The Binding Of Isaac

Hey guys, sorry it's been so long, but school has been taking it toll. It really has been hard to consistently keep posting, and so I'm sorry for our monthly breaks or absences. Before I get into the meat of my brief post today, I just wanted to bring up the fact that it has been a year since AOVW started! I couldn't be more happy with our readership, or my two cohorts in this ridiculous venture. So here's to many more years of writing ahead!

Trust me this will be explained.

Today I will be speaking about a game, however this game pulls a lot of imagery and references from religious sources, so in case you aren't familiar with the bible here is a quick run down of what the binding of Isaac story is all about.

So I'm going to keep this brief but essentially what happens is God commands Isaac to sacrifice his son. However, being the tricky deity that he is, God pulls the plug at the last second and reveals that it was all a test to see if Isaac would obey him. So even though Isaac doesn't kill his son, he still sacrifices a Ram just to be sure everything is cool.

Sorry dude...

So with all this new found knowledge you can begin to understand the concept behind Team Meat's (Of Super Meat Boy fame), recent game The Binding of Isaac.However, Team Meat take perhaps an even more disturbing approach with their incarnation of the biblical story. Watch the intro, tell me the Mom's voice doesn't creep you out.

So once the creepy intro is over, you are flung into the basement and expected to fight off vicious monsters with your tears. Yes if you enjoy attacking this with your own bodily fluids, then you will love The Binding of Isaac as most of the "arrows" as the game calls them, are made up of Isaacs own tears or urine. (If you are lucky)

Don't let all of the religious imagery fool you though, the game does not take itself seriously and is instead just an excuse to have fun rather than a defined statement about organized religion. That being said, at the time of this post, I haven't exactly... well I haven't finished the game, but that's because THIS GAME IS HARD!

Absolute Nightmares

Where as Demon Souls is a hard game because of it's cheap rules and lack of instruction, The Binding of Isaac is hard because of the genuine challenge. While there is a lack of explanation as far as power-ups go, and I would sometimes find myself using an item at an inopportune time simply because I had no idea what it does, the actual structure of the game will be familiar to anyone who has played games before. Controlling Isaac with the WASD keys and shooting with the directional arrows (Oh did I mention this is a PC game? Well yeah deal with it. I promise I won't make that reference again.), you move from room to room killing baddies and collecting power ups that range from Urine (Shoots faster obviously) to Mother's High heels (Increases Range I think?) There are also some internet meme references for people who like that kind of stuff. As you collect more stuff and kill mini-bosses Isaac's stats go up, but here is the kicker and the reason the game is so difficult, IF YOU DIE YOU START FROM THE BEGINNING!

 That's right, right back at the beginning without any of your stuff. While in some games this may seem frustrating, in The Binding of Isaac it feels okay because the goal of the game isn't to necessarily win every time, but to experience all of the funny power ups and enemies. It also helps that you never play through the same level twice as the layout and enemy placement is all randomly generated! It's a new experience almost every time you play!

The animation is great on all of the characters, and the art design is such that I found myself laughing at how horrific some of the enemies and power ups are. It's a rare case in which I can go from regarding something as cute, to fleeing the room in with a feeling of disgust. The animation is so cute and cuddly and yet at the same time gory and terrifying. Throughout my attempted playthroughs I found myself repeating the same thing over and over. "HAHHAHAHA.....oh wow that's really messed up."

I couldn't find a happy Isaac picture

So that's the Binding of Isaac, a great game with simple mechanics that offers high re playability and big challenge. I would definitely recommend picking this one up, and at a 4.99 price tag, you can't really go wrong.

Thanks guys! I would love your feedback or comments. Also with Halloween coming up I was wondering what everyone's go to scary movies are? Well I have to go for now as I am literally using the school's library to pump this bad boy out. Rest assured that I will be back though muahahahhahaha. Till then be nice to each other and all that good junk!

P.S. How awesome is this Occupy Wall street thing? Just wanted to say that. BYE!