Rating Curve

Septa's other potential best level.

Absolutely beautiful atmosphere. Really, I think this is how Cycles should be used. In fact, it's used so well that this doesn't even need sync. I would even go so far as to say adding more sync would make this too intense. This is really perfectly on the balance of calm atmosphere while still being fairly active with the gameplay so I wouldn't want to push it too much further into the latter.

Speaking of the gameplay, the faster parts kinda feel like you're running? I don't know how to explain this but I like it. I also like the tunnels, especially the one where the deco is only on the bottom side while the top is pure black, that's cool.

I also love how everything is more lit up in the latter third to go with the music. Likewise that one last BG pulse in the final ship before the fade to black is one of the best individual pulses ever

Dystopian how unoptimized this is

The theme is just beautifully executed in every possible way it can be. Gameplay is creative and memorable. Great sync. So many little details I love about this, especially the ones that add to the theme: the lights flickering on at the start, the designs in the second ship eminating out like the rays of light from the ceiling, quite possibly the best government secret easter egg ever (how tf do you activate this), the buildings collapsing at the end. Maybe Septa's best work

soaking

Very fun, especially relative to difficulty. The intense pulses and music really make this something a player of any skill level can enjoy. Great designs, especially in the predrop, the color varying within each structure adds a lot of visual complexity. I like the theme of simple geometric shapes (circles, squares, triangles) that you don't really notice at first but is cool once you do, and I think this is really the peak of the 2020 "box meta". Idk what AnonIIExt was talking about with the ship being bad bc that's the highlight of the level effect wise. I also appreciate the outlines showing where blocks are going to move. Only real issue I have is the gears blocking your icon in the UFO and the 65% transition being blind but you're probably just gonna die there once and then remember to hold afterwards, at least that's what happened to me

I'm 100% being serious when I tell you this is on par with the original. Acropolis' appeal is that its gameplay is brutal, claustrophobic, and unforgiving, and this increases those qualities tenfold.

Absurd timings. Microclicks have their head-bump leniency removed. Jump rings are now spam. Downright stupid straight fly galore. Insane dual release timing. UFO has pink orbs that make your jumps pathetic. Oh and who could forget the former top 1 challenge at the end. Play this in practice if you haven't already.

I've seen a decent number of people say this hasn't aged well, doesn't hold up, etc. and I really just cannot agree with that. The gameplay is fun, the sync is on point, the art is great, it's iconic, man, what do I even need to say?

I DID THIS BY HAND LET ME TELL YOU THAT

Amazing wow beautiful. I like the 3d platforms and the backgrounds and the energy and the gameplay also idgaf about don't touch the spikes

This is just about perfect in everything it does except for one thing. Just one, annoying, painful thing keeping this from being one of the absolute all-time best.

True to the name, the first third of this level is spent echolocating. The lights you carry with you are dim, barely enough to see the ground beneath your icon, so you instead repeatedly send out pulses that let you "see" into the darkness, not through light, but through sound. This works well enough to get you through the level, but it only allows you to see basic textures on the outside layer of structures. There's surely more out there you're missing deeper within, but it just isn't something you can access with your current tools.

Oh sorry were you taking in the atmosphere and forming your own thoughts with the limited information available? Sorry, here's some distracting, moving text telling you exactly what's happening in this level. "Show, don't tell"? Too bad, you're getting show and tell instead. Screw you. This doesn't ruin the part, hell I still think it's pretty good despite that, but its such an easily removable stain that it just hurts to imagine what otherwise would've been near the absolute peak of GD without it.

...Anyway,

I don't mind the text in the following ship part. It's intriguing. I think the fact that "seek" and "meaning" are the last two to get highlighted is definitely intentional. Telling you to look deeper, not only only at the part, but at the level, and at life, and I REALLY FUCKING WISH THE TEXT IN THE FIRST PART HAD THE SUBTLETY OF THIS. Seriously, Tri, what were you on?

...Anyway,

I like to think of the next wave as a peek into what's "above the surface" both metaphorically and literally. A motivation for you to rise up in the following cube (and in your life), and eventually break free at the drop.

And wow what an amazing drop it is. It's breaking free of course, but it's not breaking free into high speed like what's so common, rather it's breaking free into slow speed. It's the easiest part of the level, it's a place to relax, enjoy the absolutely beautiful effects, and take in your surroundings and the world as they really are, fully colored in. It's its own kind of freedom.

Crazy how every level using the grayscale -> color theme progression is a banger. This isn't Lonely Travel of course, but it's still hard to go wrong with that. I love the little bit where light can be seen peeking through a crack in the ceiling, kind of foreshadowing/teasing the eventual rainbows. Add some great atmosphere (especially in the gray parts), great music sync, great designs, great gameplay, I mean what's not to like about this?

Also, glad it got reverted. I don't really care about the gp since I haven't played the buffdate outside of a couple practice runs, but given the buffs came at the cost of sync and the blue/yellow orb gp pattern in the first minicube, its the definitive worse version.

Of all the "vaporware" levels that took >5 years but did eventually come out, this one is probably the most worth the wait. Brilliantly executed and unique theme capturing the aesthetic of a partially-used basement workshop. I can imagine Alice working on her dolls late at night in one of the brighter rooms, while some of the others are just about unexplored. The use of lighting is definitely the strongest factor for why it works so well, often coming from dim sources or from single directions and varying from part to part as mentioned, but there are other reasons. The 2017 structuring and gameplay feels like a perfect fit, itself being old and simple, and the tilted backgrounds give a sense that you're on a crooked platform like an old shelf or drawer. Really well done.

Denji watching PieGuy bot the devil on 60hz:

Definitely herozombie's best level. A lot of my praises of The Hell Zone can be applied here too. It has the same sort of "fun adventure through hell" feeling (albeit definitely not as great, I think a lot of that is due to herozombie's more rough and object-dense style), alongside some great art and a lot of little details to love. Really solid all around.