The Binding of Isaac...And Your Satisfying Frustration!

Some people bought this game due to the videos me and Nick (RockLeeSmile) made, demonstrating its general gameplay and even some successful runs. In my playthrough, I defeated the game in one of my luckiest run ever made. And I guess we made our fans interested because they bought and tried it. You couldn't imagine the amount of RAGE mails I got, all two of them (even if they really enjoyed the game, I am sure of it). So I decided to write this game a review. Doesn't have anything to do tonight anyway. The curse is still young.

First of all, trying to describe this game to others is a little bit complicated. The best description I could give of it is that it is a blend of multiple shooter//classic games with RPG//dungeon crawlers elements. Robotron, Smash TV, Zelda, an arcade game feel with a touch of stats and various items, you press *purée* et voila! : The Binding of Isaac.

The game wears its name beautifully, in a way. I say that because the game is gross, disturbing and creepy. Poor Isaac never deserved his curse and you will feel bad for him. God talked his mother into killing him. At least that's what she thinks, which depicts blind fanatism very well. Still, what disturbed (and pleased) me the most is the atmosphere and the wonderfully chilling sound effects. Levels are dark and keep getting darker as you go deeper into the abyss of your basement with screaming flying fetuses, squishy hearts and roaring bosses... Team Meat succeeds once again in the sound and visual department, music to boot!

Of course, gameplay is the most important aspect of it all and while I adore this game, I do have mixed feelings about it. See, I love challenges. Sometimes I penalize myself just to make a game kick my ass (Megaman comes to mind...). However the game has a bad tendency of not loving you at all. And it will penalize you very often, going as far as to tease you. While the game has perfect controls and balanced enemies, it will drag you down to hell by not giving you items you need. Yes, this game is *partially* luck based. In every levels (or floors) before the dreaded womb zone there is a shop, a treasure room, a boss room and sometimes challenges and mini-boss rooms. This guarantees you a minimal of 12 unique items over six levels, plus what's in the shop if you have enough coins and the other treasures. It sounds like a lot, but wait until the game gives you 20 bombs and no keys at all over the length of two floors, leaving two treasure rooms unexplored. Most of the time, the game will lend you passive items which stacks. It doesn't mean all of them are useful, actually a lot of items are useless by themselves, but they're still yours!

*runs away with panties*

...It will also drop*space bar* items. You can only grab one of those. That's where trouble starts.

Good players will cope out with it. Personally I only had one run where the game just made fun of me, still most of the time I end up getting 4 or 5 space bar items, all useless. You cannot sell or destroy them, so if you have a very good one (or never find a good one, that happens too) then you just lost a spot AND probably a key or a bomb, depending on where you found it. This will make you cry when all you have is range+ gear, no life upgrades, no way to replenish it, and then the game will keep giving you range+ items or useless things you wouldn't use at all (Kamikaze comes to mind... DX). Then, the game gives you rooms filled with super hard enemies who have tons of health points, with evil evil rock emotes constantly shooting you and never giving you a break when your little 1 damage tears which fires SOOO slowly cannot deal with these annoyances. And if the game gave you tons of health but no ways to hit harder, then you will watch your beautiful gigantic health bar grinding its way to nothing.
I understand this is what the game is going for and honestly, I love it a lot! But I also understand how many, MANY players will be turned down by this. There is a lot of ways Team Meat could fix this, and they probably are going to fix it, but for the mean time I receive rage messages. At least their suffering amuses me greatly :D


...You're still reading? Good, because the bad news are over. If you do indeed get lucky with the items, you will find a lot of pleasant elements in The Binding Of Isaac. First of all, as a huge fan of Boss Battles, I can affirm that this game will satisfy your every needs. Challenging and interesting bosses awaits you in these dark fleshy rooms and they are there by the dozens. The mobs are also very nice, especially the screaming... dead... foetuses...brrrr. I luv them!

Exploring the entire level instead of going straight for the boss is rewarding if you feel like it (except in the last levels, it may be better to just run straight to the final boss). There are secret rooms, hidden chests and rewards around every corners and it's always a good idea to grab as much stuff as you can. It may be a bet to open locked chests but most of the time it pays off. There are also different utility objects, like arcade machines and beggar kid and I really love how there is two ways to make them work. You have the cash, then try your luck. No money? Then simply blow the machines (and the kids) to grab your reward by force!

Sometimes you will be forced to choose between two locked rooms and a chest and such decisions are always critical! If you open the chest, you MAY have a key or two back, plus other items, but you may also get nothing. The treasure room always contains something, but will it be useful to you? Or the shop, there may be something good and you might even be able to buy a key back, but there is also a chance to fall upon Greed, who will steal your money with every successful hits. To note, this bastard can appear everywhere, not just the shop. Even if the game is frustrating, it also makes you feel wonderful whenever you made a good decision (or a lucky guess, question of perspective). The increasing difficulty with your every victorious playthrough will also add weight in those crucial decisions.
In my experience, it balances itself out, even if you will have some unsuccessful infuriating runs that give you the urge to smash your gamepad into your screen. Just blow the begging kid up, it'll feel good XD


There you go. If you love any of the games or game genre I described at the beginning, then this game might be for you. If you still have doubts then I...

**PLUG TIME*

strongly suggest watching videos from RockLeeSmile. He is a good friend of mine and did some very good playthroughs, successful and not. It is his debuts and his first LP but he is interesting, his videos are very representative of what the game is and you will laugh at his fails. I did XD.

Here's the link to his first episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbJRxQfh0Jo&feature=channel_video_title


On this, I thank you for your time and hope you enjoyed your read. Feel free to ask any questions about the game, I revisit the forums at least once a day. May be faster if you post on the blog, but I shouldn't miss you. I'll see you next time!