Putting the ‘hell’ back in “What the hell did I just play?”
The Binding of Isaac is an interesting game, to say the least. It’s truly the darkest game I’ve had the pleasure of playing this year.
Isaac is the story about a little boy and his mom. They are living a relatively normal faith-based life until God decides to turn Isaac’s life around for the worst. God tells the mom that Isaac should be sacrificed for his sins. Before his mother can stab the sin out of poor little Isaac, he manages to escape into the basement. Unfortunately for Isaac, this is where the real trouble begins.
While the message about religious extremism is very clear, it never comes off as preachy in the slightest. Unless you’re easily offended, I don’t see anyone finding this an actual problem.
Once in the basement you will face off against a large variety of enemies including his demented lost brothers and sisters, his fears, and 20 bosses that’ll surely make quick work out of even the most experienced gamers.
The levels in Isaac take you back to the glory days of the original The Legend of Zelda. The gameplay is delightfully similar as well. Unlike the Zelda of yesteryear, Isaac is a Rouge-like game, meaning death is permanent and the levels are randomly generated. You will never play the same game twice.
Thanks to the perma-death and random levels the game can be extremely hard. While the game is fun and easy to pick up and play, only the most skilled gamers will thoroughly enjoy it thanks to the unforgiving difficulty spikes and repetitiveness.
Despite the difficulty and some other shortcomings not even worth mentioning, The Binding of Isaac is a wonderful and original game that should be enjoyed by everyone. And for only $5 on Steam, there’s truly no excuse why you shouldn’t give it a try.
9/10
