>>4235165
I'd say that for me Dark Side and Derelict are tie.
Derelict is much better balanced on ammo (which is very noticeable on pistolstart, it just really requires you to place your shots, instead of just spraying them all around), is much more intricate structurally and uses space better. But it's just way more monotonous than Dark Side was, and I don't really think it matches Dark Side artistically (although it comes very, very close, especially in the machine room). I mean, the music in Dark Side is better, and, as for sparseness, well, I get the feeling that Dark Side is supposed to feel sparse, consisting of somewhat isolated, loosely connected rooms, just the same way Derelict is supposed to be cramped and entangled. And, most of all, I don't think that anything in Derelict matches the last third of Dark Side, where you just go forward, and those really different environments just keep changing one another, and that feeling of foreboding and mystery and "Is this supposed to be taken seriously? Is this supposed to be taken as a nod? What's even going on? How long will this level continue?", something like that. Derelict just doesn't really, sort of, raise the bids all that much towards its end, there is a weaker sense of progression, of getting somewhere you haven't been to before.
But, yeah, gameplay-wise, Derelict is way better than Dark Side. But, overall, for me, they are sort of tied. Meaning, I love both.