The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is the newest release from series creator Edmund McMillen who first created the original Binding of Isaac in 2011. Due to the overwhelming success and audience reaction to the first game McMillen has continued adding to the series by creating extra content with large updates and DLC, eventually leading to a complete remaking of the original game into the fantastic game known as The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth.
The game itself is a randomly generated action RPG shooter with a heavy emphasis on Rogue elements and game play, nostalgically similar to the original Zelda game ‘The legend of Zelda’ from Nintendo. The ‘story’ follows the child of a Christian extremest named Isaac who flees his mother’s wrath into the basement where he encounters strange monsters and must overcome both his fears and mother. Along the way Isaac discovers various and bizarre treasures that enable him to fight the hordes of hideous creatures that lay before him.
The game’s title and plot are associated with references to the Biblical story entitled The Binding of Isaac, giving the game its title and creating the dark, adult themes throughout the game. Even without the use of dialogue the game is able to touch on some powerful issues such as; child abuse, neglect, suicide, abortion, gender identify and infanticide. This delightful package is wrapped with the overall message of how religion can negatively affect a child, or how it can cause horrible events in the name of religion. In the gaming industry this game is revolutionary, being the first to really show these horrible truths, doing so in a comical and dark manner when you look past the toilet humor. This has increased the popularity of the game and gain high critique from critics across the board.
The game play is heavily reliant on the RNG, creating the endless replay opportunities as each run into the dark basement are never the same. With over 450 items and counting everybody has a different experience each time. Each item having a delightful effect on Isaac’s physical form ads a hilarious element to game play and encourages players to find the funniest combinations as well as completing every challenge. With over 10 different characters with different play styles and statistics the game creates different scenarios for players to experience. The Binding of Isaac has an enormous amount to give for such a small game, and an even smaller price starting at just $10 on Steam.
With the latest release the game was launched across multiple platforms, including Sony’s Playstation consoles Playstation 4 and Playstation Vita and possibly a future release on Nintendo’s Wii U and 3DS. This was largely due to the overwhelming response to the original game, where an ever increasing community has grown from Wikipedia and the sub reddit /r/binding of Isaac where the creator of the series McMillian has regularly conversed with the community. Currently there is a open forum where fans are encouraged to create ideas for the new DLC to McMillian, gaining feedback from both audience and creator. This is updated weekly and seems to be gaining a fair amount of attention from fans.
Overall I would rank this game 4.5 out of 5 Isaacs’. The .5 loss is due to the intense difficulty of the game itself, which has been known to drive away first time players. The game requires memorizing hundreds of items and has a high difficulty of game play. This game is not for casual games but only those who enjoy a good challenge.
With dark imagery and even darker humor I cannot recommend this game highly enough.
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