Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

Is a rouge like, shoot em up, with hand drawn pixel art. It is actually a pretty strange game covering some strange themes and being awkward at times. It may seem like a simple game at first, but it has hundreds of items and collectibles, all of which affect how your game goes. Every level is semi-random, and gets tougher as you go deeper, the "final" boss is your mom. But we played it for hours and want you to know about it!




The introduction sheds light on the story line. But doesn't explain everything. You will have questions and only by winning multiple times to unlock all of the endings,  you  will understand. The game has multiple playable characters, many, many enemies and also a ton of bosses.

Your main weapon are tears from your eyes because you are playing as an abused child having to face his fears and defeat what he loves most, his own mother! The lord himself (or was it?) tasks your mother to sacrifice Isaac. But Isaac hides in the basement which turns out to have more than he bargained for.
You face lost brothers and sisters and more, mutated by the evil of your not so simple basement.

You face deadly rooms of enemies ranging from little spiders, poop (Yup poop), other kids (Or are they?) and even giant bosses which challenge you from going to the next floor. The bosses can be anything, with a massive list of them the challenge keeps getting tougher. And as you replay the same game, it unlocks more and more deadlier floors with more bosses, new challenges and more items.

You run around the floor with WASD, while using arrow keys to shoot. Using "space" for these power up items and using Q for consumables like pills for example. While E drops a bomb which is used to clear a path to blocked objects like chests or items.

You get to choose from an array of characters, but first they have to be unlocked by completing challenges, some of which are hidden. One challenge is making five deals with the devil (Yup the devil's involved) this unlocks this demon type character who shoots a short range laser instead of tears, but he has weaknesses too. Other characters aren't as strange as this fella, but they still have quirks.

Now the "items" of the game I taught were the best idea I have seen since lately. You pick up these seemingly harmless things, and your character uses them in the most unexpecting way. For example, I found some knuckle dusters, I imagined I would gain a new ability to punch or some such, but it turned out that instead he took them and broke his own teeth, this made him spit more damaging tears but he was actually using teeth to attack with. Other times items aren't as positive effect as you think, seeming like a good pick-up, they can ruin your short little run through the "dungeon" real quick.

You can find more then just "items" that improve your character, but pills are around too, tarot cards and even "trinkets" which add an ability of some sort, these can be pick up and discarded for others while "items" are permanent while you can swap trinkets as you please.

You also collect keys and coins to unlock doors and spend at the shop. The shop is run by a corpse (An old corpse) but your character doesn't steal. In the corner, we have a donation machine too which takes your spare coins, you usually don't need them at all anyway, plus it later unlocks bonuses.

The game is truly tougher then it looks. Touching enemies makes you lose hearts (some take full hearts) and dying makes you restart from the start. And as you go deeper the enemies get tougher and more numerous, the map more complex and bigger. And heart pick-ups become rarer. Its not uncommon to face the final boss with a single heart as the journey is sometimes indeed tough. Other times you can end up with very powerful combinations of items which makes it a breeze. But it's all random so skill still plays a role.

The amount of secrets is mouthwatering, I have no idea how they have added so much, I have only have half  of the hundred plus secrets to be found. Each one unlocks a new item or floor or anything else inbetween.
The game features over 10 endings (But not really endings). It's a complicated story with loads of replay value, and replay I have.

Conclusion:

Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is a rouge like in every sense of the word. With randomised levels and tonnes of chances to replay with a whole new set up. It can truly keep you having fun for ages. But it's not for everyone, even if it's pixel art, it still is pretty damn violent and has some disturbing scenes. You'll have laughs with it and you may be disgusted. But still worth trying!

Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

Get it here!