The CyberDime Realm (Virtual Simplicity) 1.6.2

Pretty good! Possible with any character (even with some nodded ones), levels are good difficulty (not to easy or hard), just wish there were a few more levels (I have a problem with huge map packs)

after going through this modpack i can confidently say it's probably one of the most polished modded compaigns you can go through, and currently my all time favorite, cyberdime has a lot of work put into it, from the special stages, to the levels themsevles and the level design (mostly) to the texture work, seriously there's a lot of really of work put into this meatloaf, especially the last few levels on the main compaign, highly recommend

This was the first levelpack i downloaded, and man was it amazing. This game is like SRB2 in it's own right, and even better in some aspects.
To leave a clear review, I'm going to go through each level and review them, using modern sonic ranks to convey my opinions of each level.

Notes: Dude, you are mean at hiding things. Finding those emblems was really tough. That's good, it makes them fun, but... tone down the invisible breakable walls. Please.

SHOAL COAST: C
It's fun, and good story-wise, but a kind of anticlimactic intro to the game. If it weren't for Sunrise Uplands, this would have killed my interest in this on the spot. I know better, now, this level isn't really that bad, it was just mediocre and i was worried it was the best you had. Fortunately, this is the worst level in the mod.

SUNRISE UPLANDS (total): A
It's very orange, and a pretty fun starting place. The music rocks, too.

Act 1: A
A solid intro to the gameplay style of the mod, and a fun playground to mess around in.

Act 2: A
It's even better than the last one, and it has several secrets. I have no idea how i managed to find that secret exit in this level. Also, that portal you hid... what is that? I'm so confused.

Act 3: B+
A nice twist on an easy boss. A little too easy if you're fast, and annoying if you're slow, so it probably needs some work.

BRIDGE HILL: B
It's fun at first, but not that fun, and the level overstays its welcome. Also, this level has exclusively annoying enemies, so that's mean. The omnipresent amy in the level is hilarious though.

SHRWED BLIZZARD: B
It gets longer, but it gets more fun.

Act 1: A
It's a really good winter level. I don't even know what to say, it's just a lot of fun. Amy jumping you at the end is pretty funny, too.

Act 2: B-
A bit slower, and it forces you to cooperate with that. It's not bad, by any means, but it does kind of damage the pace a bit. It's also rather long, which is a omen of things to come.

Act 3: N/A
From what I understand, this boss is not finished. Therefore, I will ignore it.

NIGHTLIGHT GULLY: B+
An unconventional take on a water level. Pretty neat, gotta say.

Act 1: A
The sonic CD credits play as you navigate the waters. There's a section near the end at the path split where you have to make it to some springs across a lake of water, and that part is pretty annoying to navigate, but most characters can skip it, so...

Act 2: B+
Same deal as Act 1, except the annoying parts are underwater and intentional. It's a water level, what am i supposed to say? Annoying, but fair and reasonable.

Act 3: C
It's the deep sea boss but annoying and unpredictable. I don't like getting flanked by a shockwave, thank you.

TERRACE MOUNTAIN: A
A haunted mountain is a great concept to work with. I'm blown away.

Act 1: A
The enemies are annoying, but the platforming is fun, and the level is cool.

Act 2: A
The enemies are even worse, but the platforming is even more fun. Also, that secret level exit is far more reasonable, but you could bother to make it slightly more visible maybe?

Act 3: B
This boss is uh... yeah. if you hit it quickly, it's fun, but if you drop your guard for a second, that's it, you're screwed. Gotta stay on your toes for this one.

SKY ISLANDS: S
Now THIS is a secret level. It has the atmosphere, the concept, and it reminds me of Rain World. It's really a perfect level, I had so much fun in there.

MOLTEN TUNNELS: B?
The levels are so radically different from one another that I can't really rank the zone as a whole. But both levels are great.

Act 1: B-
Look, it's the lava level, but the platforming is kinda annoying, and it's too easy to fall to your death. The end section is a strong example of that. I play this, I feel like I'm going to die at any moment no matter how well I'm doing.

Act 2: A+
Someone please tell me what the music is it is so good
Anyway, the level is awesome and I love the crystal cave and the ice physics. Apparently it's a new addition, and man, you nailed it.

Act 3: E
Telegraph. The. Attacks.
This boss is really hard to dodge because of the bullets, it gets in your face while it's trying to shoot you, the window where you can hit the boss is short, and the second phase is easier than the first. It's just not a fun boss.

AMARANTHINE OUTPOST: B+
Where do you come up with these names?
Yeah, this is a cool zone, but it kind of has this "have we been here already?" feel to it that kind of throws me off.

Act 1: A
Solid, quick, and fun. It's pretty clear what to do, and the green acid makes for a good hazard.

Act 2: B+
It's just as good, but it's more of a maze, which means you get lost easy. Once you know the path, though, it's just as good as Act 1.

Act 3: D
This is the most annoying boss of all time. You can't tell what it's doing, and you can't hit it, really. Your best bet is to drive it into the wall, and hope it clips into it and dies.

DRY GULCH ZONE: B
There's nothing bad about it, really, but if any zone could be seen as padding, it's this one. It's still good, but only sometimes.

Act 1: B-
I don't really like this level. It feels like a worse version of arid canyon, with somewhat boring platforming and confusing caves. Near the end it gets better, but by then you're kind of exhausted.

Act 2: A-
This is a cool temple level, but the crusher spam is annoying. I spent several hours in this level trying to find the switch for the door at the start, so my perspective might be a bit biased against it, though.

Act 3: A
A really good hard mode of Fang. The sand coming up just makes it cooler. It's pretty neat.

DESOLATED CITY: A+
This is a really good climax zone for the mod. The atmosphere and buildup to the metal sonic fight is incredible, and so are the levels.

Act 1: S
This level is long at first, but as you master it, you can burn through it really fast. I never had more fun going for a time emblem ever. the atmosphere is also amazing. I love it.

Act 2: A+
As you get deeper into the city, it looks more destroyed, and you're now over water as you search the sunken city, jumping across the rooftops. You can not say that is not cool. It is so, so cool.

Act 3: A
I like the Metal Sonic fight, unlike most people. The only significant changes here is that beating Metal breaks the simulation, which is really cool to experience. To be clear: That cutscene after beating metal is what I'm ranking, and it carries the entire boss. The metal fight is vanilla, so can't be considered really.

CYBERDIME CORE: S
HOLY CRAP WE'RE ESCAPING THE SIMULATION

Act 1: S
It is so cool to go through a simulated greenflower with extra hazards and whatzits. the atmosphere is also breathtaking. Playing this for the first time was my favorite experience of this mod.

Act 2: A
Really decent gauntlet level. A fair gauntlet level, too, which is hard to pull off. That last emblem was mean, though, and gauntlet levels are still long and... yeah, long makes the level hard to replay. Still good, though.

FROZEN VALLEY: B
It's one of your old stages, and it's pretty good, all things considered. Used it for the perfect bonus emblem. quite an interesting level, but it's not the same quality as the others, but that's a given.

TERRACE TREES: B
I found this level kind of annoying. It just goes on for way too long. It's also just not as interesting as Terrace Mountain. But that's why we played Terrace Mountain in the main game and not Terrace Trees, so... yeah.

DARK WOODS: B+
It's fun, but the hazards are a little unfair. Not nearly enough to beat everything else about the level, though, so yeah, it's a pretty need level, and it's fun to speedrun.

TIMELESS WASTES: B
The atmosphere is INCREDIBLE.
And that's all that's really good about it. It kind of lacks engaging gameplay, and it goes on for really long. Way, way too long. It's not bad, by any means, and the gameplay that is there is still decent, but it's not really that good.

SPECIAL STAGES: S
These stages are a great take on the formula, and the tokens are well-placed. it's sometimes hard to know how to tackle some of the stages in the intense parts, but these special stages are better than many official sonic special stages, so I'm going to give it the highest of praises.

CONCLUSION:
This mod is a blast, as good as vanilla SRB2 if not better. It clearly has a lot of passion thrown into it, and completing it was an experience I am grateful to have. From what I understand, it's not quite done yet, so when it updates, I'll be excited to see what's new.
It would be nice if you credited the music somewhere easy to access, though. the music is really good. From what i understand, you made some yourself, too, and those are some of the best that's there, so yeah. Thank you for the mod!

I have a lot of issues with the level design of this pack, early levels are pretty nice, but with Midnight Gully things get either very horizontal, boring and plain (having the issue blind drops being the only way to progress forward too), or levels have you jumping around in enclosed spaces with tons of enemies and hazards everywhere. It's very hard to get a sense of direction when the level doesn't tell you that at all (I mean it, sometimes after using a spring you would be facing a direction that just leads you back through the level! and no rings or items to point you in the right way) and often puts random walls in front of you.

The final levels have a really nice concept but are honestly annoying to get through, difficulties of the rooms seem random, with the second act overall being much simpler in my experience with it. Though dying once and having to redo multiple sections was so so incredibly boring and annoying :(

this level pack is great

SRB3 REAL?!??! but fr though these maps are so cool! Great Job!

All these maps are epic! My favorite's the Icy/Snowy one (I forgot the levels name...)

The levels are peak.

I've made it far into this level pack, and I think my thoughts on it are pretty set already.
This is awesome, the best level pack so far in my opinion.

Aesthetics are at SRB2's best, the music is absolutely amazing, level design is open but fast, and the special stages...
OHH THE SPECIAL STAGES

To be honest, I never get the emeralds, mainly because the official special stages are really boring, I don't enjoy them. But these ones... Oh my god.
Never enjoyed getting emeralds as much as in this.
BUT
I just got two of them... which kinda sucks because I love the gameplay (skill issue, I know).
I think adding a spoiler section in the overview tab where you show the medal placements would be cool.

The only reason I'm not giving this 5 stars is because the stages' difficulty is mainly set by the number of enemies, level design being not punishing at all, which could be improved.

I'm really looking forward to the next updates.

Cheers to ya.

i dont know how to do intros to these typa things so basically: Me (avery) and Neon played this entire mod fully today and decided to write a review on it!!! awesome yea go read

Starting off, Shoal Coast Zone was really cool and an absaloute great start. The level design was fantastic, the design of the level were really solid to play through and the design was great, the transitions from the beach to grass to cave were well executed and overall it was really enjoyable. As for the transition to the little lab thing, the trap was timed perfectly and transitions well into the lab part with Mecha Sonic (who i'll talk about in a bit), and the fakeout leading into the virtual world bit was really well done and I loved every bit of it! My only ick is the sheer amount of bumblebore spam but everything else was great!!

Sunrise Uplands Acts 1 and 2 were GORGEOUS. The sunset vibe was beautiful and the stage design was really nice and we loved every single second of it. The music was great, the sections were nice to go through and had a lot of love put into them, and overall it was the best levels out of this entire mappack. No complaints regarding this level from both of us, amazing work you guys!!! :DDDD

Much like the first, Shrewd Blizzard was also great. Nothing much to say, nearly same level of quality as Sunrise. Aside from getting lost a little, enjoyed this one! :]

Midnight Gully Zone Act 1 is where the problems come in. Level was generally really empty and boring, was very easy to get lost and if using other characters (i.e: Mario or Cacee) you could just skip over the whole thing. I also died twice at the end because there was 0 indicator on where the goal was and I flew right over it unfortunately. Act 2 is the same except it's way easier to get lost in this one, even to the point where I asked Neon genuinely where we were going, boss was kinda icky too.
=+= Neon Note: ourple water =+=

Terrance Mountain Zone was something. Off the bat music was awful, was a bit too optimistic about it going in but aside from that: Cool concept, executed poorly. Ghost enemies were ripped straight from the base game with changed texture which was cool was still pretty lazy and was spammed EVERYWHERE, level design didnt make up for that either unfortunately.
Suprisingly there was a completely original boss which definetely redeemed this stage a bit, even if the attack patterns were pretty awesome to see! "it was fucking touhou" -Neon
=+= Neon [+ avery] Note: trampolin :))) =+=

Molten Tunnel just sucked. We don't talk about Molten Tunnels.

Amaranthine Outpost Zone was alright, nothing too special here, level design was same as the rest and nothing too interesting. 0 indicators on where to go and generally just a bit uninteresting and empty, not to mention the whole horde of enemies attack was kinda just shoehorned in there without any proper intro, the doors just open and that's it, you don't even have to fight them if you figure out they even open in the first place. However being able to see the enemy concepts was a neat touch.
Nothing too special about the boss, it was custom again so that's neat but not too much interesting about it aside from feeling like the one from Terrance Mountain.

Dry Guldge Act 1, as Neon once said: "this is literally fucking arid canyon from 2.1", whilst yea, it does have a few other bits mixed in, it generally just feels pretty rushed. And the quicksand just made it a pain in the ass. Aside from the quicksand, Act 2 looked really cool and I loved the temple design! Not too much to say from it, gameplay was meh but concept was cool!! As for the boss, I liked the room design but the fact quicksand came in midway just ruined the entire thing. Also there was Fang for some reason?? (fuck fang we hate fang) ((except blitz fang he's cool -neon)

Desolated City zone was a bit of an ick for the both of us. I don't really see how an entire city level fit at all. The level overall feels really empty and lazy. The giant gaps in the floor weren't really explained, and the buildings were just not well placed. Act 2 is just the titanic, no other comments LOL
The boss was just Metal Sonic with no really extra features, however we do like Metal Sonic in this household so its permissable :)))

Cyberdime Zone Act 1 was really dissapointing, I thought it was gonna be a completely new zone until my hopes and dreams were shattered right infront of me as I realised all the zones to get the emeralds were just exact copies of the prexisting zones from the base game but just SLIGHTLY buffed with some original stuff thrown in, not even in a fun way either. We were incredibly sad too because this level looked so promising when we went in but just ending in what it did. I get the premise of this zone was to be like a throwback of all the levels but it just comes off as really lazy. Act 2 was relatively the same as the first, nothing interesting in that part.
The boss is just a whole other can of worms, the start made it seem like were were going to leave the literally Matrix bit but instead we got transported to... just the base final boss. Devastating, I nearly had a heart attack and Neon threw himself off the edge of the map. Music was bad too. Ya'll didn't even change the ending either which sucked. We couldn't even play the remake stages either :(
=+= Neon Note: I COULDN'T PLAY MARBLE ZONE IM GOING TO FUCKING RIOT YOU MOTHER FU =+=

Special stages were actually really awesome, genuinely really creative idea instead of just copying the base Special Stages and the fact it loops so you can fix your mistakes as well makes it even better, gameplay was great, we love to see it :DD (obviously ignoring the last one but it's still in progress so I don't mind :]
The music though was a bit annoying as its literally the same track every time with different instruments, but I'll let that slide as the gameplay was fun.

Here's my main problems with all the stages:
- Firstly, the level design for most of them is confusing in the fact that half the time you literally can't tell if you're going backwards or forwards half the time. This got to the point where I genuinely asked Neon "Are we going the right way or not?"
- Some of the music (I'm pretty sure some was original? Dunno tho) wasn't the best honestly, improvement to be had there.
- Level design post the first 3 zones was really empty and just felt progressively lazier throughout, work to be done there
- Less enemy spam. I fucking beg.
- Story direction is odd, Mecha Sonic was at the start but was never explained as to why and there was 0 transitions between levels.

Overall, we rated it a 3/5 collectively. It's really promising however there's definitely work needed to make it the best it can be. If you're still updating this then don't give up!! This concept is really cool and I'd love to see it fully complete, best of luck :DDD

"im having a fucking annurism" - Neon


thats the review go home

The level design gets kinda meh at the end but still, this is a very good level pack

Cyberdime Realm RETURNS! I Like this Level Pack

This pack is mutually fine overall, but there is a bug with Nightlight Gully Act 1, the game SIGSEV's before the stage even starts, and apparently I have no idea why that's happening. If there could be some sort of way to fix that problem with the stage, let me know about that.

this map pack has a lot good about it, however, it needs a LOT of improvement.
the aesthetics and music are stellar, i won't deny that, but the actual level design is in DIRE need of a change. the levels are very mazelike and the path to the goal will often be in a random spot that isn't relative to the rest of the level. (i.e., a red spring in 2-1 that sends you up to another area of the level that most players wouldn't notice at first.) this level pack does have a lot of potential, and once again, apart from the level design, it's great, but it still needs a lot of work done on the levels.

Loved the style overall. Yes, I see there are more "mature" maps than others, but still I like the styles and its friendly design used and the direction this pack is going to.

The main things I think that need to work on:
- Better dimensioning, specially in DGZ2 with its cramped rooms/sand slides. I think it's too much 3 sand slides.
- Better direction. Some path split/merges are confusing and may lead the player to take the wrong turn or walk in circles. E.g. SBZ2 (near 7700,-8100), NGZ2 (8100,-14500) and DCZ1 and 2.
-CCZ2 feels grinddy... hum, that button hunting in vanilla rooms is necessary?

One of my favorites level packs btw.

I played through the most recent version with a friend, and it honestly almost feels like an entirely new adventure in comparison to the older versions. Assuming this still has yet to be finished, I'm just even more excited to see how this turns out.

Its a good mod has no flaws absolutely perfect

I went through this pack of levels again, in order to find out what was added and changed there. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by the various changes in, like, the first 4 zones, I think.

The first zone still looks odd with its average mix of textures, however this level has become a little more fun to play.

The second zone now looks more pretty. But I would the colormap a little less, everything is very orange, also quite a bit of platforming and confusion in Act 2. The boss with the bomb is pretty cool, albeit very simple.

I have nothing to say about the third winter zone. little has changed. Overall a fairly average zone.

I liked the third night zone better with its unusual colors and cool skybox. Act 1 level design is a bit weird and open, but Act 2 meh.

The fourth Halloween zone is pretty boring, I didn't like it, especially because of the gray colors and poorly suited music. The boss is cool, although the enlarged enemy sprite from HHZ is rather strange.

The fifth fire zone is okay, and the level and boss are okay. I can't say more than that there are a couple of weird bugs.

The "Techno Hill" zone is same as "Halloween" zone - The levels are meh, and the boss is cool.

The rest of the zones are already pretty boring, especially Cyberdime Core. Thank goodness Act 2 in the campaign is skipping, Act 2 is more boring.

Bonus levels is also meh.

Well, yes, I left the bigger problems for last, because they are in almost every zone:
- Linedef 7. It feels like you are afraid to use it, because in fact, using this linedef is not so difficult and it would make all the levels a little more pretty.
- Most of the levels are still boring and confusing. Yes, I understand that the minus is not worth assigning, because the level pack has just begun to be redone, but even in the redone levels there are confusing moments.
- Most of the bugs remain, which are clearly visible and should be fixed.