The Binding of Isaac: Sweat, Blood, and Tears.

The Binding of Isaac.

From the company behind Super Meat Boy, the Binding of Isaac is a simple yet complicated game. It can be best described as a bizarre mixture of roguelike, legend of Zelda dungeon diving, religious iconography, bullet hell games, and so many twisted visuals I felt like my eyeballs had been thrown into a taffy machine.

The game starts off with a cutscene detailing the story so far. Isaac is a normal little boy living with his mother, spending his time solely on having fun and living his life. His mother however is a hardcore fundamentalist, spending all day watching religious TV shows and ignoring her son. Until one day, when she begins to hear voices in her head. Believing it to be the voice of God, she listens and obeys every command. The voice claims that her son is being corrupted by evil, and the only way to save him is to take away everything he enjoys. She does so, even going so far as to strip him bare naked and leave him that way. The next time the voice speaks, it says that she must lock him away, so that nobody can see him. She does as she is told, dutifully locking her son away in his bedroom. The final commandment? She must kill her son to purify him.

Isaac, overhearing her talking to herself about her plans, quickly runs and hides in the basement. Where he encounters nightmarish creations from the fevered dreams of madmen, and must fight his way to safety. Unarmed and still buck naked, he has only one thing he can defend himself with. Curiously high pressured crying, launching tears at his enemies to fend them off.

The controls are very simple to grasp, allowing you to walk in any direction, but limiting you to firing only in four directions. This is not as irritating as it could be due to the ability to sling most of your attacks by using your momentum, but it can still be incredibly infuriating and will lead to a multitude of deaths. Which wouldn't be as much of a problem if not for the little fact that each death is permanent. That's right, if you die, you must start the whole game over again. This adds much more to the tension, and requires you to carefully gauge and consider each resource you have at your disposal. However, like other roguelikes, Isaac's content is procedurally generated. That room you're about to walk in may hold the key to survival, or it could lead into the lair of a horrific monstrosity that shouldn't exist, that wants to suck the marrow from your bones.

Also like many roguelikes, the items you find in the various mazes are different each time, running the gamut from useful to useless and even harmful. Just about every item has a visual effect on Isaac's body, sometimes making you look just as, or even more monstrous than the monsters you face. He who fights monsters etc. etc. As a few examples, finding a stone lodges it in Isaac's forehead, and turns his tears grey. Finding a coat hanger increases the rate of fire of your tears, but jams a coat hanger through Isaac's head. Finding a wooden spoon increases Isaac's speed, but causes red marks all over Isaac's face as if he was beaten with a wooden spoon. Meaning each play through will lead to different appearances, and different ways of having to fight.

The visuals are amazingly well done. Smooth and consistent in all their disgusting glory. From a simple child crying bloody tears, to a headless body gushing blood from its stump, to a giant floating bag of flesh coughing out attack flies. Every creature seems to be more disturbing than the last, and each is dangerous in its own right. You can only cry tears so fast, and you are usually swarmed by enemies seeking to tear you apart.

Usually you are given a fair shake, a special item always available per level, but sometimes the random numbers god will decide to screw you over beyond belief. If you're skilled enough at dodging you can beat almost anything with the base stats, but that doesn't mean you won't have some deaths that utterly infuriate you. Many of them regarding being swarmed with attacks and personal space invaders overwhelming you. Causing Isaac to explode into a small cloud of blood and revealing his will, where he gives all the items he has discovered to his pet cat.

While infuriating at times, the game has that perfect mixture of hair tearing difficulty, yet making it incredibly fun in the process. The powers and abilities you unlock and find are creative and have a dark humor about them, the enemies are unique and varied, and the controls are tight if a bit limiting, and the music fits the haunting mood perfectly.

Its a marvelous game, truly more than worth the price on Steam. At five dollars it is a steal, and I highly recommend it to anyone.