Reviewed by G. Williamson
Over the holiday season I finally broke down, installed and signed up for a Steam account. I had all these random game codes for it that I never got around to using, figured it was about time. Then Steam decides to go and have a holiday sale and put a ton of really great (and some not so great) games on sale at stupidly low prices. I started grabbing things that caught my interest: Borderlands, Left 4 Dead 1 and 2… This was great! A+ titles, both in gameplay and production value, for dirt cheap!
Then it happened. I got a Steam message from a good friend, figured he was just gonna be talking about the random crap we normally do. Little did I know he was about to sell me on one of the greatest indie games ever made.
– “Dude, download The Binding of Isaac, it’s amazing!”
– “WTF?”
– “Trust me!”
Let me introduce you to Isaac, a very loveable boy and the most unlikely hero you’ll ever meet. Well, at least that is how he looks at the start of the game. What he might end up looking like by the end of the game is an entirely different story.
The premise of The Binding of Isaac is simple, as is the gameplay. This is a 2D top-down dungeon crawler/shooter. Simple, and oddly enough, that’s where it gets extremely complex. Let me start off by saying this game is hard, and it gets progressively harder as you beat it multiple times. It also features the dreaded ‘permadeath’ concept, meaning if you’re 25 minutes into a game and die, guess where you end up? That’s right, the character selection screen. That’s what makes this game fun: you want to keep going, getting better, see all the endings and collect all the items, which the game has tons of.
As for the story, my God (pun intended). It all begins with you, Isaac, playing with your toys in the living room of the house on a hill where you live in with your mother. You spend most of your days like that, with Mom watching Christian programs on television. But today isn’t most days.
“Your son is corrupt”, speaks a voice from above, a voice to which Mom faithfully obeys as she strips Isaac of his toys, his clothes, and locks him in his room and proceeds to grab a butcher’s knife. Isaac frantically searches his room for a way to hide or escape. Luckily there’s a trap door to the basement, but what lies below for our hero? There’s only one way to find out, and time is running short…
Now that you’re safe – well, from Mom at least – how do you defend yourself against the basement’s onslaught of deformed creatures? Well, that’s easy… in theory.
The game uses the standard W, A, S, D keys for movement, and the arrow keys for firing. Your weapons vary depending on the items you pick up, but you always start with the same basic main attack: your tears. After all, you’re scared and upset, so what better weapon than an endless flow of sadness? Pretty emo, no?
Items are scattered throughout the game either as boss/mini-boss drops, in chests, gold item rooms and even the ever familiar Zelda-esque item shop. The fire rate on your tears not enough for you? Take a wire coat hanger and stab it in your head!
You will also gain items with every playthrough, no matter what, such as coins for using in vending machines and shops; bombs which will blow open secret doors; treasure blocks; and everyone’s favorite, door keys. All reminiscent of the king of all top-down 2D dungeon crawlers, The Legend of Zelda.
Did mention this is the brain child (or demon, if you prefer) of Meat Boy creator Edmund McMillen? In a recent interview about the upcoming DLC expansion pack entitled Wrath of the Lamb, McMillen stated that Isaac has sold over 450,000 copies since its launch in September, which for an indie game that even the creator thought was going to go nowhere, is amazing. Several major sites have ranked Isaac in the top 5 indie games list, along with top 10 pc games overall. And I have to agree, it’s easily up there.
I could rave about this game till the second coming (again, pun intended), but like in all games, there is a downside. The game is hard. And when I say hard, I mean often frustrating and swearing-inducing hard. More than once have I yelled swear words as I die or take a random hit that lowers my health to half a heart. The game tracks your deaths. I mean, hell, I’ve died 162 times! Make that 163, since I’m currently playing it while writing this.
The Binding of Isaac is a great game that makes you feel sorry for the apparently helpless main character, while shocking you with little things such as swallowing a bottle of pills, a fetus in a jar or a dead puppy’s head (because a crazy homicidal Mom isn’t enough). There are also plenty of pop culture and internet “meme” references, for example the forget-me-now roofies, from Arrested Development, and troll face bombs.
The game is only $4.99 – $5.99 if you want to grab the soundtrack, which I highly recommend. The bottom line is that The Binding of Isaac is well worth the money just to see all the endings and mishaps that Isaac goes through. That, plus the fact that you’ll be playing one of the best damn indie games made. Ever. Period!
Heh… and that’s now 164 deaths…