Rating Curve

Man, I really wanted to like this level, but it has too many problems for me to think of it positively overall. I think it's pirate theme is excellent and the environments look fantastic (when you're not being blasted with radial blur) but it's a really big shame that the way Heave Ho plays is straight up unfun and stressful. I do think the first two parts are excellent, they ease you into the level well, show you what you're about to get into, and use camera controls and shaders in a tasteful way. I think the swaying back on and forth on the ship, while pretty hard to get used to the first time around, is a neat idea that I'm glad was included. Sadly, these are the only parts I liked playing, as everything else ranges from okay, to pretty bad from a player's standpoint. The part directly after is okay, but after riding a boat to the next part, you're brought to a pretty bland section of gameplay with some frankly annoying handling of where the player is telegraphed to go. Indicators are actually something I generally don't mind, but if an indicator is the ONLY thing that tells you that a wall of spikes will land on you if you don't click, that's pretty poor design, and it would be better to just have a spike that shows why you should click. I think I especially drop off near the drop, with the constant shifting to the right of the camera and the excessive amount of motion blur. I even tested the level without any of the motion blur as an experiment and I genuinely this this level would be SO much more enjoyable if the motion blur was majorly toned down. Once you reach around 70% the playability gets a smidge better, but still not very good. The endscreen is at least really cool. I really feel sorry for not liking this level, because I can see a version of this level that's really great, but unfortunately, this wasn't my thing entirely.

Such a strange, disturbing, abhorrent level. It's presentation is enough to make someone very uncomfortable, and that's weirdly admiral to go against creating a level for everyone, which is something I adore about Devin's work, just making what he wants to make.

I decided to even beat this level, and it's honestly the most fun I've had beating something in a while. Despite a pretty slow start everything flows together super well and it's fun to figure out. For instance, I used to find the dual pretty confusing but once you nail figuring it out it feels AMAZING.

Visually speaking, this level can be hard to look at, but in a good way. Such great detail in every part, to a chilling degree. It can be kind of hard to stomach at first but eventually you can get used to it, but this level is not for the faint of heart.

I understand why this level can't exist publicly, but it's still absolutely amazing.

Button Masher is the final level of the NCS Event. It has some quite unbalanced gameplay that ranges from stupidly easy to pretty tricky to figure out with all the objects covering your view. I don't think the camera trigger usage is bad, but I don't think they really add anything for the most part apart from a couple neat moments, like when you break out of the arcade machine. Despite the level's pretty wonky balancing, I do think playing it is pretty fun once you figure out what you have to do. Visually I think Button Masher excels, bringing a blend of a Robtop-esque style and elements from all the previous NCS Event levels. I think my favorite part from a visual standpoint is the final part, where you switch through some arcade games, again from NCS Event levels. Definitely not perfect, but a pretty good sendoff to the NCS Event!

I feel like this would've been a lot better off as a silly auto level. The gameplay feels taped on and doesn't add a lot to the level. I think the art looks nice and it certainly seems like a lot of effort was put into it but I can't say it all came together nicely in the end. Nothing about Boogie is inherently irritating but it really does not leave an impression on me apart from some good-in-the-moment visuals.