In the early hours of this morning I finished The Binding of Isaac Rebirth, well sort of. It is hard to fully complete a game that is so large in scale & has so much to offer, but I think I'm getting ahead of myself. Who here has played Super Meat Boy? I have, it was awesome, challenging & at times kind of cute. The creative minds behind Super Meat Boy are Edmund McMillen & Tommy Refenes. After enjoying Super Meat Boy so much I was curious about the new project Edmund McMillen & Florian Himsl were releasing, The Binding of Isaac. When it was first released a number of years ago I played it but due to other distractions I did not invest the time in it that it truly deserved. Lucky enough though I recently saw the The Binding of Isaac Rebirth on the Playstation Store, I thought to myself here is my chance to try it again but properly this time, so here am I am just about to review it.
Sour sweets are bad for you, they are terrible for your teeth, can damage your stomach & can make your eyes water. I love them, there, I said it, it is now a fact & forever recorded on the internet for all time. Anyhoo, while I do like them they are sometimes so sour I want to spit them out, on a rare occasion I am ashamed to say I have, but most of the time I fight through it & enjoy the challenge. While Playing the Binding of Isaac I had to ask myself was this an enjoyable sour sweet or did I just want to spit it out?
The Binding Of Isaac's story is simple & not at the same time. Little Isaac & his mother are living a happy little life in a small house on a hill. He keeps to himself, drawing & playing with toys. His mother watches Christian Broadcasts on TV. Everything is perfect until one day a voice from above commands her to kill her son, Isaac scared looks to escape into the only place he can, the basement & so our adventure begins. There is a bit more going on that but that is the crux of it.
I like the story, because while simple it makes you feel for the character straight away & all you want to do is keep him safe. This of course will be a challenge.
While there are many positives in the game the visuals have to be one of the biggest of them. While Isaac himself looks helpless & cute everything around him is not that way. Enemies come in all shapes & sizes each as deadly looking as the other. The blood & sometimes poo covered rooms create a grim feeling & that's before you have enemies like Larry Jnr. attacking you (seen in the shot above). Watching Isaac's tears killing enemies looks cool & is also sad at the same time, take just a few minutes to play it & you will know what I mean.
If you are hoping the music will be upbeat to help counter the dark content of the game you will be disappointed. The sounds used are eerie & pulse pounding, from time to time a choir can be heard which really highlights the biblical references scattered throughout the game.
The original composer of the Binding Of Isaac score was Danny Baranowsky (dB Soundworks) who also created the music for; Canabalt (which is where I first heard his work, it's also a great game) & Super Meat Boy. When the game got remastered & (then some) Ridiculon took over the music side of things, they have also worked on; Super Meat Boy 5th Anniversary & End is Nigh (which is on my Steam Wishlist).
While the soundtrack may not be one of the most amazing it certainly suits the tone of the game, my favorite tracks include; 'Ventricide', 'Diptera Sonata', 'Sodden Hollow' (Caves), 'Matricide' (Mom Fight), 'Sketches Of Pain (Chest Room)' & 'The Fallen Angel'.
When it comes to the gameplay it reminds me of a tasty Christmas Dinner, you keep eating & no matter how much you eat there is still more left to go. The game is roguelike which means if you get killed you get to start from scratch, initially this can be frustrating but as time goes on you get used it & see it as a way of improving how you play.
Keep moving, keep shooting & most importantly don't lose heart - what I really mean is don't lose hearts. Your health is your wealth in the game, you will need to be conscience of it & not get complacent when playing. Of course there are items that will help you which improve your tears, gives you followers & changes your form. Unfortunately though some items actually makes things worse for you; reduced health & moving slower are only two possible effects.
The enemies are varied which I really liked & add to the challenge. One of the crazy things I found with the game is that some enemies get scared & cry which I found to be really unnerving. Every room has one of two things; fire or poop & in some cases both. Initially I was like, there is poop everywhere this nasty, then I thought to myself look at how many creatures there are down here of course there is poop everywhere.
Rebirth adds new elements compared to the original including; hard mode, challenges, seeded runs, new items, revamp of the graphics & tons more things too. There is literally 100's of hours worth of gameplay which means there will always be something new to do.
So far I have only put a meager 15-20 hours into the game & look forward to playing a ton more. There was very few flaws I had with the game; the initial load time is a little slow & the soundtrack was so so for me but apart from that everything else was gold. I am giving this one 4 out of 5
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