A Glutton for Punishment

I feel pretty confident in saying that The Binding of Isaac and Spelunky are the best the rogue-like genre has to offer. The two games exist on opposite sides of the spectrum, Spelunky being a deceptively minimalist game that makes the most out of its few components—its Mario world structure, the items you can use, the patterns of foes and traps—to create an exciting experience that changes from game to game. The Binding of Isaac, though it follows the same philosophy of harshly punishing players for failure by sending them back to the start of the game, operates on a different level. It showers players with power-ups and modes that mutate the game and change how you play, constantly presenting them with new challenges.

Both games have more or less followed their respective structures since release. Spelunky is virtually unchanged since it became a retail game, while Isaac has had a bevy of updates, expansions and even a remake that have added more and more to the base game released in 2011. For a while I’ve wondered when Isaac’s updates would finally be too much, when there would be way too many items to sort through as I navigated the feces-soaked and blood-caked basements and dungeons. Afterbirth, the second major expansion for the game, is not the breaking point and might actually demonstrate that there is no such thing for a game that'll happily give players as many tools as they want to form their own masochistic experiences. 

Let me be clear: Afterbirth isn’t a radical change to what’s already here. It’s not going to convince anyone who doesn’t love The Binding of Isaac already that the game is worth their time. It’s a giant parcel filled with gameplay mutators. That’s it. And, as someone who’s poured hundreds of hours across all iterations of the game, that’s more than fine by me. The items are exciting and unpredictable, like the Fruitcake’s ability to change your ammunition, and the new bosses and enemies are challenging to take on. The biggest change to the game is Greed Mode, which is essentially a Horde Mode where you fight waves of enemies and buy items that will help you survive longer. It’s a fine addition but it’s not nearly as interesting or challenging as the game’s standard dungeon crawling design. It works well enough to scratch an Isaac itch if you’re in a rush, but the main game is still the attraction here and Afterbith’s additions to it are worthwhile, especially for those who have somehow been exhausted by Rebirth’s offerings. 

Something that Afterbirth doesn’t do is make the game easier for newcomers, which is a bit of a bummer. The Binding of Issac is a complex, difficult game with a world worth exploring, but its steep learning curve is something that keeps many players away. Even Spelunky, which actually ends up being a much harder game than Isaac in the end, feels more accessible because there’s a subtle yet tangible sense of progression as you figure out how to defeat enemies and how to put your precious items to use. Isaac rewards you with more mutators as you play through the game, unlocking items by completing various tasks but that doesn’t soothe the sting of reaching the endgame, and then getting caught up in a fight that you have no chance of winning because of bad luck. Such is The Binding of Isaac. You either accept that possibility or you play something that’s not as cruel. However, it’s still a bit unfortunate that there’s not a more accessible version of the dungeon to play so that new players can dip their feet instead of being pushed into the deep end.

Afterbirth is a great expansion pack for Isaac’s base game but it’s hardly essential and it’s not strong enough on its own to merit a recommendation to newcomers, since they’d have to buy both Rebirth and Afterbirth. Still, it’s as good as any hardcore Isaac player thirsting for new challenges could want it to be and is perhaps a more satisfactory addition than any outright sequel could ever be.

Javy Gwaltney devotes his time to writing about these videogame things when he isn’t teaching or cobbling together a novel. You can follow the trail of pizza crumbs to his Twitter or his website.