No game has taken over my life quite like Binding of Isaac. In fact, as of now, it has taken over approximately 10 years of my life all the way back when I started playing it in 2012. I thought I look back on my experience with Binding of Isaac: Why this game is one of my favorites, what works, what doesn't, and all the little moments in between that I hold dear.
It was Junior year of high school. I was taking Physics. We were in the library working on the computers when I saw one of my friends playing a game. I watched him play for a bit before asking him what game it was. Instead of answering, he proceeded to ask me for a flash drive to which he then copied an exe file of the game onto it. "Try it for yourself," he said.
I turned it on and was reminded of the days of video games where the game hooks you before you even get to the start screen. The eerie music and beautiful narration mixed well with the crude and tragic yet morbidly comedic inciting incident.
I then started a run. I didn't know what I was doing. But like any good tutorial, I was guided along fine. I was introduced to my first item. It was the Mutant Spider. My friend, who was focused on his game, saw my find in the corner of his eye. "Wow you got Mutant Spider on your first run. That's one of the best items."
And it was. It was bloody satisfying knocking enemies out left and right. I did pretty well on my first go. Although thanks to Peep, who wrecked most of my health bar, I didn't get far into the Depths. Still, this game had an effect on me. I knew I had to keep playing.
I often wondered what would have happened if I didn't get Mutant Spider. Would have I loved the game if I got a worse item? I suppose like the game itself, a little luck helped along the way.
I played the game quite a bit after that day. However, one sticking point I had that kept nagging me was how Binding of Isaac was only playable almost exclusively through keyboard controls. I wasn't tech savvy enough at the time to rig the game to work with a controller, so I was stuck with controls that were too awkward to use.
At the same time, the PS4 started to rear its head. I remember not being thrilled by the release for the PS4 due to its lack of interesting titles. By this point, I was burned by the notoriously awful release of the Nintendo 3DS, so I knew I wasn't going to buy a console until I was certain it was worth my time. So in short, I had two problems: I had a game where I wanted to play with a controller, and I wanted something worthwhile to justify buying a PS4.
Binding of Isaac: Rebirth couldn't have come at a more perfect time. If you wanted to know the game that got me to transition into the next generation of consoles, it was this one. It wasn't the next high fidelity Triple AAA release. It wasn't Mario or Zelda. It was simple indie game published by an admittedly shady studio.
Now, I knew this game was a time sink. After all, I already put a fair bit of playtime into the flash version. However, I could have not predicted this game being apart of my life on and off for the next decade and even further into the not to distant future.
A rarity in games is the idea of seeing the artist's hand throughout the experience. Games are so collaborative especially the higher you get in terms of production value and resources spent on the game, so you rarely feel a sense of a singular vision when playing a game. It is unlike a novel or an more auteur project where you can see or at least develop a curiosity for the artist's soul.
As someone who is more of a proponent of the Death of the Author philosophy, this never bothered me in games. However, I do find consider games like Binding of Isaac a treat of sorts. A game where I want to make an exception of my devout narrative values.
The man is Edmund McMillen. And for a lot of people, including myself, he was the first guy to introduce the word "indie" into the vocabulary of gamers, and Super Meat Boy was the game to deflower a lot of people to the indie experience. Frankly, I wasn't drawn to Super Meat Boy at the time (I myself got deflowered by Limbo in a McDonald's bathroom), but I was definitely fixated on how unapologetically authentic it presented itself. It was like Bob Dylan but only if he was more of a burn out and got addicted to NES games. To put it more artfully, there was intense level of nostalgia that doesn't feel insincere even by today's standards because the vision is so deliberate and exact.
Binding of Isaac would be the next step of that idea. A game who goes one step further, taking homage in the Legend of Zelda series and Rogue. But at the same time, it goes one step further in the authenticity. We are not a simple NES-hard platformer. We are about something, and I mean that as unironically as I can.
I will talk about the themes of this game later, but I want to point out what makes Edmund McMillen so beloved to me as a game designer. McMillen always stood above the rest in my eyes. As much as I respect Jonathan Blow and Steve Gaynor. And believe me, I love Braid and Gone Home respectively, McMillen's themes in Binding of Isaac were always juicer to chew on than the games that present themselves more artfully. The lack of pretension is almost always a more effective way to suck someone into a message. It respects the audience and treats the game more like an experience than a lecture. With how insecure some designers were at the time, it was refreshing to see a richly artistic game have so much confidence in itself. It almost makes people like Blow and Gaynor a bunch of bell-ends by comparison. And as a side note, that phallic derogatory is only more unfortunate when you consider how suggestive the names Blow and Gaynor are.
But that is my piece of Ed McMillen. I figure I get his positives out of the way before I shit on his forehead for how terrible Tainted Cain is later on.
I suppose before I talk in depth about what I like about Binding of Isaac, I should give a primer on how Binding of Isaac typically plays. You know, for people who just so happens to read a five thousand word essay on a game they never played.
In Isaac, you control a little boy who fires tears as a projectile. The object is to navigate through procedurally generated Zelda like dungeons getting deeper and deeper until you reach one of several final bosses, but we will get to that later.
In each dungeon, you come across the following: A treasure room which alters your stats, gives you a special ability, or changes how your character plays. Bombs which open secret rooms, destroys certain objects, or deal massive damage. Coins which are the obvious currency. Keys which open doors or special chests. And so on.
You progress through the dungeon by clearing out rooms of random enemies culminating in a boss that must be defeated to continue onto the next dungeon. There are exceptions to this, but it should be noted that Isaac contains exceptions to almost every facet of its rules, so I am not going to point them out. If I pointed out every exception in every Isaac mechanic, we will be here all day.
All that matters is survival. Health is often limited. And once you die, the run is completely over. Because of this high stakes nature, player choice usually comes with a risk vs. reward. For example, at the end of every level, you might get the opportunity of a devil deal where you can permanently lower your health in exchange of a higher quality item. For better players, this is a surefire yes, so there is also a choice of angel deals. Angel deals are significantly better as you get the same quality of items without the health cost. The downside is that they show up less often, and the player must avoid any devil deal items to access them, creating an additional decision process interesting even for veteran players. There are other risk/reward choices usually in the form of trading health or items for goodies.
Assuming you survive, you will inevitably reach an opportunity to gain a completion mark. This usually comes in the form of beating an aforementioned final boss. There are ten final bosses that can be fought in an Isaac run. Beating a boss grants a player a new item that can found in subsequent playthroughs. They also open up new playable characters with different buffs, gimmicks, and drawbacks that further open up new item unlocks. While getting to the final bosses are often as straightforward as getting to the end, some require doing extra tasks during the run including getting to a point within a time limit, collecting special items, and or lucking out on special access.
As you get better at the game, these final bosses become the bulk of the challenge as they're likely the reason most runs end in failure. It becomes a point where Binding of Isaac turns from a survival game to a game where you have to build your character in a certain way in preparation for these fights. And yeah...that's it.
If I had to explain the addicting nature of Isaac, it would have to be the moment to moment decision making. Survival is a key part in rogue likes. But with most action rogue likes, survival leans too heavily on just reflexes. Binding of Isaac employs more strategy but not in an aggressive matter like Slay the Spire. There is a nicer balance where you are encouraged to think ahead but not to the chess pro lengths just to survive. It lends itself to situations where you have moments of spontaneity when random on your feet thinking or proper play can net you a winning run.
Probably my favorite Binding of Isaac moment during my playthroughs is when I had a run that was going rather poorly, and I was nearing the final boss. Literally, I didn't have much going for my character. The only good thing I had was a curved horn which upped my attack. However, I had one potential out that could save the run. You see, I had Guppy's Tail and Guppy's Collar meaning I was one Guppy item away from transforming into the Guppy character. For those who don't know, Guppy is the closest the game has to a Exodia-like win condition. It is very hard to lose if you obtain Guppy.
Miraculously, I came across a trinket that turned all chests into red chests which upped my chances for Guppy. I figured this my only way. I traded my curved horn and took the downgrade for the gamble. Might as well, I wasn't going to win with the curved horn anyway. It wasn't long before I came across the third Guppy item and won the run.
It wasn't the smartest thing ever, but I felt like I pulled the ultimate 4-D chess move. It's these moments where Binding of Isaac is unbelievably good. The game breeds so many moments where you pull off random feats of excellence. Moments where your Matrix-like dodging makes up for your terrible build. The right strategic play netting you a godlike synergy. Sometimes it is the simple well placed bomb that just gets you by a tough level. The game is fraught with player expression and consistent engagement.
You are also always getting the sense of making progress. Even if you don't unlock anything or a run just plain fails, you are gaining something. This game is always very clear whose fault it is when you lose. It's very easy to look back on your playthrough and learn about what you can do better. Despite the game being a very punishing game at times, I rarely felt frustrated. Well ok, that's kind of a lie. There is a lot of bullshit, but that is on an entirely different topic. On a typical average run, It's rare to get the sense I was being unfairly punished.
I also can't talk about Isaac without talking about the synergies. This game practically wrote the book on how to make satisfying synergies. It's frankly unmatched compared to other rogue likes. Part of why Isaac has such a passionate fanbase is because this game is a breeding ground to show off fun combinations. I swear. If the game itself doesn't hook you, just one satisfying combination will.
Difficulty is a strange concept when it comes to Binding of Isaac. Normally, if a game is difficult, there is a ramp up where the game gets harder as it goes along. Sometimes, if a game is too hard or easy, the player can adjust it accordingly.
In Binding of Isaac, the game can at times be the easiest game or the hardest with no flexibility for the player to customize said difficulty. One run can give you OP items that will make you invincible while another will give you nothing but spacebar items. With how big the item pool is, the difficulty has leaned closer to the former. However, the design tries to balance that out with mixed results.
First off, enemies, get tankier as you progress. This is fine except your not guaranteed for your attack power will do the same. For me, it came down to the fact that if my attack wasn't at least seven by the time I beat Mom, I would just restart the run.
Bosses especially become ridiculous with this. Certain bosses employ super armor where their defense will scale with the attack of your character. They essentially boil down to bullet hell endurance challenges which I never felt was in the spirit of the game. As I mentioned, Binding of Isaac was always to me about proper decision making to survive. Bullet hells don't really do that.
Plus, as I mentioned before, the difficulty is inconsistent. If you gather the right build, you can melt bosses regardless of their super armor, so their intent to balance OP builds is pointless. It leads to the situation where the final boss is either a tortuous gauntlet or thirty second encounter.
Thankfully, a way around this is a mod that alters the super armor to your liking. If you're like me and don't like the super armor, you can simply change it. The best part is that also allows to raise the super armor to make certain bosses more challenging. I think it is a fantastic mod, and it highlights how badly Isaac desperately needs some kind of difficulty modifier similar to the one in Hades.
Although having said that, if there was an official difficulty modifier, they would probably force players to use every character to their max difficulty for achievements making it just another thing you have to check off in an already long 100% checklist.
I suppose that leads to my next point which is that there is little incentive once you 100% the game. Your reward for high complete achievements are really cool power ups, yet there is very little you can use them for aside from doing a few scrap achievements that are leftover. It's a tough problem as you need incentive to finish the completion marks. And overall, completion bonuses are overall hard to be satisfying. Maybe you get to play as Spider-Man. I don't know.
I suppose it reflects well on a game when my most major complaints are some missed opportunities.
Aside from a difficulty modifier, one major missed opportunity is how the Repentance routes are handled.
The idea of Repentance routes sounds great in theory. You can take a harder version in exchange for the possibility of better items. In certain cases, you can get some extra items in turn. But all of that isn't as great as it sounds. Firstly, the possibility of better items comes in the form of a choice of blindly choosing a random item. Considering how certain items can absolutely ruin runs, this becomes more risky than for what its worth. It leads to an uninteresting decision. You either pick a powerup that you might not like or risk picking a random power up that is more likely to be nothing or a net negative. Secondly, that's all there is in terms of a net positive for taking the Repentance routes, and there can be so many ways to make Repentance risky but worthwhile.
If it were up to me, I would up the damage from enemies. The room is a guarantee curse room, maybe even having additional curses unique to the areas. But in exchange, the treasure rooms gives a choice of two items but with no blind item nerf. Shops could be cheaper and or up the chances of devil/angel rooms. Just anything to make the alternate rooms worthwhile beyond going there for completion marks.
There are also little problems. So many little problems that it needed its own segment, so let me introduce to you....
Let's start with characters. To me, characters come in three distinct categories. You got the normal solidly done characters: your Tainted Isaac, Azrael, Lost. You got the characters you initially hate but are overall well designed and just take some getting used to: your Jacob & Esau, Forgotten, Lilith.
Then you have what I like to call the shitbags. The ones Northernlion calls "I Wanna Become the Joker." The ones the Isaac community call "I Will Become Back My Money."
If I had to describe one character that best demonstrates the shitbags, it would be Tainted Cain. He may not be the hardest character, but he is certainly the worst for me. The thing with shitbags is that they're conceptually interesting. In the case of Tainted Cain, the character employs a crafting system that must be used in order gain power ups. Theoretically, this is a fun addition that challenges your resource management. In practice, it is a depthless game mechanic that is extremely frustrating. Tainted Cain evokes the game mechanics of Minecraft except without anything that makes Minecraft enjoyable. There is no player freedom since you relegate items to either as crafting material or consumables with no interchangeably. Conversely, Minecraft allows you to use materials as either building blocks or as materials. Recipes are also random taking out the learning element from both Minecraft and Isaac. Better items are locked away from rare consumables meaning getting through early game is more hellish. Fuck this character.
It seems the commonality with the more frustrating aspects is the excessive randomness that forces some level restarts in order to play optimally. Tainted Cain's recipes are too randomized. Tainted Eden is too randomized, etc. This applies to challenges.
An obligatory example is Backasswards which requires having to beat Mega Satan with a crap build. Once you get out of the room, either by teleporting or beating Mega Satan, the run is basically won. However, you need a number of resets before getting a chance at that attempt. Frankly, this isn't even the worst example. Want to get through SPEED? Well you better get that damage up quickly. Want to simply survive Brains? Well, I hope you luck out on Guppy like I did. Want to get through April Fool's? Well I hope you have the patience to get through a tanky early game Bloat or else you will need a really good item for that too. Want to get through Delete This? Fuck if I should know.
Then, there is the Mother route which I absolutely despise. Normally, a route to a final boss is simply a slight adjustment to your playstyle. For example, you have to play a little faster or avoid Devil Rooms. With Mother, it is this whole thing of solving the same puzzle and doing a repetitive action set piece. There isn't any benefit even tangentially related to going on the Mother route. Other routes do a great job at giving you incentive beyond the simple completion marker. Hush gives you two treasure rooms and an extra access to the shop. Angel and Devil routes give you four treasure items and devil items respectively. The Beast gives an extra item and shop while giving you the opportunity to reroll treasure rooms for something better. Aside from an extra boss item, which can be too risky for the small benefit since you must play as the Lost to obtain it, there is no real benefit or addition from taking on the Mother route. It's just a railroady route. Worse still is that you have to commit to doing the run fairly early on. The requirements for bosses like Mega Satan and Delirium are fairly flexible. If you happen upon access to them, you can simply pivot. Mother forces you to commit to getting the knife pieces or luck out on very specific items. So in turn, it then either becomes a duller Forgotten side quest or a more inconsistent version of vanilla-Rebirth Mega Satan.
For a game where the loop is running into a wall over and over again, there is very few opportunities to dwell on the story. The story is solid, at times genius, but it has an old school quality of also being unintrusive to the point where this is the first time where I frankly gave the story any thought beyond the occasional fan theory video.
While the story is unintrusive, it is an elegant constant throughout the game. For players, this is first seen in the items. The story aspect usually comes in three thematic categories. It derives from some nostalgic escapism, mainly computer games references. It's a spiritual allusion, mainly Christianity but also references to Greek and astrology. Or, it is evoking a darker reality of the situation such as decrepit insects, addiction, and abuse.
While not consistent, the items on display serve to show the various coping mechanisms when dealing with abuse. Games and other media naturally are a form of escapism. There is the religious form of healing that people have used to process trauma and grief. And finally, there is embracing the darkness in order to create an unbreakable exterior. The playable characters also convey this with most of them being maligned figures in Christianity showing how Isaac sees himself and find some solace in being a perceived stain on the world.
However, none of these coping mechanisms are really helping Isaac, and the many endings act as to how the character truly confronts with the harsh reality of his situation. And unfortunately, this usually comes in the form of Isaac dying of suicide. He tries to escape with nostalgia, but it doesn't change the reality of his life. He tries to escape through God, but warped interpretations only feed his self-loathing and make him feel like a monster. Certain endings compel Isaac into thinking he is closer to Satan than to Christ.
Some may see Isaac as an anti-religious game, but there is more to it than that. The mother, much like Isaac, is using the same coping mechanisms to overcome her trauma. Unfortunately, this coping mechanism also has a knock on effect of antagonizing her only son who now inherits her baggage. The religion itself isn't the problem. It's the mother's willingness to wield the religion in a way to shed her problems onto her son in a dangerous way.
There are several endings to this game, but I want to focus on the final one. For how depressing this game gets at times, the last ending is so beautifully positive. I love that despite how ambiguous the ending is, there is no denying that at the very least, Isaac is out of his horrible situation. Even the most cynical reading provides a layer of sweetness.
It shows that Isaac's escape wasn't video games or God. It was his own ability to forgive himself and accept compassionate figures. All the more satisfying when taking into account how this story enveloped over almost a decade. It shows the path of recovering from abuse is long but ultimately worth the wait and effort.
Probably a sticking point for a few people is the giant learning curve needed in order to successfully finish an Isaac run. This game definitely requires learned knowledge. Some of it is innately learned but other things require diving through the wiki for answers. For that reason, I thought I distill some of the common things from my experience that were useful during my learning process.
1. Devil/Angel Deals operate under a percentage chance that rises and lowers based on certain variables. Red heart damage lowers devil deal chances. Things like blowing up shop keepers and beggars raise the percentage chance among other things.
2. To avoid taking red heart damage to ensure an early devil deal, try to get at least one soul heart as soon as possible. They can be found in shops. But more regularly, they can be found by blowing up blue fire or in tinted rocks. Tinted rocks can be distinguished by either a blue tint or a subtle X on the corner of the rock. If you are like me and likes to play games without glasses, or you are more visually impaired, there is a mod that makes tinted rocks more visible.
3. Save curse rooms for last in the off chance there is a secret room next to it. You can enter curse rooms from inside the secret room using a bomb. You can do the same for other special rooms like shops if you want to preserve keys. Oh by the way, flight also grants you free access into curse rooms. However, you must sacrifice health when you exit.
4. To find secret rooms, a general rule of thumb is three things. There is normally a secret room close to a boss room. If a room has a cliff along the wall, there is no secret area in the tile behind it. And finally, secret rooms often have multiple rooms adjacent to another.
5. There is a Fool card in every Depths 2 which can be found through blowing up a skull with a special marking. This is normally used to access one of the final boss sections. However, if you open the boss rush room, this can also be used to snatch a free item without having to complete the boss rush.
6. If you are doing the Forgotten unlock quest and you don't have a bomb to gain the first shovel part, there is one that consistently spawns by using the sacrifice room.
7. If you are unable to get the key to access Mega Satan, and have health to spare, you can use sacrifice rooms which will inevitably spawn Uriel and Gabriel.
8. The Bible one shots Mom and Mom's Heart.
9. Early game bosses like Duke of Flies can almost be one shot with a bomb which can be worthwhile for speedrunning or getting by with a weak build.
10. And finally, you can cross gaps by blowing up and adjacent rocks, poops, and the like to create a pathway.
I often associate my favorite games as being relatively short experiences. There are very few games I would consider as the best lasting hundreds upon hundreds of hours. Binding of Isaac is a major exception. Despite being a long game, it has kept me engaged over the many years I have been playing across the multiple versions and platforms.
It has kept me engaged because of all the reasons I mentioned throughout this entry. The combat has a ton of variety guaranteeing the gameplay never feels repetitive. The story has a solid foundation, building up Binding of Isaac without disrupting the flow of the gameplay loop. Apparently length doesn't matter if you are a damn good game.
Normally, a writer wants to leave the audience with something to walk away with. But honestly, I just want to go back to play more Binding of Isaac.
