Through songs like "Levels," "Waiting for Love," and "Wake Me Up," Avicii provided a soundtrack to a reflective and regrettable evening spent in a Portsmouth nightclub. I vaguely recall muttering, "When I get older, you won't find me listening to this at 3 a.m. on a weeknight. But now, more than a decade later, I am doing just that. I am listening to Tim Bergling's innocent earworms on tiptoe in my apartment. I even have slippers.

Avicii Invector is no ordinary rhythm-action game. The project, which aimed to elevate Bergling's brand of electronic dance and house music by combining it with interactive and captivating environments, began in 2015, but the Swedish club sensation passed away in April 2018. Hello There Games and Bergling's team have since completed the game, with a portion of the proceeds going to the Tim Bergling Foundation, which helps people with mental health issues. It infused a deep sadness into the final experience, beneath the bright glow of the Swedish DJ's party anthems.

That final experience is a compilation of 25 of Avicii's biggest hits in five distinct but captivating worlds: as in "Amplitude" and "Thumper," the notes are matched to the corresponding buttons on the pad, which are then played by the DJs themselves. This is preferred over keyboard control, but it can be played with keyboard control without any problems.

First, the simplest is the flat path, where your plane hops merrily from note to note, but you must move sideways to hit all the notes. Next, there is a triangular pathway, which flips the lane to the appropriate side. Manipulating in the wrong direction can cause the notes to fly upside down, which can result in a large shift. the third and final type is not actually a lane. It gives you a floating target to zoom in on, completely off the path. [Much of the UI disappears, allowing you to fully appreciate an environment filled with towering skyscrapers and craggy cliffs. Freed from the shackles of traditional notes and lanes, and fitting beautifully into the wind-down after a song drop, this play is like "Rez Infinite"

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In this sense, the clear structure of the song transitions nicely into a music game. Let me be clear, I am by no means an Avicii superfan, but my experience with Avicii through Invector has made me appreciate him and his music in a different way. For example, the breaks and build sections before the drop are clearly predictable, so I now save the boost for the crucial moments of the track.

The boosts are a reward for skilled play, and they run through the track at breakneck speed with eruptions of fireworks. Combined with the enchanting worldview of "Tron," it is euphoric. On rare occasions, though, the screen is too busy to discern the next sound.

Your charming pilot excitedly emits a "woof" or "yep" with each boost. She appears in a series of short, nicely drawn vignettes between planets, but the story is incidental, skippable, and not repeated after the first playthrough.

Those who are negative about Avicii will get little out of "Invector," but skeptics will be hard-pressed not to be impressed as everything falls into place. That said, the distribution of the 25 songs that make up the game is a bit off, with the well-known tracks concentrated in the City and Ice worlds. This isn't necessarily a problem on first viewing, but it becomes noticeable once everything starts to feel fresh. Once each song and planet is unlocked, it becomes available on all three difficulty levels. However, after clearing Easy on the "City" world in the middle of the game, the jump to Medium was initially tough when I tried to play it straight through. Invector prepares you well for the next level of difficulty if you proceed from start to finish, but that may mean repeating your least favorite work before you get to the really good stuff.

Nonetheless, Avicii Invector is a wonderful and sometimes overwhelming experience, and while we will never know what was going on at the time the DJ passed away, Bergling's love for his work oozes from the moment of breakthrough to the cathartic drop. But each moment of elation is followed by an inescapable, seething emptiness as one remembers that he will never see it.