CompletionAchievement Counter Used

: 100%

Playtime+5hrs Footage Capture Excluded

: 769 hrs

Achievements:
637/637

+632

       

The Binding of Isaac tells the story of a demented child attempting to cope with a parent growing increasingly more psycotic in their abusive Catholic household. Depending on the conclusion the players reach and their interpretation of it, the ongoings can be interpreted literally, or as hallucinations Isaac sees in his final moments, or - with the introduction of the final piece of DLC - as an extension of his imagination before falling asleep.

Incidentally, The Binding of Isaac is also one of the most fleshed out, well-balanced, and well-paced Roguelites I ever had the pleasure of recommending, comfortably sitting at the top of my most liked games list of all time. It has a very unusual premise, a premise that helps set it apart in an admittedly oversaturated Roguelite game market.

Naked and afraid, Isaac's only means of fighting the dangers in the underground are his very own tears. Players quickly realize that in order to become stronger, Isaac must cry harder. In turn, he is forced to collect items that directly harm him in order to gain new abilities or boost his existing stats further.

The basement and its inhabitants are filthy, disfigured, dripping with bodily fluids and often infested with parasites. This helps paint a grim picture of Isaac's deteriorated well-being; themes of self-harm and suicide constantly recur throughout the game, giving the lighthearted presentation underlying melancholic vibes.

Loading sequences between the stages show Isaac getting bullied, harmed, or denied affection. He will often find remnants of other cave dwellers mummified, sitting upright in horrid positions, or hanging off ceilings. Items and pickups suggesting self-harm, like nails, razors, pills and syringes may boost Isaac's stats when consumed.

The passive items Isaac collects would horrify any sane adult; he will carry the severed remains of his pets, rotten food he respectively calls "breakfast", "dinner" or "dessert", his mother's belongings, and religious relics of her faith - among abstract interpretations of demonic and angelic symbols, zodiac signs, and various rites of Christian origin.

Most items will further change Isaac's appearance, bruising or hurting him. Isaac will contract diseases or conditions through said items - leprosy, cancer, glaucoma, proptosis, haemolacria - all of which will benefit the player. He may get bitten or invaded by parasites in order to spawn friendly familiars, misuse various medications, or utilize bodily fluids like blood, urine, or bile to his own advantage.

Beating each floor may spawn Devil deals which will help Isaac transcend his human form and become a being no longer recognizable by the end of his journey. Every sprite, sound effect, and stage are carefully constructed to reflect this.

Isaac starts out fighting regular spiders and flies, but gradually encounters more beings made of feces, blood, guts, corpses, aborted fetuses, mutated or mutilated human beings. The final boss of the game is Isaac's own mother, initially; the longer you play, however, the steeper Isaac's descent into madness is.

While TBoI doesn't offer many engagement options like other Roguelites do, the trajectory of Isaac's tears changes based on his movement, accelerating, decelerating, or curving to the sides at will. Coupled with a consistent amount of HP for each mob, player skill applies when engaging and prioritizing targets as they enter and face new rooms.

Some rooms are hazard or puzzle-based, testing player knowledge of game mechanics - buttons, totems, moving blocks, spikes, fires, pits, enemies who attack and behave a certain way. The ability to manage resources and item pools also sets experienced players apart from new ones. Certain resources can be found consistently, and items can synergize (or be detrimental) to certain characters and item setups.

Specifically because there are hundreds of items on offer, new players might not know which items can be found where and which should be taken or avoided. They also won't know how to find secrets, exploit resource deposits reliably, and manipulate odds to their favor - more on this later in the review.

Most items in the game change stats exclusively, however Isaac's tears can also be transformed into missiles, lasers, meteors, rocks, fists, teeth, boogers, fire, urine, babies if the right item is consumed. Isaac can also utilize bombs to his advantage. In fact, entire character builds can be set up around bombs, again, given the right item setup.

Actives further provide a buffer to simply firing tears at the enemy, either applying status effects, damaging mobs in the room, providing buffs, or spawning familiars and items to aid the player. Familiars are a big part of this game, providing additional firepower or transforming Isaac himself.

The devs went above and beyond to ensure there's no felt lack of progression when playing through the game. In fact, the meta-progression is one of the game's strongest suits.

Almost every action or encounter unlock Passives, Actives, cards, trinkets, runes, characters, floors or bosses, including but not limited to: arriving at new floors, beating bosses (and doing so multiple times), collecting sets of items, reaching certain stat thresholds, and even destroying or interacting with various props set around the level.

Many players attribute this aspect of the game to poor pacing, likely due to being spoiled to the game's contents early on, or not being engaged with core gameplay loop enough. Wishing to reach a progression level only attainable after spending a considerable amount of time playing the game, after a mere few hours of play, will lead to certain disappointment.

It is physically impossible to reach certain floors, get certain endings, or find certain items without going through preset checkpoints first. Curiosity and a sense of discovery go a long way when playing games of this nature - the player has to actively want to unlock content. However, the player gets gradually more empowered as they continue to play the game, achieving the system's goal.

The item variety in TBoI is insane. Each facet and mechanic in Rebirth can be modified to some extent by an item, whether it's health, damage, firerate, speed, tear spread, the tears themselves, pickups, status effects, enemies Isaac faces etc. Currently there are 732 items in the game (DLC items included), all with their own unique effect and appearance. Admittedly the item pool has indeed been diluted by questionable additions in past updates, however the amount of content on offer more than makes up for it.

On top of the main, game-changing passive items (about 2-6 of which can be feasibly found each floor), Isaac can utilize cards and runes to his advantage, which teleport him to different rooms, heal him, duplicate or change items, deal damage or spawn familiars and objects to aid him, and more.

Furthermore, random pills can be found throughout the run, boosting Isaac's stats permanently. Trinkets - passive items that change game mechanics, like removing spikes, changing Isaac's tear trajectory or changing pickup drop rates - can be found or replaced if deemed necessary.

Perhaps one of my favorite aspects of this game is the amount of resource management it allows you to indulge in. Isaac may find currency in the form of coins with which he can purchase items from shops and beggars. If he lacks currency, he may trade his health for some, or in fact, trade health for items to Devil Beggars, or in Devil Deal and Curse Rooms.

Other vendors will allow Isaac to trade his bombs or keys in, which have many uses on their own merit. In order to gain currency, Isaac can open Secret Rooms or stone chests with bombs, or open Vaults and Golden Chests with the keys he finds, making both equally as valuable for making progress.

Objects Isaac removes as obstacles can in and of themselves contain loot, such as rocks hiding trapdoors underneath, tinted rocks containing pickups, and pots, mushrooms and skulls containing their respective pools of pickups and items. There is a purpose to each and every object placed in every single room, 22,000 of which were crafted by the devs by hand. Even rummaging through feces or extinguishing fires can yield pickups, trinkets, and health.

The amount of tools players have at their disposal allows for a very careful and methodical approach to the game, rewarding those who put the time and effort into exploring each room, or those who have the knowhow to exploit the game's level generation and its mechanics.

The effort put into giving each level its own visual appeal is impressive. Chapters each feature their own creatures, fauna, obstacles, and hazards. Some even have weather effects.

The early levels are very bright and colorful, with light shining through the cracks in the ceiling and flies buzzing around - giving the place an abandoned, yet lively feeling. Later levels become darker, the background music becomes more gloomy, eventually devolving into mere static - with bones, shackles, demonic symbols decorating the walls and floors.

Isaac sometimes steps and crushes bugs crawling along the ground as he trots around, enemies he kills explode into chunks of gore or leave stains where they were slain. Each obstacle and hazard has multiple alternative sprites, with larger clusters connected in seamless fashion. Exploded bombs leave scorch marks on the ground, as do Isaac's tears, leaving chunks or gooey residue behind.

Characters are designed after their biblical counterparts, with similarities shared between their in-game interpretation and their introduction in the bible. Samson gets stronger the more he is hit, Lazarus gets an extra life, Jacob and Esau enter the run as two inseparable characters, Lilith gets a demonic familiar etc.

The characters all look like Isaac wearing a wig or holding various props, helping give the impression Isaac has multiple personalities he uses to explore each new run with. In the last DLC, Tainted characters were introduced into the game, helping contrast the regular characters with ones that have some sort of gimmick. The character set has its own unlockable trinket, cards, runes and items.

If there's any complaint I'd voice about the game, it's that not all characters are made equal in terms of usability and function; some characters are objectively stronger than others, and some are outright tedious to play. If not for their unique set of unlocks and achievements, there would be practically no reason to use them.

The modding community puts a great deal of effort into keeping the game alive without any official updates; mods have added entire new floors, bosses, characters, enemies, items, and mechanics, as well as modified the UI, improved Co-op mode, fixed overlooked sprites and enemies, reverted or introduced balance changes, switched sound effects and music around etc.

If the base game is not to a player's liking, mods can likely fix their grievances - such as translating texts or accounting for disabilities, guaranteeing item drops or access to endings, removing random chance from certain mechanics, and more - all to ensure everyone has a good time playing.

A true masterpiece of a game, with an incredibly deep storyline masked by a deceivingly friendly presentation. Truly a title could indulge themselves in for hours upon hours on end, with a highly-talented backlog of community creators to support it forever.

Arguably the most complete Roguelite out there - hundreds of items, hundreds of enemies and bosses to face, thousands of curated rooms, half a dozen floors with at least two alternatives to each one, and a Steam Workshop to further tinker with these to your heart's content. What more could you possibly want?