Binding of Isaac

Console: PC

The Binding of Isaac is a tale about a young child who has an overly devout Christian mother. One day Isaac's mother begins hearing a voice that she believes is god telling her to save her child. After removing everything of joy from Isaac's life the voice tells Isaac's mother to kill her child. Through luck Isaac escapes to the basement where he confronts demons and other creatures.

Gameplay: The Binding of Isaac is a top down RPG shooter. You control Isaac or five other unlockable characters through various means. Each character has different starting stats and Items. The RPG element of the game comes in the form of stat boosting and usable items. These items can be found behind golden doors, from bosses, in hidden rooms, and from shops. There are also no midgame saves, so either you die and restart or beat the game.

Sound: The Binding of Isaac has a very simplistic, well done tone. The music is very complex and blends with the desolate feeling of the game. Most of the sound effects are splashing noises and popping sounds.

Controls: The controls are very responsive and precise. The only flaw is that your character's speed can increase to the point that the controls feel floaty and touchy.

Difficulty: The difficulty will turn a lot of people off. The game is by no means easy and the odds can start to feel stacked against you depending on what items you find.  Couple this with the fact that after beating the game 5 times the difficulty increases and stronger enemies will appear.

Value: For under 10 dollars the game is well worth the value. The Binding of Isaac has hours of replayability and new items are constantly being unlocked.

Final Word: This game will offend some Christians with its darker Christian Tones. Character names even represent biblical names and some of the bosses are based off biblical text. I enjoyed the game and put many hours into trying to get every ending. The endings were a little on the short side but the replay value is incredibly high and I kept coming back wanting one more perfect run.There are some glitches though that hold this game up from being great. Enemies and bosses can get stuck as well as certain items causing problems.

Overall Rating: 3.8/5 the lack of soft saves and difficulty keep the game from being great.