Thursday 3 January 2013

The Binding of Isaac Review

The Binding of Isaac (further refereed to as BoI) is a rogue like game boy is it one heck of a rogue like. In BoI you play as Isaac, or one of a few unlockable characters, as you make your way through a twisted underworld fighting what ever threatens your path forward. At the end of each level their is a boss who you must defeat and once you do gives you something useful for the next level. These can be items that increase your speed or general damage but also include special items such as a slot machine or pills with different effect. Basically there is lots of stuff to get that you will be hard pressed to have the same item set more than once. BoI's allows you to play fairly casually with the difficulty increasing as the levels go on but not getting insanely hard that you get bored.




The main gist of the plot for the game is that you (Isaac) and your Mother are happy but then God gets involved and then it all goes down hill. This forces Isaac to escape into the sewers and so begins a brilliant indie game where you must fight of spiders, meat piles and the seven deadly sins in order meet the final boss, your Mother. As you go through each level you will collect bombs, coins and keys. Each of which can be used in their own ways. Throw each level having a special item, that can increase your ability, on each level and you have a great dynamic and yes fair Zelda like game. However, Zelda has nothing on the weird crazy world of BoI and I haven't play a game like it in a long time, something that I find very refreshing.




The basic controls are WSAD keys to move and arrow keys to shoot. Shift or E for bombs and space and Q  for special abilities and items that are found along the way. Isaacs basic attacks increase as you play (or as you get items rather) making his 'tear' attacks do more damage, have a larger range and attack faster. Each character that you unlock has different attributes, this ranges from special abilities to health and movement speed. With lots of variety BoI is always a refreshing experience.




Unlockable characters, steam achievements, deals with the devil and challenging gameplay all make this a game worth playing. Something that I suggest you do.

Score: 95/100