Rating Curve

The first time you enter this level, you're hit immediately with pure demon aura. Like you know this is fucking serious. The Clubstep monster is just such an iconic symbol, it shows how much Rob really cooked with this level. Clubstep fills the role of first official demon perfectly.

The spirit of Clubstep embodies both the archetypes of a classic trickster and the devil. It feels like Clubstep is an evil horrifying place covered in saws, spikes, and chains. Where the world is made out of monsters, immobile and unfeeling but still very much alive with their beating eyes. The level feels designed by a malicious force (devil), but there's also a sort of meta humor to the traps that are placed (trickster!). The gameplay is filled with fakes and traps that I wouldn't call fair, but when you die to them they make you go "Oh you cheeky bastard Rob ;)". So there's a lot of hate and anger and despair experienced while trying to beat Clubstep for the first time but also a background humor to it. That combined with the visuals of monsters carved into and creating all the block structures, and the background colors, really makes it like you're flying through some kind of Hell Circus. I think this feeling of flying through monsters' mouths and guts that make up the blocks themselves, like the monsters ARE the world, is felt much more powerfully through the classic GD style than a more modern artistic style could achieve. It's more immersive, not like art painted on top of gameplay. For sure the majority of one's experience beating this level for the first time leans more on the hell side, it's pretty painful and difficult. But I find I always appreciated how the traps were designed, and now the difficulty after the level has become easy for me.

In terms of enjoyability, this level is very fun, it's one of the official levels I go back to routinely to replay for the fun of it. While the trickstery gameplay is something people have moved away from in modern GD, I think it was very appropriate for the first official demon level at that time. Solid gameplay, decent visuals, ULTRA SOLID AURA

Best official demon as of 2.2. I love how 2 of 2.0's core gameplay features were saved for this locked demon level, green orbs and teleportals.

Deadlocked has so much personality. It kinda feels like the "dark side" of 2.0. 2.0 was teased with pictures of pretty new blocks, but also an ominous line "Here Be Dragons" so it's like Geometrical Dominator was the good side frolic through the flowers, and Deadlocked is its dark counterpart. Symbolically I think this is best represented in Deadlock's memory ship section. Unlike GeoDom's dark section, this one is a real memory heavy section using moving objects, something many people today don't actually like but I think is very appropriate as an introduction official level to how moving objects can be used in gameplay. This section features rainbow blocks in each of the blocks, which seems to clash with the general hardcore vibe of the level but it kinda reminds you this is like a dark mirror to the cheerier colorful 2.0 entry Geometrical Dominator.

The style is very nice, a toxic water / lava dungeon, something that unfortunately has become Rob's new generic style. The gameplay is also solid all around, with some fresh gimmicks for its time like the blue/red ball section, monster bossfight, moving object memory ship, and teleportal shenanigans.

Aura-wise, Deadlocked excellently embodies the spirit of an official demon like Clubstep did.

Flawless level. Great energy, unique design, and a blast to read and beat in 1 shot

Excellent art, gameplay, and music. I especially like the design of the intro section outside of the building. The split screen section was a fantastic gameplay challenge that I played over and over in practice mode just for the enjoyment of it.

Only one section during the predrop felt dull in comparison to the rest of the level.

Unlike most platformer levels, this felt like a certified Geometry Dash platformer, and I appreciate the hell out of that. It felt like a proper level that could've been in a standalone platformer game. Very polished, great progression, and loved the inclusion of the timed escape section and a custom gamemode.

Solid in ALL departments, no complaints, that's a 10/10!

This level does the one thing I want most out of a platformer level in gd, which is to capture the flowing, music synced gameplay of classic gd in a platformer format. The moment I realized each slope section synced with the music and acted as a seamlessly integrated classic-mode challenge, I fell in love with the level.

One of my all time favorite levels. The way the gameplay and visuals progress with the music and match the energy of the song make this an experience worth replaying over and over. When I play it, I always leave wishing it never ended.