The Binding of Isaac - A Decade of Genre Dominance (YGS)
5The Binding of Isaac has seen many iterations since it's original release in September 2011. Rebirth reimagined Isaac in 2014 and sought to completely realize the vision that Edmund McMillen had when he first designed the game. Afterbirth and Afterbirth+ both continued to build on the original idea and expand the game out to its fullest potential. The newest expansion, Repentance, which released in March of 2021, is the final expansion for Isaac, and completely overhauls the experience, to the gain or to the detriment of players.
I have been playing Isaac off and on for the past 10 years or so. I hopped on the bandwagon when it exploded in popularity, and have been following the game since. After picking it up again, I have found myself properly hooked, constantly watching content, learning more about the items, unlocks, secrets, and characters. My goal is 100% completion for at least one save file, which is something I have not been able to accomplish across all of my accounts and my hundreds of hours of playtime.
Through this experience, I have to admit that I love this game. The variety in content, items, secrets, enemies, bosses, unlocks, etc. is astounding. The way the 500+ items synergize and change when combined with each other is a great feat worth appreciating and experiencing for yourself.
That being said, there is a significant skill curve as you learn how to combat the many enemies, adapt to your build and the items given to you, and learn all of the items effects by sight alone. It is a fun skill curve, but Isaac does not hold your hand. It is a sink or swim experience and that type of experience is what I most frequently crave from games. I don't mind some handholding every so often, but I more frequently seek out challenges for myself to overcome. And Isaac provides those challenges.
The major downsides that I want to convey that I did not describe clearly enough in the videos are as follows:
- Armored enemies and bosses were a mistake. It removes some of the fun when your broken build suddenly becomes average at best when going up against Hush, Delirium, Ultra Greed, and Ultra Greedier. You can find more information about the needlessly convoluted armor system here: https://bindingofisaacrebirth.fandom.com/wiki/Damage_Scaling
- Greed Mode and Greedier Mode suck. Hard stop. The Normal mode of Isaac is where the game thrives. Greed Mode is such a blatantly jarring and awful departure from the original experience, that I have a hard time stomaching it, nevertheless enjoying it.
- The "Stop" button being in the middle of the room instead of on a wall or being a spacebar item is really bad design. Enemies can spawn all around that button, and in an instance where you have chasing enemies spawn at the top and bottom of the room, you either resort to dodging in the middle and taking damage from the "Stop" button, or getting hit by the enemies. It removes a huge area for you to work with.
- These frustrations compound when you don't get off to a good start and end up overwhelmed by enemies on Floor 1, which in turn makes Greed Mode the reset Olympics, where you hold "R" unless you find a great starting item or find the D20 in your shop, which is an item that can break Greed mode and make it trivial.
- Run ruining items, and items that provide downgrades to the player instead of upgrades get old quick. Taking a blind item on Depths II and having it be Dunce Cap, Tiny Planet, Ludovico Technique, or Anti-Gravity Tears brings one to a state of despair and loses all sense of wanting to continue. These items could be modified into having severe negatives with slight positives to balance them and not make them items that literally ruin your run and are only touched once for completions sake. Dunce Cap could decrease your tear rate significantly, making you a cross-eyed hose. Tine Planet could tighten the orbit of your tears, making it more of circle around Isaac instead of the weird oval that it currently is, etc. There is a necessity for bad items, but having some that literally turn your whole run off is a little harsh.
- Repentance expands the game a little too far for my tastes, and gets pretty far from the original concept. It was inspired by dozens of mods that completely changed the experience, and that's not a bad thing. Isaac needed to be flipped on it's head, but Repentance strays too far for my tastes, so I prefer Afterbirth+.
- Unavoidable damage such as RNG attacks (Mama Gurdy spikes, Conquest/Isaac light beams, etc) make the game much less fair when these enemies are encountered and this damage incurred.
- Enemies dealing damage right after spawning is ridiculous. This is most prevalent in Greed Mode and during the Mega Satan fight. But is also seen with enemies like the ghosts.
Overall, The Binding of Isaac is an amazing game that I would recommend to everyone. It goes on sale very frequently, so pick it up at a good price and enjoy!
#TBOI #Afterbirth+ #Repentance
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