Man, it's a tough game to review, in some ways it is one of my favorite games ever made, but I feel like it is also a lot of wasted potential. You can play the demo I suppose, it is a taste of one of the best levels in the game right now.

Speaking of them, they are very uneven, I suppose they differ so much as to not bore the player with monotony, but I swear it dilutes some of its unique character, pick climbing through obviously Blame inspired megastructure.
My favorite level is actually not even in the game, it was an alpha version of level 1, from one of the earliest demos from around 4 yrs ago, I have no clue what happened, I guess "less is more" is why I liked that one so much? I wish there was a way to play it now, but maybe someone will manage to remake it in the workshop eventually.
Instead game and demo starts with a new version of level 1, it is so different in fact that I didn't recognize it from its alpha version, that said it is also one of my favorite levels in the game currently, I was extatic to see the stuff I loved from years back, and was excited to play many more hours of it.
Then level 2 takes a bit of a departure, there is an npc now, and the area is much brighter, with a sickly color pallette to fit with the fungal infection vibe of it, I was being reminded more of something like Dread Delusion here, rather than Blame, I'm still not sure if adding NPCs was a good idea, especially in the very second level of the game, it dissolved a bit of that initial desolate feeling.
Level 3 is cool at first, but it soon becomes one of the stages I liked the least, the whole thing is inspired by the cave explorer horror stories, with creepy sounds, hallucinations, extremely cramped tunnels and stuck corpses of previous travelers. I see the vision behind it, but I did not expect to spend an almost entire 1/8th of the megastructure game, crawling through claustrophobic caves.
Level 4 continued the bad streak, by making it an almost serene giant temple, with clear water running at the bottom of the stage, I liked the atmosphere, but once again I wasn't sure if it fits really, the gameplay here was also some of the weakest in the game.
Level 5 was a massive comeback, while it has NPCs again, they are now late enough in the game where I wouldn't mind them to be placed, the level is now absurdly massive, a huge climb down, a pretty big borderline abandoned city, and then a pretty big chunk of a level is even more of a climb down, if I was designing the game I would probably make the first levels be bright foggy like parts of this, and use the darker blue and black fogs the deeper into the structures I dig, but those are minor complaints.
Level 6 continues the theme from the last climb down section of Level 5, so sandy desert cliffs, with massive gusts of wind, making traversal a bit more irritating, but still manageable. It is called the foundations, but once again, it feels oddly bright for something like that.
Level 7 is very questionable, it feels very much like some Old Londo Ruins place, it is appropriately dark, it has some weird and creepy backstory, and the "npcs" here feel like shadows of whatever they used to be. The climb was decent, and vibes are here, but some of the structures feel slapped on into a mess of meshes, reminding me a bit of the level 3 tunnels in that way, and even though the climb is long and challenging, it is done without the picks completely, which were a big selling point of the game.
Last level is different depending on the mode you picked, it starts off with the weird serene simulation, to teach you on how to use the new hookshot, that stays the same, but then it turns into either a super meat boy gauntlet (???) or a vaguely ancient mediterranean blocky temple. The former is kinda terrible in how it doesn't fit the game at all, but because of the narrative reasons, it gives you a true ending. The latter is actually a much more fitting challenge, traversing is still pretty difficult at times, as not managing your hookshot stamina well enough will not let you climb some sections, you need to collect 3 things around the map, but you can also get to the very top to discover a huge telescope, that is aimed at the megastructure you were playing in during the rest of the game, despite having a good time with this last challenge, it gives a bad ending, due to some narrative reasons.
So in the end only around half the levels I actually really liked, and the rest I had some big issues with, what I enjoy in the game I enjoy IMMENSELY, sometimes it fits like a glove, like the game was made specifically for me, but then the bipolar disorder strikes, and it attempts to mix things up too much for its own good.

A good segway to talk about the aforementioned narrative, I feel like the dev trying to tell the narrative (and tying it with his previous game Hatch) is hurting what this game could have actually been. It insists on its themes, the choice of levels was shaped to fit them first, at an expense of what I feel the game could've been. It has religious references, and ends up being a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Sisyphus story AGAIN, it's kinda crazy this happened to me so soon after the last Sisyphus game I played, at least this one I enjoy a lot more. I kind of wish it would've been something else, something less fart-huffy philosophy major theme-ride, being lost in something this impossibly large digs deep into a psyche, and turning that into satanic temptation for unattainable knowledge feels like waving it away somewhat, if anything after that "good ending" it felt way too concrete (pardon the pun), and straight up "solved", despite the big bad man's monologue. I wanted something to stay with me, to make me keep thinking about it, but by the end here I simply groaned.

The audio visuals are very nice, of course the models don't have a lot of polygons, and the textures are low res by design, but if we get levels this huge, without any massive performance problems, then that's a win in my book. Some aspects like the UI I preferred in the older versions, but those are minor differences, it is still solid overall, even if I don't vibe 100% with some level design choices.

So yeah, for this price I think it is worth it, and the game can be enjoyed for what it is just fine, if anything I hope this gets covered by a big youtube/twitch white boy, so that more players hop on, and some life gets brought into its workshop support, it would be a dream scenario if I could in the future edit this review to say that all my complaints about campaign are completely invalidated, with how good certain mod campaign(s) are. As it is, I am gonna patiently wait for at least the alpha level 1 to be brought back somehow.

I had a joke, but positive, review here that I wrote in chapter 6. I have now been subjected to the last chapter and am changing my review to an unfortunate negative. The final moments of the game really are as bad as everyone else says.

Serenity turned into frustration. Intrigue turned into disappointment. Music volume turned to 0.

I enjoyed the first 95% of this game but, like a relationship that ends with a fight, I'm only going to remember that last bitter 5%.

I can't in all good faith recommend this game. Not yet at least, there are a lot of problems that the devs need to address first.

Checkpoints are all over the place. They're either on every solid surface of in between long platforming segments. No in between. This especially becomes annoying near the end. And quite honestly, the ending of the game was ruined by the frustration I felt.

Some of the level design is good, and even memorable, but the second last level is too dark, which I wouldn't mind if the game also refused to give you flairs on that level. It makes it nearly impossible to see the depth of the alcoves with how similar the textures on all surfaces are. Then there's the wonderful first checkpoint on the last level where you have to start running before you can even see the screen if you don't want to be crushed.

Another constant annoyance is the inaccuracy of the speed gauge. I have had several times where there were only two arrows, and no beeping, but the game still killed me anyways, and times where there was beeping, but I DIDN'T die.

Probably the most insulting thing in this game though is the concrete "paper airplane" for lack of a better term in the water level. It was only after riding it for a good 10 minutes that I realized the damned thing was skipping the level for me. Why is that a feature?!

If all these issues are fixed, I think my review will change.