I'm still somewhat new to the world of PC gaming and Steam. Console gaming and I have had a long mutually fulfilling relationship together, whereas I'm only starting to delve into the world of PC gaming - mainly because I've never had a PC powerful enough to run half of the games - but after shelling out for a £500 gaming PC, I decided that it was time to use it for more than just The Sims 3.
My friend Ash gifted me The Binding Of Isaac and the Wrath Of The Lamb DLC for my birthday - ah, Steam, you make life so simple sometimes. I only recently started playing it - and it's AWESOME.
As I'm more of a console gamer, I couldn't get used to the WASD keyboard layout, but thankfully, you can use your own joypads with JoyToKey - once configured, I've had no problems with using a wired Xbox 360 controller.
The Binding Of Isaac comes from the same developers as Super Meat Boy, which is evident by the game's very unique art style and its excessive use of blood - yes, this is NOT a game for children. Despite its somewhat cartoony graphics, this game is SERIOUSLY DARK.
The game is filled with religious imagery, particularly of those of death, hell, torture and the seven deadly sins - all of which manifest as freaky enemies ranging from corpse-feeding flies, mutated spiders and cancerous tumours with legs - all of whom attack by launching various bodily fluids.
You play as the titular character Isaac, who has fled to his monster-filled basement to avoid being sacrificed at the hands of his delusional mother, who believes that God himself has told her that Isaac is unclean and must be sacrificed in order for her to prove her faith. Isaac starts out naked, using only his tears as a weapon. As you continue, you will collect questionable power-ups, including virus injections, gouging out your own eyeballs, a conjoined fetus attatched to your head and CANCER. Cancer is a fucking POWER UP in this game! WTF?
The game is a top-down dungeon crawler with rougelike elements - every run through the game will be different. Every time you die and reload, the layout will have rearranged, different monsters will appear and new power-ups will be there to find. Adding to this is a VERY UNFORGIVING difficulty curve; the very first dungeon acting as a tutorial each time, or a warm-up for experienced players, before throwing you bleeding eye-sockets first into hordes of twisted Satanic monsters.
But oddly enough, the brutal difficulty is what is KEEPING me playing the game. Every time I die, I just want to reload - see what items I can find this time around; hopefully pick up some more rotten meat and disembodied organs to increase my health, and hopefully find the laser scope to cram into one of my retinas.
Like Super Meat Boy, The Binding Of Isaac is filled with secret areas, items, power-ups and unlockable characters - as well as a huge pile of interchanging randomised boss monsters. I can guarantee you will be not be disappointed with this game if you are a long-term Steam supporter.
---------------------------------------------
Nuggets Of Recommendation:
You'll like this game if you like:
- Excessive gore and disturbing imagery
- Top-down dungeon crawling
- Fucking BRUTAL unforgiving difficulty
Similar games:
- Super Meat Boy
- FTL: Faster Than Light
- The Legend Of Zelda (NES Original)
---------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment