Rating Curve

qoUEO is very disappointing to say the least. I am going to section this review off by addressing different aspects of the level separately as i feel like this would make it easier to understand what is wrong with it

GAMEPLAY:

• For levels of this caliber, nothing matters more than the gameplay. The base gameplay in qoUEO, to my understanding, was built to be much easier than what it currently is now. The verifier buffed it with instructions to make the first quarter much harder than the rest. This severely impacted the playability of the level as the difficult section of the level is EXTREMELY awkward to navigate. The wave is obviously the biggest offender in terms of gameplay as most of it feels like random clicking interrupted by random extremely difficult spams that DO NOT get consistent unless you use CBF (at least in my experience), i will elaborate more on the chokepoints in the balancing section but i do need to mention that if it wasn't for them the gameplay would've been much more tolerable.

• Following the wave, the gameplay doesn't get much better. The cube is decent at best, and there really is nothing special about it, same goes for the ship. However, the ball has the same issue of simply feeling like random clicking. It does not match the song at all, and this far in the level, gameplay this awkward is just not fun to deal with. The last robot somehow plays even worse as it's all over the place. Despite being a 2.1 level this is a predecessor to all the camera movement issues 2.2 brung. This leads me to my main complaint about the level's gameplay, and a reoccurring theme thoughout the level: This was rushed. So many of the issues qoUEO suffers from could've been easily fixed with a bit of attention. None of the gameplay flows well because it was lazily put together.

STRUCTURING:

• This section doesn't need to be long as this is just a direct continuation of my previous complaint. The structuring in the wave is some of the worst i have ever seen in a wave part. The sheer carelessness the creator had for this level resulted in an atrocity that can only be experienced. Navigating the wave of qoUEO feels like im stepping in a dark room full of legos. I'm treading step after step hoping i dont randomly get inflicted with the worst pain ever. I could go on but you get the point.

• Post-wave, it does get better for awhile as i think the ship puts forward some very aesthetic looking structures, you can visually tell that effort was put into making this look nice and balanced. But then the ball / robot decide to ruin the fun as those parts are compositionally lacking of any coherence. Some empty spaces there, come clutter here, whoops, did i live my 1 second long blue cut scenes in? Unfortunate!

BALANCING:

• I like to think of myself as a rather open minded person, the idea of a rated wave challenge has always interested me, and disregarding the fact that qoUEO plays nothing like a wave challenge, it is still perceived as is, and this leads me to my point that qoUEO sort of ruined this idea in the public's eye. Lots of people view qoUEO as a stupid level, which is true, but the idea of a wave challenge followed by easier gameplay is not stupid in the slightest, and if it was executed properly, it could genuinely be a very good way to introduce challenge gameplay to a playerbase that otherwise would've stuck to playing demons. qoUEO had one job and it miserably failed, not that it even tried to succeed in the first place.

• You would think that it would be really hard to mess up such balancing, make the first quarter hard, and the rest easy, but unfortunately qoUEO just had to do things differently. The post-wave section is riddled with insufferable choke points that get more and more unfair as the part progresses. I feel like i don't need to elaborate much on this, it would've been much more fun if the post-wave section was more linear in difficulty.

DECORATION:

• I don't think qoUEO looks good. However, it doesn't look good because of the two main points i brought forward. If I look at the level's decoration, isolated from it's miserable structuring, i think it has the potential to be amazing. The color-work in qoUEO is it's strong suit, it works with the song so well, and the atmosphere is pretty unmatched. The nature of the level, and it's balancing, really helps tie it together, and is the only reason why this level gets any points to begin with.

• I truly believe that if qoUEO was given more attention, it could've been a phenomenal level. Atmospheric hard levels are my go-to, playing them is otherworldly and it's such a shame that all of it is overridden by the dread every death makes you feel while grinding qoUEO.

• I want to insist on how great the color-work in this level is. The darker tones in the wave broken up by the bright flashy pulses and structures fully encapsulates how the song plays out. Which i do need to mention, Cove by Waterflame is really amazing, it's a shame grinding out qoUEO has ruined it for me 😀😀. The energy delivered by the "drop" is really tame, as it should be, the level get's less moody and more vibey, so does the song. the rotating assets create for an unusual atmosphere, and i need to single out the white connectors as they genuinely are a fantastic asset. The level keeps the trend of small bright colorful assets throughout up until the robot where everything becomes "two toned", purple-ish / blue and yellow, which i think are a great color combination and overall helps make the part more memorable. Now obviously i need to mention again that all the positive points im making are completely overshadowed by the compositional weaknesses the entire level presents. The robot is probably the biggest offender, leaving some spots completely open and decoration-less in an otherwise busy and buzzing environment. What a shame.

EXTRA NITPICKS:

• The anti-skips in this level are nothing short of lame. They truly serve no purpose as they are all in the post-wave section, and in the non chokepoint areas, simply preventing people from having fun for the love of the game, classic qoUEO move! I wan't to point out that if i hadn't done any noclip accuracy runs from 0, i wouldn't have found out about the anti-skips at the cube and robot until i got there from 0, and that is because they only appear from 0. Why? I don't know.

• List of % i need to isolate for being particularly terrible:

- 4% (without CBF this section is very awkward)

- 6% (chokepoint, you can microclick like a psycho to make this part "easier" but thats if you love getting carpal tunnel)

- 8% (without CBF, this was the hardest part of the level, with CBF, it gets consistent, but it's still bad, advice: do 1, 2, 1 instead of 4 consistency clicks)

- 12 to 14% (awkward, unfun, bad, weirdly structured, carpal tunnel inducing, don't even get me started on how this plays without CBF)

- 15% (bad spam)

- 20% (this is a curveball !! i think this spam is the most fun part of the level, it flows very well, but im biased because it matches my comfortable clicking speed)

- 39 to 43% (WHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHY)

- 53% (terribly put together, who knew two clicks could be this bad, also honorable mention to 56 watch the completion to understand)

- 57 to 58% (bad gp)

- 64 to 65% (blind setup based input unless you have the reaction time of an F1 driver

• What does qoUEO even mean??

My closing thoughts for this review is that this could've been so much more. The mediocrity of this level tarnished the otherwise interesting concept of a rated wave challenge simply because the people involved couldn't be bothered to care.

Completion

Such an inspirational level. Probably neigefeu's best.

Neigefeu's mastery with colors is something that has followed him throughout his creating career and something i've looked up to. You get get so far with excellent color work and Neigefeu proved it again with a level that relies on simple designs and a phenomenal song by LLAAPPSSEE to make for a chilling atmosphere that has captivated me for a long time.

The beginning minicube cube section starts off simple. A masking effect, circles for the background, and already, all the core values that make Sunward what it is are there. The gameplay is already on the more unusual sides of things and the level already has a very mysterious vibe to it.

Moving on the the cube part, the level opens up to brighter colors, and bumpy gameplay matching the song perfectly. The buffer intensive gameplay is a unique trait not seen in many levels that i wish was used more around this difficulty. A simple block design and powerful flashes help tie everything together making for a very strong opening to the level.

The following ball/cube part consists of very floaty gameplay with lots of vertical movement, often involving off camera gameplay that still manages to feel intuitive. once again, every design in the level, from block, to background, to air deco, is relatively simple, yet, it still manages to keep me engaged and looking forward to the next part.

Speaking of, the ship part, once again, consists of unique gameplay tropes and design choices, that, once again, are simple in nature. This is something that i will stop pointing out throughout the review but keep in mind that this is, in my eyes, the backbones of the levels, it's what makes Sunward what it is. Anyhow, the colorwork in this section is particularly nice, ranging from deep blues to pale yellows. The wobbly structures make everything feel alive, while not impairing the playability of the part.

The drop of this level is nothing short of phenomenal. I am decently biased here as the level takes on my two favorite colors, pastel yellow and green, but nonetheless i can appreciate how compositionally perfect this part is. The orb form a path for the player to follow as stars pulse and the background flickers in a very mesmerizing way. It just all works so well with the song, the ending taking on orange hues before transitioning to the following part is a perfect way to end this breathtaking section of the level.

Leading into the mini cube part we have what is in my opinion the weakest part of the level. It's very lackluster in intresting color work and a bit of a letdown after what the previous part delivered. But still not a bad part nonetheless with its own qualities such as the structuring.

Although a great part, the 2nd drop wave doesn't make me feel the same way the 1st drop did. I blame it on the slope structures making the part feel cluttered in what was an otherwise very open and "aerial" level. It's a shame as the background has once again some great colorwork that could've outdone the previous drop. The gameplay in this part also seems a bit weaker and simply doesn't do it for me like the other parts did.

The final section of the level consists of a cube falling through a bunch of stars as the level flashes different colors. Simple but effective, this part, while nothing special, is a good way of ending the level in my eyes.

This level is a 10/10 in my eyes, is what i would've said if this level existed in a world without Sunset Sandstorm. Nonetheless im not one to shame others for taking inspirations as this is builds on the ideas Sunset Sandstorm put forward in a very neat manner. I must admit that this is the first level that came out of 2.2 that made me have some hope in the update not dooming the community to years of trash levels being pumped as creators all collectively forget how to put objects together in any meaningful manner.

The predrop is a very nice start to the level, the cube part is very simple and the "geometric" approach to the decoration represents each notes very well. It's simple, nothing outstanding sure, but it does the job. It's a pleasing asset to look at. The ball part has a nice use of the gradient trigger introducing some color in the level which is a nice segue into the drop section.

The release of energy that the song delivers is matched with de level opening up to a bright and colorful section. The floating orb gameplay reminiscent of Sunward by neigefeu fits in perfectly in my opinion. The background and pretty much every other asset in this part help make it feel so grand and powerful, the way the level makes the cube come back to ground level and ascend again is just so nice. This trend continues in into the last section of the drop where the gameplay shifts again to something more pattern based, as well as the decoration, again, very similar to Sunset Sandstorm in that way.

The level ends off pretty much how it started, a neat way of ending a level in my opinion.

One of the rare non demons levels that manage to keep you engaged throughout the entire experience. This level is a complete mess in the best of ways, the song representation is amazing and everything about the level contributes towards making what otherwise looks completely incoherent into one solid memorable level. I really like the unusual color work / object usage in this, it's very creative, and the art is so expressive i wish this was more popular. Very good! :)