Rating Curve

Beautiful level. You can really tell how much thought Zoroa put into this. The gameplay is super fun (albeit a little bit learny), and every part feels like it expresses to the fullest extent how much Howler means to Zoroa in a different way. Awesome level overall.

It's been multiple years since I first beat this level. I loved it then, and I still think it's pretty good now. This level has some of the best dual gameplay I've ever seen: it's super interesting (especially the asymmetric duals!), it's pretty well balanced, and it keeps all this up for two whole minutes. I also like the visuals; they're super polished and look amazing (especially on full detail), and they strike a good balance between serious and silly. (Some might say the entire level is filled with catfaces, but to that I respond that levels like lodin da fish washer and If Among US Was Lv 2 exist.) Overall, super fun hard demon, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a relatively easy hard demon or a level to practice asymmetric duals.

I'm sure there's plenty of expressive levels on the Geometry Dash servers, but this one's always stood out to me. Perhaps part of it was the song, or perhaps part of it was me being a closeted furry. But none of that changes the fact that this level is special. It matches the song pretty much perfectly, and the closer you look at it, the more meaningful it feels.

Probably the clearest motif is the city theme. You go past all sorts of scaffolding and stuff, and structures that vaguely resemble buildings, and it gives the level a very urban feel, as if you're walking down the sidewalk in a big city, letting your thoughts drift. It's not made clear what exactly prompted Split to make this level, but the various pieces of text saying things like "she caused this" or "some thoughts never leave" indicate that it wasn't positive. This is complemented by the mostly grayscale color scheme with red accents used throughout most of the level, as well as the sharp structures in one part. Before the climax of the level, you're dropped in a part that kinda vaguely resembles a garden, with a few sparsely-scattered bushes, perhaps indicating a moment of reprieve. Not sure exactly what the dark part represents, but I'm guessing it's some sort of emotional release. I don't really know exactly how to interpret all the specific details, hence this giant paragraph with barely any structure, but I do know one thing: my view is that art is all about storytelling, and this level tells a story. You may not know what it's about, but you can feel it.

As for the gameplay: I think it's pretty good. Split generally tends to make pretty good gameplay — pretty simple, usually, and nothing too mindblowing, but fun, and it generally matches the song.

My first insane demon since 2.2 probably would've been Magma Bound or something like that, but I remembered a guy named Ralsei who used to be really active on r/geometrydash (and is apparently still listed as a moderator) who was always super enthusiastic about Windy Landscape. Any time it was brought up, he would fanboy about it, to the point where that became the thing he was known for. And his enthusiasm convinced me to give this level a try, and wow, was it fun. I got kinda unlucky with it, having three deaths past the last dual alone (and a number of others in the last quarter), but all in all, I still enjoyed playing it despite the setbacks.

Why did I enjoy it? I guess it's complicated. Of course, every click is synced to the song, but there's more to it than that. Probably the most important thing to look at is the ship corridor around 3/4 of the way through. Not really any clicksync, since it's just straightflying, but it deliberately goes up one tile halfway through. And honestly, I think that's kinda beautiful. It builds tension leading into the last quarter, and it makes it less monotonous. It's so simple, but it suggests that WOOGI really put a lot of thought into the gameplay. From the iconic dual ball corridor to the infamous 29 ship to that last ground spike at the end, every part of this was tenderly calculated to provide the best playing experience. Is it perfectly balanced? No, but that doesn't really matter.

As for the deco? I think it looks awesome even by today's standards. Nothing super advanced or technical, but the variation in the designs helps keep everything interesting, and the usage of only one color (more or less) per part really helps each segment feel distinct, as well as matching the upbeat nature of the song. And keep in mind, this was made in 1.9, so WOOGI didn't have any move triggers or anything like that to make things more interesting.

So yeah, super good level. No wonder Ralsei loves it so much.

Alright, this is probably my favorite level. Kinda surprised I haven't reviewed it until now.

First, some background. I first beat this level as a new hardest a long time ago. No idea why I chose it, actually. But it took me a good while to beat it, and I remember having the biggest reaction. Don't think I recorded the reaction; this was long enough ago that I don't think I knew how to do that. But I remember I had a good time with it.

And then I somehow... kinda forgot about it? I remembered having beaten it as a hardest, but that was about it. I recently rebeat it to showcase it on my new YouTube channel, and oh my goodness gracious, I'd forgotten how good a level it was. It's super fun to play, it has beautiful progression, and it almost seems like it's telling a story.

It starts off more or less like your standard Zoroa level, albeit with more parts by FunnyGame than usual. FunnyGame's second part can be a bit of a choke point, but otherwise, nothing too remarkable yet. The level starts to feel substantially darker in the second half, though. Instead of just playing with the general idea of electricity, it launches you into a part that has an actual thunderstorm in the background. This is then followed up with a void section that rattles off a long sequence of negative nouns and adjectives ending in the phrase "memento mori" — a motif that is repeated a short while later. Later on, right before the climax of the level, there's another void section — this one more of a cutscene than a gameplay part — containing text that reads:

There's no escaping the truth...
My faith in you is lost...
Goodbye...

I had originally dismissed all this as Zoroa trying to be edgy, but I feel like there's actually remnants of a story here. This level isn't just "edgy". This level is angry. I don't know if there was anything in particular that Zoroa was angry about or if he just wanted to make an angry level for an angry song, but either way, it works. Makes the catfaces in the last part of the first half feel a little out of place, but other than that, it feels like it completely ties the level together.

And now we need to talk about that last part some more. I mentioned that the finale was preceded by a cutscene earlier; usually, I'm not a huge fan of cutscenes (as I've probably discussed in a few of my past reviews), but this one hits different. It's not meant to be cinematic or be YouTube clickbait or anything. Its purpose (apart from the aforementioned storytelling) is to build tension. You've just passed almost the entire level, and all that's left is a really intimidating wave spam section with probably less visibility than you'd prefer. If you're not ready for this, and especially if you're beating this as your new hardest, it's not hard to choke here. Thus, you're not waiting for the last part to happen. You're anticipating it. And you have to spend eight whole measures — equating to about ten seconds, judging by my recording — anticipating this final stress test as the level draws out every last bit of tension. And that's why I called this the climax of the level. Everything — everything — builds up to that last wave. And that's probably why this level stands out to me so much. This level takes the idea of GD as an art form and pushes it to its logical conclusion — to fully appreciate this level, you can't just watch a showcase; you have to play it yourself.

I believe I first beat this level to reach 10000 stars. It's a pretty fun experience overall; super learny, but you can get it pretty consistent. It has a vaguely threatening feel to it, probably due to the main colors being red and yellow, which I feel like gives it personality. Aside from that, the sheer level of detail this level has is really impressive. The snake blocks in that one wave part, the transition into the dual, the icons in the background of the dual, the ending and all the gameplay structures that are never used but exist nonetheless to make it feel more like a maze, everything feels very meticulously constructed.

A great example of a remake done right. Reincarnation was a great level by itself, but this level manages to improve on it in many ways. Granted, Reincarnation was made in 1.9, but Carne Aderunt feels like a perfect extension of it to 2.1 while also still looking like Zoroa's signature style. A lot of stuff that wasn't great in the original was improved a lot here, such as the midsection being slightly less repetitive and the ending being new instead of copied from a previous part of the level (although the random auto part still feels kinda weird). I also really love what Zoroa did with the candle part. Outstanding level overall.

Super interesting take on the sunset style that was popular c. late 1.9 – early 2.0. It feels like there's some sort of story behind this level, some universe that all these place exists within. The level feels full of life, and yet — in somewhat of a change of pace for Xender — there doesn't appear to be a single living thing depicted inside it. And the way everything starts falling apart at the end is the perfect end to the level. Just amazing storytelling overall.