Overall 9.9 Graphics 9 Sound 10 Addictive 9 Story 5.5 Depth 10 Difficulty 7.5
10
Best Game.What else is there to be said daman269
This game is just... Beautiful. I just can't get enough of it. How does one simply create such art. Anyone who pirates this should be shamed. It's well worth $20.
Lets get on with the review.
As you can see I praise this game a lot. it is amazing and has loads of references. This game is out on Playstation and computer.
Graphics:10
You may think that that was a strange choice as it's 2D however this game looks great. It wouldn't of worked in 3D, like Bubsy games(why was bubsy 3D a thing?) and the animations are great. It runs a solid 60 FPS and the art style is amazing. Just seeing Isaac's drawings just in the cut-scenes(did I mention the cut-scenes are good) is just a bit satisfying in a way I can't explain.
Sound:10
I really love the music and sound effects in this game. They set the scene well. 1 minute you are in the basement with not that intense music and the next you're in the catacombs with eerie music that'll give children nightmares.
Addictiveness:10
This game has replayability value like no other, you will spend ages trying to get all the items, characters, bosses, places, each time you'll have fun because of the amount of seeds in the game and special seeds to mess around with.
Story:5
It's a take on a biblical story and I'm atheist so I'm not particularly interested but the theme of family betrayal is always interesting. Isaac's mum hears god saying Isaac is evil. Isaac's mother first takes all things away from him hears god again, locks him in his room and eventually she's told to kill Isaac. Isaac finds a trap door and your adventure starts.
Depth:10
This game has so many things in such a small amount of data that it's unreal. for starters, what looks like 500 items to unlock and millions upon millions of seeds and special seeds to mess around with. You've also got like, what, 10 characters that you unlock by doing objectives such as doing 3 deals with the devil(best way is get one thing then dead cat(9 live and 1 heart) and then something else). There are some curses, 20 challenges, around 200 secrets, loads of bosses and mini-bosses and a ton more.
Difficulty:8
This game starts off slow and easy then you have a boss which is either very easy or very hard. More often than not very hard. The floors afterwards can be really crazy with very tight situations. Then you get to mum, the final boss. Just kidding, afterwards you go to the womb or Utero as it calls it. You take 1 heart of damage from anything in here so you better be careful. Then you either fight mum's heart or if you are far enough you have to fight It Lives. Then you can either go to the Cathedral or Sheol(heaven or hell) where you fight... Isaac as the main boss in the cathedral? And Satan in Sheol. Then you go to the chest in heaven or a place I can't remember the name of in hell. You fight ???(or blue baby as fans call it, it's actually dead Isaac. Serious. Watch Game Theorist do it) or the Lamb. ??? in heaven and the Lamb in the other place. Or you can unlock a giant door. Not spoiling what's behind the door for you. Also you can do this on hard mode if you're insane.
Overall this gets my rating of 10/10 play all the time. Buy it. It's around $15.
Graphics 10 Sound 10 Addictive 10 Story 5 Depth 10 Difficulty 8
Review Rating: 3/5
Submitted: 03-28-15
Updated: 03-28-15
Review Replies: 3
10
"Implementing a dark issue, that lives inside today's society" sonicthehedgeho..
(Disclaimer: This review is of a game that deals with religious themes and may be offensive to others, if this may affect you you'll probably wish to leave now) Have you ever have a calling thought in your mind or heart? A voice that keeps yelling to you and almost like you can hear it from the sky above? Many people believe in faith with one's views on religion and then...you have in this games case, others whom hear that voice but you'd know it's a very distinct falsity based on what you've heard/read before. These strange occurrences can all be seen in the Isaac family household, whom would suspect that with such a nice and calm atmosphere around the house that anything could possible go wrong? Upon seeing Isaac with a smile and his overweight (at least from what it seems) mother being entranced by the TV, at that moment though his mother is snapped out of it by a voice calling from above (presumed as thy lord in the game) saying that her son Isaac has crated and is conceived as a grievous sin, that she must deal with him right away. After having tossed him aside on the floor of his bedroom she comes back to hear another command from the voice above...saying that she still hasn't proved her worth...Killing her son is the only way to do so! Now having the little child Isaac crying in tears from his mom's reaction and obsession, seeing her with a knife in his direction...he runs for his favorite toy chest and hides crying it all away...hoping it'll all end...or will it?
|_Basic looks and designs; yet unique changes and enemies_/
Binding of Isaac Rebirth is another indie developed game which obviously means just like before with a certain "bit" game we talked about, you can't expect the most out of one teams creation. Now even this set-back there is one thing I would like to get off about the game first and it's that out of all the creative indie titles so far this one has got to have the best graphical design out of them all; although, just like the others it more than likely can't stand up to triple A titles you'd see on the PS4 or Xbox One so don't go praising around the Mary flowers from that one point. An interesting thing to keep note here on what I'll say is that everytime you start up a new game you'll NEVER always respawn in the same level with the same items or certain ailments (curse of the blind) so it'd be a little hard describing different levels like that for the graphics portion, instead I'll treat you guys to basic rooms which usually stay the same all the way through. Are you all ready *uses pill* (Statements!/Good) Let's go!
|X| |||Cellar||| |X|
After having fallen down from his hiding place into this specific starting area, you'll notice the background is mostly made of wood paneling and usually from what I've experience in the game (remember it's randomized) you'll usually find more urn's here than any rocks or fires, maybe it's because of the area's name or a lucky seed streak? Basically when it comes down to trying to picture this place think of a normal cellar; however, just
replace any stone background and
replace it all urn's and I'd say the only time this place becomes different if when you get the: "curse of darkness" which basically makes 90% of the screen pitch black so you can't see. The only reason I'm adding this into this area description is because when you think about it a cellar could be pretty pitch dark without very nice and proper lighting. So this specific starting point isn't very descriptive with anything besides a wood fetish I guess? It still looks pretty neat when compared to most "oak" filled places you'd see in these kinds of games (even big company games at times). I guess a pretty nice and basic job here?
: / The Womb / :
*falls onto bloody flooring* ...*sniff sniff* UGGGGHH....Yeah...this is not a joke area that I'm teasing you all with it's a real area that you can visit after getting passed a certain person in the game, and it just...ugh! *rushes for vizzed garbage bin* ~Intermission~ Sorry about that...it's just from the title you can probably guess how bad this spot is going to look in comparison to other levels, since the whole level is going to have background that's just stained with the color red and the enemies and objects in this place...just...just listen to their names: "Boil, MemBrain, Guts, Nerve Ending" just ooooohg everything just having that organ kind of atmosphere and look just makes you wanna be sick or at least have a bad reaction on your face. Already you have to wonder how that red ovary kind of hole was able to break through cement flooring after defeating one boss. It just...ugh...would rather skip ahead of this level also I guess this place must not have been taken proper care off....or there's something poisonous inside this body as there are a ton of rocks that can be destroyed here, (geeez I've heard of gallstones but c'mon!) and in case you're wondering there are tinted rocks here but keep a good look out cause they're harder with everything being kool-aid man red. That's it...I'm out I have to end this off because I'll spew, moving on!
As you can see this game can switch between being very basic to being very descriptive and detailed in its environments, from going down a hidden ladder in a cellar to bustin' up a nerve in the womb. (ugh) There are other enemies which are imaginative and creative to look at so it's not just only a few enemies are special and the rest are just placeholders. So YES continue to grind on this game about how bad it is compared to the modern means of gaming; just keep in mind though that there are sometimes where those modern forms are going to get "stomped" by creative and unique designs with levels...also P.S there's a filter you can put on the game that really tones down any pixelation you could probably see so that's a +. Looking over all of this I'd say Isaac could nicely deserve an
8 out of 10 for graphics. *jumps down staircase*
^v++--^A nice and creative soundtrack, bashing out with hardcore beats^v++--^
Ok so you all have seen from previous times just like the graphics that not being in the big leagues doesn't mean you're not going to have a chance in heck of having a superb soundtrack, cause if you still feel that bay you better protect those pixels like Commander did in his video game because this one will reach down and hurt you somewhere private. Starting off in the first areas the music itself may just seem simple; yet, very interesting to listen to (Kind of like the Dungeon themes from Zelda on NES) and it definitely is opened up to using more assets in music between switching pitches and adding a whole variety of instruments both real or computer made. Another point to bring up is that with different floors or events the music type can change from the basic level floor like Zelda as I've stated; however, it can also change to like a choir/operatic type tone fused with the normal style of music played to create a more dynamic impact for that special event or room whatever the case may be. Enough chatting wildly here about the sound, I'm sure you're just wanting to have an example of what I mean so you'll know exactly what to expect! Let's go *bombs wall and enters hole into section segment*
!!~_-/::Ventricide::/-_~!!
This is one of those themes that I stated above that ends up changing from the norm and using a more dynamic tone starting off with a xylophone beat and what almost songs like banging you'd hear on a wall, it leaves you off with a creepy almost horror kind of feeling and then right when you don't expect it explodes with hardcore beats banging and what sounds like a video game guitar just toned down a bit but still amazing to hear playing in the background. It does a perfect job at setting up the mood for this fight and the strangest thing is that it doesn't just give you the determination to win, it also give you the fear of losing to this foe as well somehow? There's no real perfect way to describe it but just imagine Bowser or Ganon except that with only 4 slashes or so they could easily kill you and you'd have to start all the way from the beginning again...yeah that's pretty fearful because there's no real way to expect what moves they'll use and you'd better make sure you dodge or this theme will be the last rockin' one your Isaac will here. Really great song!
_ _ _ _
|_|| ||_Caves_| | ||_|
Probably one of the darker themes that can be played inside the game, as I don't know what it is about the Caves music...just something about the low pitch tone it always plays during the duration of the level sounds like something unfortunate is just bound to happen to you in this area and you're just going to have to push through it. Funny thing is whenever I've reached this area bad luck has always happened like really horrible/unfair rooms or just dumb damage on the games part or my own, I like the theme though because of that strange feeling that it gives you as it proves that a game soundtrack can affect you emotionally and when it's worked together so well with the story of this game how could you not be fearful or worried over something awful happening. So again great job on the soundtrack Isaac people especially with your limited resources (especially since you're not a HUGE company either)
I'm probably going to end this off here as I don't want to go off the deep end of things, just know that this soundtrack is VERY creative on it's own right. None of the songs I've listen to seem to repeat over and over in other levels so that's a good addition. (like Bit.Trip did) One last thing about the music is that there are actually 30 tunes you'll be able to hear as you play through this game again and again, (obviously wont get all 30 in one try) to be honest I'm just surprised that an indie game like this is able to have 30 songs when most indie titles have like 8 songs at most and even bigger titles don't have as many at times either. The sound effects are perfectly fine between the explosions, growls from monsters, and the oh so famous mom voice yelling "ISAAC!". So surprisingly to even myself I'm going to give this game a solid
10 out of 10 for its sound capabilities!
++|< 3| A strange addictive sensation, based on a random outcome of abilities |??| --
Just like the last indie game reviewed this one will be one of the hardest sections to describe since addictiveness can vary from player to player based on what games a person may enjoy. The only difference with this game is unlike bit.trip and others which rely on varied players enjoyment throughout the game to define if it's addictive or not...this game takes it one step further and has it so each and every time you quit your game and start up a new one it won't be the same as the last one you just played and it will keep happening continuously ad infinitum, which means the addictiveness factor for EVERYONE will be changing back and forth. Now I'm sure this has probably gotten all of you confused as exactly what I could mean by that because that'd mean we could always try to get a different item or power-up...right? That's correct in one sense but there's just one problem with the randomizing factor of this game, you could have a really great run because of the randomization or a really REALLY horrible run...I'll even do a play by-play for you so you can understand what I mean as it could go two ways like: "Speed up, Range up, Damage+Hp upgrade" or "Amnesia, Tears down, speed down+Hp upgrade".
As you can probably tell on one path you were able to get a lot of advantages while the second path you had many disadvantages with few advantages which in term will usually mean your addictiveness on one run could be like only a 3 or 4 while the good run could be an 8 or 9 so how could you really rate the addictiveness of your experience EXACTLY if it keeps changing like that? The funny catch here is even if you get a bad or good path usually you end up playing through it or quitting for some reason and you immediately want to go back in thinking "I'll have a better run this time/just want to mix it up more" which is a sign of addictiveness already so it's like a weird magic potion where you don't have a clue what it is or how to rate this part.
Another thing that can make this game addictive is just how much the game is offering you to do, already right as you start the game you can see locked portraits of characters leaning you towards trying to unlock them or unlock certain items and treasures during your run. If that wasn't enough either you also have another feature which I'll dive into deeper known as "Challenges" which as you would guess gives you a challenge to complete, these are fun for people whom want a little more out of the game or just a tough challenge if they feel the normal game is too simple for them. Now during these challenges the area does randomize just like the normal game; although, for certain challenges you can't change anything about your main self while others it's just difficult to even survive at all, but that's for a different section to go deeper on.
On that note though, I'm going to end my segment on addictiveness here, this game is very random and not easy to say exactly how much fun you can have each time; but, in my eyes I still feel this game is addictive even when things go bad so I'm going to give this an
8? out of 10 for addictiveness because sometimes I could say lower or higher so I'll just leave it with that above average score. *follows tears onto door ahead*
--zzXX21:10 ~One dark and tragic story, that leaves on child alone and crying for life~25:12xxZZ--
All you viewers have already been given a good basis on how the story rolls from the intro you read at the beginning of this review, our little child Isaac has been tossed aside by his mom into his bedroom trembling in fear of what could happen as his religious-fanatic mother comes in with a carving knife ready to do the deed require off her. Little Isaac now streaming tears from his face and trying to hide away in fear from his lunatic mom, being shocked when looking at the ground and seeing a trap door to their house's basement he quickly scrambles inside and decides to wait it out...crying his eyes out down below from the fear of his mother outside...trying to find and sacrifice him to the voice she hears above. *hears arguing in comments* Hm? Oh, I see it's because I said chest in the beginning and now I said basement correct? Well that's because while this story has a normal intro and a normal ending there are also 15 other alternate endings you can get in the games alongside the just the regular ending, and one of which has a chest he hides inside. I can't spoil the ending for you all and to be honest why would I want to, as it's more fun if you play and see the actual ending for yourself and wonder about the other endings the game may give you ;)
One thing I feel I should mention as I warned above is that this game does have religious imagery at times and even themes, I mean even when you look at some characters names that you'll unlock and even Isaac himself. Since Isaac was the Christian child of Abraham in the bible....and other names such as Magdalene, Eve, And Eden? It kind of makes me wonder if this story is trying to send a message out from what it's showing or just trying to show the faults of something that occurs in our own society today? Again let me reiterate I'm not throwing any bias's out there against anyone or theme's, it's just what the story is showing and what I can gain from it.
All in all I'd say for the weird and almost interesting story that it's trying to reach out to others with earns the story segment of this game a
6 out of 10 since it is unique and interesting to think about; however, there are still far more interesting stories from games that you can look into and it's just...kind of weird and strange for some gamers in general. *uses teleport pill to next section*
>>__++--??So many features, so many wonder, locked inside one dark and venturous game??++__>>
Usually this is the first thing I see people talk about and one thing I look at in an indie game, is what am I going to be getting for how much I'll end up paying towards the game? Since you don't want to be paying like $15-$20 for something that you'll be in several hours (or in bad cases a few minutes), cause then you'll feel like you just wasted your money on a game that should've been developed better or giving a better insight into how much you'd be able to do. If this is one of those worries that you have when looking towards this game then I have some dearly good news for you, in terms of how much you're offered you DEFINITELY won't be let down in anyway period!
During the first run that you'll do you'll have about 3 chapters to do with the first 1 or 2 containing 2 levels before being at the final one which only has 1 floor, after playing the game a certain amount of time and defeating the enemy towards the end you can unlock more chapter to a total of 6 with other 2 or more reachable area's after meeting a certain criteria. So this game is long and an average run could last 30 min to 1 hour depending on how you're doing and what upgrades you may have gotten, since the relative depth of the game is out of the way let's talk about the other detail I held back on before!
())(Challenges())(
I don't believe this is a new feature to Rebirth; although, this version does include more challenges to do to my knowledge and some of these challenges can be very difficult to complete while others are more about patience and skill. Some examples I could include are: "Cursed" Wherein every single door that you try to walk through you'll end up taking a half-heart of damage since they're all spiked doors like the Cursed rooms, and your only defense is the yum-yum heart which restores one full heart and also takes 4 enemy rooms to recharge back up. While the challenge known as "Boom Boom" is a more so skilled and patience based challenge as you can never shoot tears in this mode again only bombs from your eyes now (even if you get a tear or brimstone upgrade) so you have to be careful and not blow up yourself while making sure when you toss a bomb at an enemy you're not just spamming the fire buttons. There are many more options and scenario's that will come out of these challenges and some of them you might even unlock something special so it's definitely worth some time and effort.
//|Achievements and Unlocks|//
Yes, as with any game that comes out these decades you'll have achievements that you can earn as well as normal unlocks that you'd expect. Some of which are unlocking different characters like how I mentioned in the story mode (Eden, Eve) and each one of them has their own special attributes as well and can be generally fun to play as once you know how to handle them well enough. (some may be strong while others are weak but could have a partner/near death upgrade) There are some achievements you may be able to gain easily such as donating XX amount of pennies to the donation machine at the store or completing the game 3x while other achievements will test your abilities by having you not take any damage for two floors or until a certain area, while other unlocks could also be gaining more challenges that may yield a reward or are just for fun.
Woohh this was a long segment, but hey at least you can see there's already a lot to offer in just what this review tells you about and that's not even everything in the game that you can find/reach for. Just like before though I'm going to keep my Isaac shut and let you all figure out what else may be hidden inside the game so that way you may have some initiative to buy the game for yourself, with everything combined together there's no doubting it and I'm sure you've seen it coming that this game earns a
10+ out of 10 for its depth factor. *walks towards spiked door to next section*
--++***-+-Random items, Random curses, Random Difficulty-+-***++--
*walks through cursed door and takes damage* Yay...another painful section to talk about like the addictiveness one, seems like this month isn't the review month for the difficulty category as it's either based on one tactic or it varies from player to player. Read up there again if you need to as this game takes all those tactics and player skills and meshes them together into a Dr. Fetus gel and tells you: "here, now have fun while I either help you or screw you over :3" so prepare for either lots of rage or lots of enjoyment at times. I will say 1/3 of what this game makes up is skill and the players ability because even with awesome weapons and abilities you still have to be able to play and react to obstacles well enough to survive the end, while the other 2/3's of the game rely on both the lucky of the draw with items/pills and just luck against boss fights in general.
Had this game just been a normal to the finish game with upgrades and items that you could get along the way if you had the ability to then I'd have rated this game's difficulty as a 5 or 6 out of 10 immediately without having to think about it; and yet, due to the random nature of this game and the fact that some attack items you can gain from rooms are pointless or stink. (stink bean or shoop da woop) If that doesn't kick you enough in the fact at times...after level 1 you need a key to unlock item doors from there on forward (always need a key for the shop though) and just sometimes you might use that key and find a pointless item like I said before which makes the key completely wasted and you just want to kill the game after that second strike.
There are many MANY more problems I could bring up; although, I really feel that might spoil some things about bosses inside the game and I would hate to ruin that for you all...I will mention though that most bosses do in fact have patterns with some being hard to figure out or you're just not powerful enough to get past it that quickly. The game is fair in bosses though and doesn't try to pull any horrid tricks so there's no need to worry there, overall just like the addictiveness section I'm going to give it what I'd think it deserves normally; but, you viewers just need to remember it's all reliant on how your run may go and that it'll be different each time. My score for difficulty on Isaac would have to be an
7 out of 10 for average to little over average difficulty with random things raising or lowering it in different cases.
*stands in near chest with vizzed boss defeated* ...So that ends the tale of our story here in Isaac it's definitely one of the more grim games that you can find on the steam store or on home consoles, such a shame that Isaac had to endure so much for something he didn't know he's done wrong at all...was that voice in the beginning even true? Was it all just a lie to have Isaac grow in fear and try to grow up? We may never know with this story...always randomly changing its scenario's and enemies, all we know is that it's done and I hope you viewers have enjoyed this journey...with me...whomever or however I may be like. *Sonic57 closes book and looks at Vizzed board, seeing demon reflection of self* .... *tear falls as Sonic57 opens chest and locks self away from VizBoard Depths*
Sonic57+Pokefreak219tm 2015
Graphics 8 Sound 10 Addictive 8 Story 6 Depth 10 Difficulty 7
Review Rating: 3/5
Submitted: 04-30-15
Review Replies: 6
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