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-/100
DIFFICULTY
4/10
OVERALL
-/10
VISUALS
-/10
GAMEPLAY

pretty conflicted on how to score this one. of course if you have eyes and have seen my profile picture you'll know this level really appeals to me specifically, but even beyond that it sits alongside aperture as one of very few levels in its style i actually like visually. most levels in this style i'll be dubbing "stylized realism" struggle to look half decent even in comparison to other levels, let alone in the context of art outside geometry dash, but i think the visual style is where eta carnis excels the most.

like most other levels in its style though, after talking about the visuals, there is always a but, and that but is always the playing experience. the gameplay is ostensibly 2* (perhaps 3* in today's climate) were it decorated differently, split between two 20-second cutscenes, and it really kills any tension the level tries to create. it makes the playing experience completely forgettable and rids this level of any staying power it might've had. of course, those who merely watched a showcase may argue otherwise, but in my mind watching a nexus upload is a far cry from experiencing it yourself.

i'm reminded of an ancient video by gd colon titled "What NOT to put in your custom level," and one of the things he lists is to avoid random auto parts. what colon failed to realize is that playing levels is a dated concept: we all just watch completions of it on youtube, and when watching a video every part may as well be auto.

-/100
DIFFICULTY
4/10
OVERALL
-/10
VISUALS
-/10
GAMEPLAY

quite decent as far as modern top 1s go but that is Not a high bar and i don't think a level should get undeserved credit simply because the levels that preceded it are so terrible. flamewall is a red/orange 1.9 hell-styled megacollab (wonder where i've heard of that before) with a song that is far too grandiose given it's attached to a decoration style that has been the status quo for top 1s since 2015. i do appreciate how this is the first top 1 to truly push its runtime, even if it ends up feeling very samey and forgettable throughout

-/100
DIFFICULTY
5/10
OVERALL
-/10
VISUALS
-/10
GAMEPLAY

there's been a lot of fuss about how this level is way too flashy and intense, so when playing it i was surprised to learn how tame it actually is. the gameplay is a total bore and the strange lack of pulses makes it feel quite anticlimactic, which is felt especially in the second half. i actually didn't mind how flashy the visuals are—they can work well with such an overstimulating song—but there's little substance to back them up here; it's surface level intensity that isn't felt at all when playing it. there just isn't much for me to really latch onto here

-/100
DIFFICULTY
5/10
OVERALL
-/10
VISUALS
-/10
GAMEPLAY

whenever you start a new level, the first thing you do is choose a song for it, and as such serves as the foundation for which the entire level is built upon. if that foundation is shaky, say if the song isn't very good, drags on too long, or starts/ends at an inopportune time, the whole level you've so carefully built on top of it will be shaky as well. and if your foundation has already been used in 56 other rated levels, then it may as well be made out of quicksand.

i love still's visual style, but the song it uses is just white noise to my ears which really kills any immersion it may have. though i can 100% understand how newer players who haven't heard this song a million times can fall in love with this one

-/100
DIFFICULTY
7/10
OVERALL
-/10
VISUALS
-/10
GAMEPLAY

maybe i underestimate how broke the average gd creator is, but even in the best case scenario where echo delta won the space gauntlet and each creator got their third of the $1,000 first place prize, is that worth it when they had to release what could've easily been the level of the year in such an unfinished and clearly rushed state?

i think it goes without saying that the first half is phenomenal; no other level in the top 20 does such a good job capturing the lonely, desolate vibe of space, and the megastructure you enter hits that primal urge of feeling impossibly large in a way i truly love. so after such a great start it's a shame that the latter half drops off in quality so hard. audieovisual has gotten a lot of shit because the parts he had the most obvious involvement in were also the most rushed, but really i wouldn't expect any creator in the world to make a good part under the time constraints audieo said he was under. this level just should've been delayed

-/100
DIFFICULTY
9/10
OVERALL
-/10
VISUALS
-/10
GAMEPLAY

as i've broadened my horizons these past few years and learned to appreciate other artforms outside of just geometry dash, a quality i've come to value a lot in levels is that they play to gd's strengths. after the rise of creators like culuc and bli around 2023, we've seen hundreds of "realistic" levels that willingly discard everything that makes gd special in service of an aesthetic outdone by paintings, photographs, and movies from over a century ago.

mimosa is vast in its imagination yet still contained within the restraints of the gd editor; no detail is ever too complex to where it can't be deconstructed into its individual objects, all clearly built from the same building blocks used by the many great creators who have come before. it carries that tradition forward with a distinctly unique style that feels anything but derivative, despite its deep roots. mimosa feels truly alive in a way few other levels are able to capture, because 64x hasn't merely replicated reality—he's created his own.

-/100
DIFFICULTY
5/10
OVERALL
-/10
VISUALS
-/10
GAMEPLAY

reading through the companion document mcres made explaining his intent with this level, it's very apparent that a lot of attention and care went into every little detail here, but for me most of that emotion has been lost in translation. i just don't think connect does a very good job conveying the message it wants to tell. it relies far too much on symbolism—this part's background is an infinitely scaling tunnel which represents how it felt like i was falling through a tunnel. obviously symbolism can work to great effect, but only when it's in addition to a compelling emotional narrative. it's like the difference between stumbling upon a pentagram etched on the floor of a spooky haunted house vs showing me a png of one; a pentagram can really enhance the experience when built around a compelling atmosphere, but if not, it just ends up falling flat. and for me at least, i find connect to be mostly png and little haunted house.

details like the tally marks counting the number of suicide attempts during the level's creation are chilling after learning what they represent, but if you were to remove mcres's document and look at the level on its own, all they are are seemingly random marks with no perceivable emotional weight behind them (before the document pointed it out, i thought the tally marks were a pause icon). that's not to say that symbolism has to stare at you in the face to be good, but i don't find connect compelling enough for me to want to analyze what every last cryptic detail could mean, even ignoring the big document that explains it all.

i think there's also something to be said about the inherent incongruity of trying to tell the story of your life as you're living it through a 140+ editor-hour, 4 minute long extreme demon. with a gd level you're forced to conform your vision around someone else's song, and there may not even exist a song that perfectly matches the story mcres wants to tell here, let alone one that's on newgrounds and hasn't been claimed by another level. especially with a level of this length and difficulty, a lot of planning and forethought is required to make it feel like a cohesive experience, which doesn't allow for the spontaneity i think mcres wants to have here. perhaps a shorter, more contained level focused on a single, more general idea rather than trying to tell a very specific story could've worked better. looking at his twitter he seems to have gotten into digital furry art and game design, two mediums i think are much better suited for the kinds of stories mcres wants to tell, so i really do hope to see mcres flourish as an artist in his future endeavors, whether that's inside gd or not.

-/100
DIFFICULTY
6/10
OVERALL
-/10
VISUALS
-/10
GAMEPLAY

when you force yourself to build a level—an extreme demon in an unfamiliar style, no less—for several hours every single day, you'll inevitably run yourself dry. so perhaps unsurprisingly, rivers of nazareth's creation was plagued by a lack of ideas, frustration, and burnout. as a result, the final product is messy and uninspired; designs, effects, overlays, etc. are all piled on top of each other with little regard for how they work with one another or fit into the larger theme, which is rarely explored outside the religious symbols and arabic text. remove these two elements and the level doesn't really have any discernable theme to speak of. the decoration often regresses towards audieo's flashy design style which he's more comfortable with, whereas i think fully leaning into modern/art would've fit the vibes this level is going for much better. as a result much of the decoration feels lacking in creativity, so as a bandaid fix the level is jam packed with a bunch of unnecessary decoration, which i don't think is an adequate trade-off.

i don't mean to discredit audieovisual's creating skill here....honestly i would probably make something much worse if i had to build every day for 48 days straight; audieo has and will make far better levels than this. i have a lot of fond memories watching him build this live during his building marathon, it's just a shame this format was also to the level's detriment

-/100
DIFFICULTY
10/10
OVERALL
-/10
VISUALS
-/10
GAMEPLAY

despite cometface being the de facto neodesign creator and singlehandedly defining many of its most iconic tropes, the style has always lagged far behind his creative vision. his levels may seem unassuming at a cursory glance, but when you dig into them, i find them to be some of the most immersive and captivating levels in the game's history. cometface's xl levels in particular are so easy to get lost in, but the hills have eyes stands out among the rest for its unforgettable atmosphere. the desolate, somber landscape slowly fades away into a beautiful finale in a way i truly love. beating for this first time and soaking in all the atmosphere is an experience i will never forget. truly a magical experience from top to bottom.

of course, immersing the player into your level requires real skill, whereas spamming flashy color loops doesn't, which has led us to the sanitized, by-the-books style neodesign is known for today. so perhaps it's of no surprise that by the time neon color loops entered the mainstream, cometface had long since abandoned using them in his work

-/100
DIFFICULTY
6/10
OVERALL
-/10
VISUALS
-/10
GAMEPLAY

redeemer has some fantastic world-building, but its whimsical, 2003devin-like gameplay, overuse of radial blur (which ik may sound nitpicky but it gives the whole level this dreamy, fake-feeling aura), and most of all just plain bad song are incredibly at odds with the serious narrative it's attempting to tell. it's a serious level i find very difficult to take seriously, which really pulls me out of the experience. it always feels bad when my biggest complaint about a level is its song choice as it's the one thing that simply cannot be changed after the fact..i do wish i could get invested in this level like how so many others are able to, but every time i hear that royalty free ass xylophone in my right ear and i just can't do it

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sorry about this gang