LogFAQs > #932317435

#95





Years of release: 2011 (PC), and then it was ported to every system and there were a million expansions forever
Beaten?: Thoroughly, not the expansions though

Uh. To be completely honest with you, I'm not even sure I like Binding of Isaac all that much. It's mostly as a result of the game's aesthetic. I don't like to say this about peoples' artstyles, but I really don't like Binding of Isaac's artstyle, nor do I vibe with its bleak, nihilistic tone. Playing a small, naked child who wanders through pooped-filled dungeons crying tear-bullets at gross, festering monsters isn't really my idea of a fun time and it kind of seems like a bizarre joke that went a little too far and accidentally became a really good game. I wouldn't say I'm offended by it, but it's really unpleasant; I actually realize looking back on it that playing this game wasn't really doing awesome things to my mental state, like it left me feeling a little empty inside playing it. Basically, it's pessimistic and gross and that's kind of the opposite of my deal.

It's a shame that the novelty of the game's theme wears thin after about an hour, because the game ITSELF does not wear thin until way, way after that. I can't deny that I got a good 60-70 hours out of this one, plumbing dungeon after dungeon, looking for secrets and wondering with awe what the next weird item I was going to find was going to do. It's not a particularly balanced game, but that doesn't really matter to me because this isn't one I bother speedrunning - I just take what I get, try to figure out the most broken items as best I can, and enjoy pulling that Roguelite slot machine hoping for the run that'll take me to the end. There's a lot of content here, every run plays completely differently, and replayability is high on this one. It does eventually get a bit old, but it takes a while. There's just so much shit to unlock here. Sometimes literal shit. Ugh, BoI is gross.

This was one of the earliest of the fledgling "Roguelite" genre and I think the first one that I really dove headfirst into (Spelunky was earlier, but man, I just couldn't get into Spelunky, despite the fact that people swear by it - I think I'm the problem on that one). Its influence on a whole lineage of indie games is undeniable, including a VERY particular shall-not-be-named one that ranks very high on my list - almost all of the community for THAT game came from the BoI speedrunning community, and I'm one of the few that didn't.

If it was a more appealing game it'd probably rank in the 50's somewhere, but I've really been turned off to it lately. I've just never gone back to it because it's just a game world that I don't want to exist in for long. I think I've officially put it aside for now, but it would be malpractice for me to not acknowledge its influence on my gaming habits this decade.