Rating Curve

Written in January 2023. Migrating this video description here since I feel like it's one of my more detailed and constructive ones, compared to the usual two-three sentence descs.

I feel like this level could’ve been a lot more if it was trimmed down or executed better. In its current state is has probably one of the most bizarre declines in quality I’ve seen through over 8 years of playing this game. For the first 60% it has wonderful environmental storytelling and atmosphere, only to suddenly drop the ball kinda hard afterwards. The entire rest of the level very noticeably consists of the same few structures, which quickly kills off the immersion, worldbuilding, and even makes for more tedious gameplay (although in that regard the first half isn’t particularly stellar either), especially when prolonged to over a whole minute. It doesn’t completely ruin the level, but it does ruin what could have been a potential masterpiece. I have to wonder to myself how much more I’d like this if it cut off at around 1:49 or so, or even if the later half was just reworked.

Looks nice enough but it doesn't really match the energy of its song choice at all, which particularly stings in my opinion since it's one of my favorites on NG. Song cohesion is a really important aspect of a level in my eyes and it can really make or break something, and unfortunately for me this falls under the latter.