Nukezilla Review: The Binding of Isaac (PC)

Imagine, if you will, that you’re a 7 year old boy. You live with your single mom, play with your toys all day, and generally have a good life. Then one day your mother strips you of all of your belongings, clothing, and food, and attacks you with a knife. In an attempt to escape, you run to the basement, only to find yourself naked and surrounded by all sorts of demonic, grotesque, Lovecraftian horrors. Then you start to cry. What do you do?

If you answered “fight the monsters with your tears”, you’re in the perfect mindset to play The Binding of Isaac (also, you might have a career in writing deathcore metal lyrics).

In what can only be described as one of the strangest game premises ever, The Binding of Isaac places you in the above scenario. Your mother decides to slay you because God asked her to. As Isaac (or one of his unlockable friends) you must escape your mother so that you, much like the biblical Isaac the game is named after, are spared from death. To do that, you must traverse your Zelda-inspired dungeon basement, along with some caves and other, um, “unsavory” locations.

BOI borrows heavily from the first Legend of Zelda. Each level is comprised of rooms connected together, similar to LoZ’s dungeons. Within each level are keys to open doors and chests, bombs to reveal secrets and kill enemies, and a purchasable map and compass to guide you along. Also strewn across the maps are the game’s currency, pennies, shield hearts, and Tarot cards and pills (which give you random status effects and perks). Even the way the HUD is crafted, and the design of the game’s shops are reminiscent of Link’s first adventure. There’s a lot to get nostalgic about here.

Most of the items you find are contained in special rooms. You can stumble upon shops to spend hard-earned pennies, arcades to gamble pennies away in a few different games of chance, prize rooms that offer perks, and arenas where waves of enemies lead to treasure. Each level has a plethora of secrets to discover. Sometimes the lack of available items can have you strategizing over the proper way to use them. Should you use that key to open the shop, or the treasure chest in the other room? Is bombing these rocks apart worth getting that heart piece? Also, if you look around close enough, you might be able to find a certain ruler of Hell who can bequeath new items to you…for a price.

Gameplay is reminiscent of any other roguelike/Zelda game you’ve played before. As is written on the floor of the first level, WASD controls your character’s movements, the arrow keys shoot tears out in their respective directions. Deaths are rather frequent early on, and unless you find them yourself, no extra lives or continues are given. Once you die, you’re shown a note from your character explaining how they died, what items they found, and if you’d like to start the game over or quit.

The tears act as your main attack, and can be upgraded along the way to increase their power, rate of fire, and range. Shots can be manipulated by strafing right or left to angle in either respective direction. Sometimes the shooting can be a bit frustrating because of some of the nature of the game. The enemy sprites are a little thinner than expected, and that leads to hard-to-make shots from time to time. Eventually you learn about each enemy and where to hurt them the best.

Boy, what a slew of enemies to contend with. Where to start? Ok, there’s brains that slide around the room, leaving a poisonous blood trail behind. Then the zombies who can only be hit in their exposed brains. Also the menagerie of different flies, disembodies heads, screaming, blood-spitting babies, creatures with bomb and fly-filled tumors, and anything else that your worst night mares can imagine. Oh, and we can’t forget about the bosses, which range from the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and the Seven Deadly Sins to intestinal worms and teratomas.

While you will constantly run into some of the same enemies over the course of the game, each enemy, even bosses, has a variant version. The variant, indicated by the enemy’s unusual color, is harder and rarer than the originals. These new forms come with higher hit points and damage capabilities, but will always drop an item. Normally you have to kill each enemy in a room to get an item, though that too is randomized. This is a great way to keep the game fresh, even after the first thousand Vis or you destroy.

Being a roguelike game, there is a rather sharp learning curve to get over. The only instructions the game gives you are the ones etched into the floor in the very first room you start in. At times, this gets annoying, as you have no idea who the door to the arena isn’t open, or why there’s a beggar in some rooms asking for change. Much like the shooting problems, though, it just takes a matter of time to learn about the game’s little eccentricities.

The most important part of the game lies in the perks you can find all over. The perks can be items that give you new attacks (mapped to the Space bar) like room-sweeping death books and explosive, rotting neighbor’s heads. Perks can also affect your tears, adding chargeable loogies, lazers, and triple shots to your arsenal. Oh, and there’s perks to control flies, give you demon wings, award you 99 pennies, increase the power of your bombs, and so, so much more.

By far, this is my favorite aspect of the game. Along with giving you new powers, the over 100 perks can change your appearance. If you look to your left, you can see my character, equipped with all sorts of nonsense. The way you see him now will be vastly different than how you see him in your game. With so many different perks to discover, no two playthroughs of the game will have similar looking characters. Some will have disembodied heads, lesions and spoon-shaped bruises, while others may have wigs, demonic tattoos, and dollar sign-shaped sunglasses. This sometimes leads to goofy-looking characters, and sometimes demonic monstrosities, but they always look wonderful thanks to Edmund McMillen’s art.

Speaking of art, all of the aesthetics of this game are beyond amazing. If this game would be presented in full HD, real-life graphics, you’d be disgusted at almost everything you witness. Here, dead cats and living organs give off a certain whimsical charm, while still staying repugnant enough to give you pause the first time you see them. Adding to the horror is the haunting soundtrack composed by the brilliant Danny Baranowski. As I mentioned earlier today, each melody in the game, from the opening cinematic theme to the creepy, spine-tingling rendition of “Jesus Loves Me” fits the game perfectly, acting as a character just as much as Isaac does.

Aside from spending any free time I’ve had lately to beating this game enough to see its 11 different endings, I’ve been telling everyone I can about this game. Games like The Binding of Isaac only come along once in a great while, and I consider it a duty of mine to show it to as many people as possible. To entice you further, I’d like to point out some news that came about yesterday. In a press release sent to Joystiq, Mr. McMillen shared two things with the world; a demo for BOI on Flash game giant Newgrounds, and a free game update (available on Oct. 31st) that will add new playable characters, bosses, and items. Very, very exciting news.

Unless you absolutely abhor any of the grotesque images you’ve seen here or heard about, or you hate The Legend of Zelda, The Binding of Isaac is a must-play game. Its $5 price only makes it easier for you to procure a copy yourself.  That’s why I can’t help but give this game…