Rating Curve

facade resembles the genre of sunset levels popular in late 1.9 with creators like x8Px, making use of lots of highly detailed, black silhouette art on a simple coloured background. The art mimics a lot of real life, with trees, destroyed buildings and other detritus being a recurring theme throughout, and when combined with the somber song it feels desolate and post-apocalyptic in a way not many other "sunset" type levels did. It's quite a unique atmosphere that immerses the player in this little world that appears to be decaying and falling apart, with debris at odd angles, buildings destroyed and nature everywhere that help further sell this theme to the player. I love this, since it makes the player feel like they've stumbled into some semblance of the world we know, but one that is beyond saving and the player can only watch on.

Unfortunately, this does come at the cost of the gameplay since most of the level being focused on the art neglects any form of traditional gameplay similarly to aforementioned sunset levels of the time period. This removes a huge element tying the player to the level, and in my opinion is something that doesn't work particularly well with this style of level since most of the art is so limited and abstract that it can't properly stand on its own without a more concrete connection to the player in the form of some sort of gameplay. I also wish the starry backgrounds stayed more consistent throughout the level, as well as the dark blue/purple colour scheme changing at odd moments (mostly near the middle with the introduction of green) that somewhat breaks the level's immersion, but regardless, facade is a fascinating level from GMD Condor and one I'd recommend for Star Rate.

deadspace has quite a unique atmosphere to it, with the soft, pulsing synths of the song, quiet visual noise in the background and dark purple tones coming together to form quite a relaxing atmosphere. The name "deadspace" is certainly fitting, as the layered noise and stars in the background bring to mind the vast empty void of deep space, and the colours and subtle pulse work both help support this. I also really like the omnipresent dark tendrils on the vertical screen borders, they give the impression of some encroaching force of darkness that restricts the player to the field of view they have during the level, providing a sensible reason for the lack of vertical movement. Unfortunately, the level severely lacks in terms of its designs, structuring and gameplay design. The designs do not change much, with them mostly being a few set templates that are copied onto structures repeatedly, which sticks out quite badly from the constantly shifting background and ground deco. The designs also do not match the space theme, moreso resembling designs by creators like Vadi or Xolarzz that would be better fit for a more crystalline theming due to their angular details and the (generally) central placement of the bright highlights. This is especially noticeable towards the end, where the stars in the background make the space theme more prominent but the designs continue to shift further away and more towards defined, pillar-based structures and crystalline details. For this reason, I'd recommend this level for Star Rate, but there's plenty of potential for an excellent level here if only the designs and structures meshed better with the space theme.

WindPlus has some pretty unique designs for the later part of 1.9 it was made in, which is nice to see from a creator I've never heard of. FASER makes quite consistent use of separate designs for the structure corners and inner connecting "pillars", which gives the designs nice visual anchor points on the corners and helps provide an intuitive reason for their blocky shape. I like the usage of blending glow and slanted detail blocks to give the designs a shiny, metallic look as well, particularly in the wave about midway through where the larger structures allow this element to shine in the forefront of the designs. While the overall cohesion is very nice, there's very little tangible theming throughout the level aside from structuring style, which definitely does hurt the level's uniqueness as the levels from around 1.9 that tend to experiment with world building and progressive theming are usually the ones that stick out the most to me. The colour usage is also quite mediocre as there's no pattern to which colours are used where, and the pulsing is very basic and unchanging throughout the level. I love seeing unknown 1.9 levels from unknown creators, and WindPlus does have a lot of things going for it, but misses out on some crucial elements that tend to impress me most when seen in these older levels. As such, I'd recommend it for Star Rate.