[PA] Medusa - One-Life & Review
6No, not the black heart level.
I figured I've played two black heart levels back to back, and both times I've said "it's real good" and not much else of a long-form description criticizing the level itself. While I love both Party Time and Surface Tension, I very well could have complained about various aspects.
So, instead of praising another ol666 level, or even doing another ol level in general, I decided I'd try just some random one from my levels list. While browsing the workshop, I randomly found this level, and thought I'd give it the go for a review.
The level's by ultraorange, which if you don't know ultraorange, is a good easy level creator. I should review another level or two of theirs. They've got nice decoration that's simplistic, yet still feels above and beyond compared to what you might expect from the base game. Well, if there was a base game, that is.
Going in to this, I was expecting something similar.
...I was kinda wrong.
I should have known from the start - I had scrolled back a couple of pages to get to this, sorting by date of release. I had gone to earlier days of PA. I'd gone back to before I'd even started playing this game, and it showed on the arcade menu. It was on the second to last page. Sure, of only six pages, but still.
I could still tell it was an ultraorange level, but it was far lower in quality; both in decoration and in gameplay.
So, let's delve back to an older time for PA and review something. Not to mock its creator, nor to inform its creator on its flaws - but more to inform us. The people who haven't had the experience or time to mess up in the editor and make various mistakes, like the ones throughout the editor.
As my interest in making my own level grows, I'm going to be paying more attention to levels like this in order to not start off with a flop of a level.
Without further ado:
First few seconds in, there's a long pause. The pause isn't the problem, albeit it can lose people's interest in the level quite early on. The problem is that there's no warning.
No, not for the white bars. For the black cube that suddenly yeets itself in from the right side of the screen. Yes, that hurts you. I didn't take damage because I had immunity frames on this recording.
Attack indicators are important, and it's funny that this level does fine on them everywhere but the first five seconds.
Our next issue comes from the laser robot... thing. The one that chases you to the right hand side of the screen. And that may be a personal complaint, but nonetheless;
If you ever make the screen scroll and there's an attack at the edge you're running from? Don't make the screen faster than the player. NEVER make it faster than a player who's dodging for their life. And remember, most people are going to be slower than you.
It makes for practically unbridgeable attacks more often than not, which leave the player frustrated. If you can't dodge something, what's the point?
Speaking of unbridgeable attacks, the game proceeds to hit us with one when the part's over, forcing us to take damage no matter what. Well... Not ALWAYS. I did dodge it once. But about 90% of the time.
Be cautious with your screen transitions.
I'd like to take a second to point out that vaporwave sun. That's cool. I really like that, even if it's a fairly simple effect.
I don't necessarily like sitting there, watching your sun for 10-15 seconds straight. That's boring, and not what I signed up for in this level. Not even any interesting monologue or animation to watch? Oy.
The boss was sudden. The story was even more so. Who are those two characters? Why does the orange one think blue is dead? Why is the ending rather long, allowing time for the blue guy to explain something at least a little bit, yet he says nothing?
It's not a huge gameplay concern (although I did die to the blue cube moving the orange wall that they stop at least once), but when it comes to storytelling? Twists like these suck. There's no time to savor the story, nor do we have any actual understanding of what that story is.
I would also comment on the writing, but considering the limitations of people's reading speed and keeping up to the beat of the song, I'm not going to bother to. Nor am I going to check. I will say that there should have been more of it, however.
Would I recommend this level? Maybe. Probably not. There's much better levels by this level creator out there, such as ritual. They're fun, more colorful, have better balance and better designs. And no last minute story that I still have no clue what happened with them.
If you're bored and want a quick level to play, go ahead. It's a fine level to play, even with some glaring issues.
Total recording time: 10 minutes
Approximate total time playing the level: 17 minutes
Deaths while recording: 2
Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=014CS6Xeo9E
Artist:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6MNIegxWVDe6tOjL92QkUw
https://f-777.newgrounds.com/
https://soundcloud.com/f-777