The Binding of Isaac (2011)

The Binding of Isaac is a weird game with a twisted art style, story and enemies. You fight your way out of your mother's uterus, while fighting against bleeding anuses, cysts, headless people, tape worms and other vile creations. The goal is the same every time, fight your way through various levels and eventually break free of your prison.

This game is hard as balls. It is part of its charm and is on par with games like Super Meat Boy. I like a good challenge, although some deaths are a little cheap.

In terms of graphics, the game looks simple but nicely animated at the same time. The gore is detailed the environments are nicely done.

The music is excellent. For some reason it captivates the weird and disturbing aesthetic of this game in a flawless way.

The controls are fluent, are easy to understand and just work.

In my own personal taste, I have a dislike for games that reset completely when you die, after collecting a lot of items, gear and coins. This is one of the reasons that I do not care for this game too much.

My problem with this game is that it is too repetitive and boring. Sure, this can be a certain charm, but with The Binding of Isaac, I had enough after a few games. Sure, the enemies, items, environments and crazy stuff all around you changes every time you play, but the principle is still the same and gets kind of boring.

Every playthrough is also a gamble. Sometimes you get overpowered items that obliterate everything in your path, other times you are stuck with a debuff that messes up your playthrough.

In the end, the repetitiveness and pricing of The Binding of Isaac makes me not recommend this game. It is simply not for me.

Not saying this is a bad game, but really don't see what gets people so engaged in these very stripped down roguelieks these days. If this was on the Screenfun or GameStar CD in 2003 I'd love to spend some near midfield two-digits hours on it, but just like this nowadays? I don't know. The iconography is sweet, but the gameplay doesn't feel very challenging. This would be a perfect mobile game though, but afaik there is no such version of it.

*edit: Okay fair enough, it's of 2011, I didn't know that. Probably it introduced roguelikes? Not a genre I like. The lack of feeling of progression...

Also one more thing: the only thing interesting about this game is the power ups and their combination. But they don't say what they do! I have to google it to know what it does? Bad, very bad.