The Binding Of Isaac is maybe one of the most sprawling, dense roguelike/dungeon crawler games to have been released in a very long time, and it’s served as a template for tons and tons of clones and games that are just generally influenced by it for pretty much as long as it’s been since the game came out.
With another DLC on the horizon, it’s time people talked about Isaac a little more rather than letting it fade into the background, especially since it’s honestly held up extraordinarily well. While for the most part, the game has done extremely well at staying popular, there are a few things it probably could have done to remain just a little more evergreen.
10 Aged Well: The Roguelike Format Is Infinitely Replayable
For those who aren’t super familiar with the roguelike genre, the things that specifically make a game a roguelike are the additions of certain mechanics. The biggest ones that are pretty much omnipresent in the genre are procedurally generated environments that are unique every time and permanent death states. While it’s kind of annoying to start from the beginning on every death, usually items are kept between lives, creating progress.
9 Aged Poorly: It’s Filled With Dead Memes
One of the bigger issues with Isaac, which is really kind of a nitpicky problem, but a problem nonetheless, is the inclusion of some pretty aged memes that won’t really connect with younger players who’ll be interested after the new DLC drops, mostly stuff from roughly 2012 like a bunch of “rage comic” faces and references, a pill called “R U A Wizard?” which makes the player shoot tears in opposite directions, which is a reference to an old meme of a guy with his eyes pointing different ways.
8 Aged Well: The Art Is Incredibly Unique
The art in Isaac, while not being particularly pretty, is really unique and it really sets itself apart from most games that players would see walking through a GameStop or looking through the front page of the Steam marketplace.
The art is cartoonish and innocent, but at the same time, dark and gross, which is a great way to visually represent the themes and general vibe of the game.
7 Aged Poorly: The Endless Poop Humor Loses Charm
There’s tons of toilet humor in The Binding Of Isaac, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but that’s almost the most it goes past the outdated memes to try and insert a little bit of humor into the otherwise downer story. It’s enough to garner an occasional giggle, but at the same time, there’s only so much entertaining that items that are beans that make you fart and push away enemies can do.
6 Aged Well: It Brings Up Legitimately Deep Themes
While there’s tons of the gross toilet humor abounds in The Binding Of Isaac, and a ton of pretty blasphemous imagery, neither of these things subtract from the overall thematic feel of the game, which is actually a pretty nuanced look at the tale of Abraham and Isaac in the Bible, which recounts the tale of Abraham taking his son Isaac to an altar to sacrifice him to God, who then quickly changes his mind and tells him it was only a test.
5 Aged Poorly: It Doesn’t Tackle Them In The Best Way
While it brings up all of these great themes, the battles between good and evil, the effects of religious, physical, and emotional abuse on children, it doesn’t always do it right. The game is heavily controversial.
It also explores the cognitive dissonance that being deeply entrenched in religious education can introduce into the mind of a child when they enter a secular society and start to have questions about what they’ve been taught, but it also twists the interpretation of the story a lot of religious people have.
4 Aged Well: There Have Been Plenty Of DLC That Keep It Fresh
The base game took about 3 months to complete for the developer and Edmund Mcmillan, and the game itself upon release held hours and hours of content, that changed and increased with each playthrough of the game. There have also been a good few DLC releases for the game which made it even denser, such as The Binding Of Isaac: Afterbirth and The Binding Of Isaac: Rebirth, which pretty heavily provided new life to the game and kept people interested.
3 Aged Poorly: The Next One Is A Mod
The issue with the next DLC being released for the game being a mod isn’t the fact that the mod is bad or anything like that, the issue is that if they were keeping up with the needs and the wants of the fans well enough, the community wouldn’t have to depend on a mod to keep the game interesting.
Not only that, but the DLC may or may not include everything the mod does, and since it’s an official release, it also won’t be free.
2 Aged Well: People Are Still Keeping Up With Daily Runs
It’s always a good sign when it comes to the life-cycle of the game if people are playing enough to keep the leaderboards constantly revolving, and The Binding Of Isaac does. Every day, there’s a new daily challenge that’s available from the main menu that’s separate from the main game and won’t affect the save. In the daily runs, everyone gets the same items and goes through the same levels, and then the game ranks players based on various criteria.
1 Aged Poorly: It Might Be Too Difficult For Some To Keep Up With
For anyone looking to get into the game now or after the release of The Binding Of Isaac: Repentance, you might be biting off more than you can chew. While you can play the game like it’s meant to be played, over and over until most of the items are unlocked and most of the challenges completed, but new players who don’t know what they’re getting into might become overwhelmed by either the difficulty, number of items, or both. Without all the hype and press, it could be a little hard to figure out.
NEXT: Ranked: The 10 Best Roguelikes On PS4
