Review: The Binding of Isaac

Biblical influence, faecal matter.

Yep, tiny crying boy versus monstrous, skeletal spider thing; sums up the game really

There's an enemy in The Binding of Isaac; a little maggot that slithers along the ground slowly. With big, bright eyes and a cheery smile on its cute, little face, it whimsically wanders about in random directions, minding its own business and enjoying the scenery. Until it spots you. Then it gets angry. And that mouth you thought was cute? It's now wide open, revealing a set of dentata that wouldn't look out of place in a Lovecraft novel. The way it slowly slithered about? It's now charging right for you hell-for-leather. This little maggot? It is The Binding of Isaac. A game with a cute and fluffy exterior, hiding a viciousness that will rip you apart and eat the pieces. What else did you expect when your primary weapon is a child's tears?

Binding (which I'll refer to it as from now on, just a little time-saver) is a roguelike game. Now, considering the recent influx of this style of game, the term has become more widely-known, but not to the extent where I feel comfortable throwing it about with no explanation. Thus, for anyone unaware, a roguelike is an RPG usually displaying the following features: randomly-generated levels, permanent death, and turn-based movement/combat. Binding has two of the three, with the latter being abandoned in favour of a more action-heavy, real-time combat system. The genre also typically relies on the theme of discovery, along with intense difficulty that demands a high degree of concentration. Binding is no different. It will kick your ass time and time again.

I wish I had something to say about this scene... but I don't

The game tells the story of, unsurprisingly, a lad named Isaac. Taking obvious inspiration from the biblical tale of the same name, Isaac's mother receives a message from God instructing that she sacrifice her young son. She attempts to dutifully oblige, brandishing a scary-looking kitchen knife and making her way to Isaac's room. Luckily, the little scamp spots a trapdoor in the floor and makes good his escape. Unluckily, his "escape" leads him to a labyrinthine basement, full of unworldly terrors. This is undoubtedly the most unfortunate event to befall young Isaac, but not the first, as the game's loading screens show him being bullied and humiliated in all manner of ways. In a way, Binding is the ultimate unlikely hero story. Isaac is a punching bag; a puny, little runt with a mother that wants to kill him, peers that degrade him, and all manner of nasties out for his blood. Yet, despite everything that happens to him--and trust me, a lot of horrible things happen to him--he keeps going and maybe, somehow, he might just overcome the odds and get through this after all. It's up to you to guide him there, and you'll have to be either very good or very lucky to make it. The game has over a dozen endings, and it's great to see the care and humour of the game's art-style crosses over to the story too.

Speaking of the game's look, it might just be the most striking feature of the whole package. Edmund McMillen continues right where he left off after Meat Boy, with a chunky-outlined, cute/gore mashup style hovering somewhere between The Powerpuff Girls and Ren and Stimpy, with a whole lot of darkness and toilet humour thrown in for good measure. The game's dungeons are flooded with faeces, flies, and fearsome fiends, with the bosses in particular being of startlingly gruesome design; from incontinent blobs of flesh to giant burrowing worms. In spite of the game boasting a world rich with bodily-fluids, monstrous creations, and body horror, the times are plentiful where you simply can't help but chuckle at the sight before your eyes. Well, you'll either be chuckling or wretching since the gross-out factor of the game cannot be understated; a simplistic cartoony-style isn't enough to shield your senses when you utilise "Mom's Pad" as a weapon. This is a game where you play a child, thrust into a basement stark naked, and forced to use your own salty tears to break apart piles of excrement, in the hopes of finding coins to pay for a rock to stick into your head and make you more powerful. Frankly, I must pay testament to the art and humour that goes some way to bringing levity to such ludicrously dark proceedings. Nevertheless, the style of the game will naturally prove divisive, but those who like it, will really like it.

It's just apple juice, honestly

So how does this thing play? Well, it's actually pretty simple. You find yourself in a randomly-generated dungeon floor and move from room to room, defeating enemies as you go, while collecting keys, coins, bombs, and all manner of special items. Your objective? Survive, defeat the boss, and make it to the next stage, with your ultimate aim being to defeat your mother in glorious combat. Said combat takes the form of a basic shoot 'em up, with Isaac able to shoot up, down, left, and right, with circle-strafing his strongest ally. Three rooms are more or less guaranteed on each floor: a boss room, a shop, and a treasure room. But there are all sorts of other secret rooms to find, from the "Sacrifice Room" which offers you the chance to spill your own blood in exchange for prizes, to the "Library" which, as you might expect, contains all manner of books for you to make use of. You'll need them. You'll need everything you can get, and boy is there a lot to get in this game. A regular feature of the roguelike genre is a sense of discovery, and Binding incorporates this to maximum effect. There are more items in this game than you can count; an incredibly impressive feat when one considers that this title was made by only two people. Every item has a distinct use, making each feel different than the last, and often is the time you won't really know what each thing does until you use it.

This all works to Binding's benefit in the end; since the frustration of death--which occurs pretty often--is cushioned by the excitement of restarting just to see what you'll find. The fact that most items completely change the look of Isaac, along with your own playstyle, only adds to this. You might find a bent spoon that gives Isaac a flaming third eye in the centre of his forehead, and the ability to shoot purple homing shots, or a little floating baby that acts like a Gradius option or familiar, shooting out its own tears in support.The things you find might even make you chuckle, with items referencing the likes of Super Meat Boy, Magic: The Gathering, and Arrested Development. The phrase "No two playthroughs will ever be the same!" is thrown around an awful lot these days, conjuring images of variety that often disappoint, but Binding absolutely does it justice. With so many things to find, so many different rooms, enemies, and bosses, and so many variations of Isaac--or indeed any of the other six playable characters--to discover, you'll have a different experience every time.

Isaac's time in the basement can change him in all sorts of ways

Thus, we come to one of the unfortunate side effects of such a system; since some items and combinations are so much more useful than others, the luck of the draw winds up having as much influence on your progress as your own personal skill level. It took me an awful lot of tries to complete the game, and when I finally did it was only on a run where I'd been fortunate enough to find the most powerful standard weapon, a familiar, the ability to see the entire map, an excellent secondary weapon, and the ability to fly. My next run saw me grab nothing but a couple of health boosts and bonus bombs. Now, I make no claims at being an expert at this sort of game and I can imagine plenty of people with good skill levels can complete it even with the very worst items, but I can only report from personal experience. Yet, in spite of the mild frustration one might feel at spending their last key on a treasure room and being rewarded with naught but a useless random teleport ability, you have to accept it's all part and parcel of the experience and I wouldn't have the game without it.

Unfortunately, the game suffers from a couple of issues that aren't quite so defensible. A lack of proper controller support is hardly crippling, but remains a hassle that might have been avoided rather simply. Yet the real problem is slowdown; the game was made rather hurriedly in Flash, and unfortunately struggles almost any time there's a lot happening on screen. Upon researching this issue, I've discovered that it is a rather common fault, and occurs even on top-of-the-line machines. I must regrettably recount that it may in fact be considered gamebreaking by some; with the game regularly stuttering to a veritable crawl even on low settings. This appears to be an issue that won't affect everyone, and I hope that others will be far luckier than myself, but it's very much worth bearing in mind before making a purchase.

It's testament to the game that in spite of such an issue, I haven't been able to stop playing it and can do nothing but recommend it. The Binding of Isaac is a wonderful example of where the industry is nowadays, if a team of two can turn out such a deep, engaging, addictive, witty, and most importantly enjoyable product within such a short amount of time, then the mind boggles at the future of video games. The game upholds the standards of its genre, capturing the senses of discovery and difficulty that make a roguelike fun to play, whilst overcoming the seeming inaccessibility of this style of game. With the most hideous of design, the darkest of humour, and the most unforgiving of difficulty, one would expect this game's appeal to be about as limited as possible; yet, through the developers' mastery of their craft, with a careful application of humour, self-awareness, and modern ideas, Binding becomes more than the sum of its parts. It is a complicated game, shrouded with a visage of complexity, and I would implore anyone on the fence to take a peek behind the curtain. There's something pretty savage back there, but you might just love it.