Wow, it took only 3 comments to see all 3 possible responses: loving it, hating it, and feeling indifferent.
As for me, I think I'm generally on the optimistic side, though I have some criticisms that I would assume (or at least hope) would be addressed before an actual release.
They did say "very WIP", so I don't think it's fair to judge it as a completed remake, but criticism is also required to help shape the final product, so here's my thoughts on how it currently appears:
TEXTURES / MODELLING
Alright, let's get the easy stuff out of the way. I think the increased usage of varied textures to make different bits stand out is excellent. The waterfall looks fantastic, and the general shaping of the terrain looks buttery smooth. I like it.
THE WALLS
Don't quote me on this, but I recall reading that the removal of the boundary walls was just done for the sake of experimenting... although I can't recall what was meant by that. I would assume they meant either:
A. make altering the slopes during development easier, since otherwise you'd have to keep editing the walls, too. Better to finalize the playable area and add the walls last.
B. simply to see how things look without the walls (and see how other people react to their absence)
With all that said, I do agree that the act looks generally worse without the walls, and I would hope they are not gone in the final release.
However, I wouldn't be opposed to some sections having no walls (and allowing players to run off the sides into a death pit) in order to add some extra risk/reward to certain sections. I appreciate when early levels of a game have optional sections that provide a challenge even to experienced players. GFZ1 already has a few of those, but I see no harm and plenty of benefit in adding some more. After all, GFZ is the zone that you revisit the most. It ought to have something for all skill levels.
SLOPES AND STUFF
And now it's time to get complicated.
With regard to the general implementation of sloped terrain, I'm liking most of what I see so far. I can see that the hidden roll path to the upper section with the house is still there, but moved to the end of a slope, and hidden behind some bushes. Already, this adds more complexity to the gameplay, since the player now has to actively avoid slipping off the slope, and has to pay more attention to even notice that the path is there.
The gears in my head are already turning, imagining how crawlas could be placed on the slope to make it trickier to traverse, while simultaneously encouraging usage of the roll move, which happens to coincide with how the roll path requires usage of the roll. There's a surprising amount of cleverness in this small section of level design.
That said, the section at the start of the level immediately preceding it feels a bit... empty, as does the section surrounding the first checkpoint. Both are similar to the 2.2 section, but expanded. And yet they don't really do all that much with the added space. Again, it should be noted that this is all "very WIP", so I would assume *something* will be placed there, but in the exact state that they currently appears, these sections feel a bit too sparse.
There's something to be said for the compactness of the level design in SRB2. In a lot of the current 2.2 levels, it feels like every nook and cranny has been filled with *something*. Rare is the spot that feels empty, at least while you're playing it. It should be noted that enemy, monitor, ring, and hazard placement all play a role in making a section feel occupied. So it feels difficult to judge the revised sections without knowing *what* will go where. (And indeed, even the level designers probably don't quite know yet either, or else they might've already put it there. Nobody goes into level design knowing the complete design from the get-go.)
It's worth remembering how empty things like the unfinished 2013 Deep Sea Act 1 remake are in certain places. Those were of a similar level of completion (very WIP), and they similarly feel empty in certain spots. With that in mind, I am not too worried about the final outcome... or at least not yet.
Now, of all levels, Greenflower is probably the one where "wide open sections with minimal hazards" is most fitting, but I do think it's important to preserve the "denseness" of SRB2's current level design in general. More breathing room is not automatically bad, and in some cases it can be an objective improvement. But it can also easily be overdone. If only a few sections are like this throughout the game, then that's fine. But I wouldn't want everything to be this "wide" (for lack of a better descriptor).
So overall, I think that as-is, the revised sections appear too empty, but I assume that is in part due to their unfinished state. I would be somewhat disappointed if 2.3 came out looking exactly like this, but I take "very WIP" at face value, so I will give the level designers the benefit of the doubt for now.
