, with a few different songs spread across 5 distinct parts. I like this in concept, but the execution fails because the level's style stays relatively similar while failing to accurately represent any of the songs used. Each part has a similar, glow/design based approach that feels completely disconnected from the intense, distorted songs by FREE.99 that are used; there's little effect work, not much movement, and only one part has some tangible effect work in the form of glitching and colour inversion shaders as well as some movement. In my opinion, this is a huge pitfall and leaves me questioning why they chose these songs to begin with, as this would likely have been a decent showing had they chosen a song that was more relaxed and EDM-adjacent to better match the level's visuals.

The gameplay, while fun, also lacks in this regard. The sync is basic and sometimes absent (a notable example being the third part where the gameplay doesn't really have any connection to the song at all), and the only proper usage of movement sync is one single click in the second part where the song becomes quiet and the player flies through some debris during a brief lull in the energy. It is well balanced and fair to the player, lacking any unusually hard timings or blind sections, so it is fun and would again make for a decent showing in a different level, but it does not work whatsoever with the chosen songs and leads to every major element of this level feeling totally disconnected from each other.

I would really like to see AFKTEAMS focus more on a unified vision amongst their members instead of everyone making their own thing and putting it all together. There's quite a lot of potential here, but I need to see better usage of gameplay and visuals in song representation, better part-to-part cohesion and more interesting stylistic direction to consider anything above a star rate.

God, what a nostalgia trip. Gallimaufry has so many things about it that scream "early 2.1 megacollab" in a way I tend not to like, but in a way this makes me appreciate it more because it's so clearly a product of a bygone era of Geometry Dash. The part-to-part cohesion is lacking to the point of actually being quite funny - there are many cases where the style of the part completely flips with little to no work done to make a workable transition, which makes the whole level feel like it was stapled together on hopes and prayers. The visuals themselves are generally not great, with many parts having pretty lacklustre designs and structuring even for the time (namely, 0:43 with the very garish colour work and the questionable use of 2.1 rocks), but I'd be lying if it wasn't charming in a sense because it's clear these creators whom I've mostly never heard of did put a lot of effort in to make this level presentable. Additionally, there are also a few parts which have stood the test of time very well, namely the clean circular background designs and blue-purple gradient at 0:55 and the part at 1:30 feeling like a mix between old Samifying and LucasYecla99 deco with the huge, angular structures, overblown blending glow and high vertical movement gameplay. Speaking of the gameplay, it's quite buggy, with a lot of very awkward transitions between parts, and I don't find it particularly fun even despite this because the balancing and structural telegraphing are both quite poor. However, I'd be lying if I said I didn't find quite a lot of enjoyment in reminiscing on the times where levels like this were more highly regarded, so I'm glad I got to see this.

Magnificent Gaps is a very odd mix of 1.6-style "impossible level" gameplay and modern art-design with similarities to neodesign. This disconnect leaves the level in a really weird spot as neither element fits particularly well together - the very claustrophobic gameplay with the awkward, highly simplistic 1.6 structuring is something completely different from the complex, finely detailed structures and high use of vertical movement generally seen in modern art-design and "neodesign" levels, which just ends up resulting in most of this level's designs not looking quite right. This is most evident to me in the first part, as the structures feel warped and cramped in an unnatural way, and the shapes formed by the layered designs don't look particularly good or coherent because of that. There's also many spots with awkward sections of negative space between tall blocks of structures, which makes the level feel both too claustrophobic and too empty at the same time.

With this said, there are a few parts that do make excellent use of this odd structuring style. My personal favourite is the ship section with the stars at 0:38, since when combined with the clouds there's enough contrast to make the corridor-like gameplay work while also having a very grounded visual element that would necessitate this sort of structuring, being the lines connecting the stars to resemble some sort of constellation. The previous part also does this fairly well, with the single-block-wide alternating light and dark structures managing to make the jagged ship corridors work quite well for similar reasons as mentioned above. However, it's not enough for me to overlook my other issues with this despite the fact that the actual design, colour and effect work in this level is quite solid, so I'd recommend it for Star Rate.

When making an art-focused level, the thing I prioritise the most is a sense of depth and worldbuilding. If you're building something to emulate a wide, sweeping landscape, it's important to make the background feel far more distant from the player, and naturally draw the eye to the foreground through use of contrasting colours or some other thematic element to make the player feel like they're "in front" of the background. The first two parts of Calm do not do this at all, unfortunately, as every layer tends to blend together as everything is very bright, and there is no attempt to make the backgrounds appear farther away with methods like darkening them or adding shadow to the foreground. There's also no use of a parallax here to make the background move slower, which further narrows the divide between the foreground and background and ends with everything looking very out of place and unnatural.

The following part is a complete departure in style, which feels very disconnected from the rest of the level due to not having any sort of focus on art despite it being well made all around. Thankfully, the following parts are much more connected to the first and use a similar colour scheme and focus on landscapes, and they also fix the major issues I mentioned with depth perception, contrast and parallaxing by making the foreground far more detailed than the background and naturally introducing highlights and shadows into the designs (particularly visible in the metallic structures starting at 0:52). These parts are generally good, with a good balance of designs, solid colours and a very strong theme, with good song representation through flashes, invert gradient effects and movements. However, the first half of the level is so far removed that they feel like two completely different projects, and the difference in quality leads me to not recommend it to be rated. This still shows a lot of promise, though, and I'd like to see more from these creators in the future.