The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+
Birthed Harder
For a game with permadeath, Isaac doesn’t stay dead for long. First spawned by Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl in 2011 as a Flash game, the Binding of Isaac (TBOI) has been reproduced for almost every system, largely in part to port-happy publisher and developer, Nicalis. It has grown larger as well, bulking up through expansions like Wrath of the Lamb, Rebirth, Afterbirth, and Afterbirth+. The game is a juggernaut, and although no further official expansions are planned, TBOI continues to metastasize through developer-made “booster packs” and community-developed mods.
Isaac’s adventure first came to Nintendo consoles in the form of TBOI: Rebirth with the Wii U and 3DS in 2015. Over two years, I played that damned game for over 250 hours. Prior to TBOI, the most I had ever logged on a video game was 120 hours (Xenoblade Chronicles). Rebirth was particularly unique because it was one of the few games I continued to play even after I had unlocked and completed everything in-game. If I am ever motivated enough to review Rebirth, it would receive a 9.5, no question. When I learned Afterbirth+ was coming in the early stages of the Switch’s life, I was elated. Unfortunately, afterbirth—be it TBOI or the real stuff—tends to make things messy.
What is it?
TBOI: Afterbirth+ is a top-down roguelike dungeon crawler in which you play as Isaac (or one of many Bible-themed characters), an infinitely sad, naked boy. He has fled from his murderous mother into the basement, where he encounters sentient poop, dead fetuses, demons, and a variety of other creatures who also want to kill him. Isaac must move from room to room, destroying all the enemies in said room before moving to the next. His main weapon is his tears. Firing in the cardinal directions, you will fling your salty sadness at enemies in what must be the most depressing take on Geometry Wars you’ll ever see.
In addition to permadeath, each playthrough is randomly generated, ensuring that each session is unlike past ones. You begin in the basement and descend farther into the world as you complete floors. Your basic goal of each floor is to survive each room, find a treasure room, and then find the boss and kill it to move onto the next floor. Both treasure and boss rooms yield items that improve Isaac’s abilities and change his appearance. A mushroom improves your fire rate; a wooden spoon increases your speed; and a knife allows you to forget your tears and just stab enemies outright.
For first-time players, death will be a given. When you start your first game, you will not know everything about keys, pills, bombs, Curse Rooms, Devil deals, trinkets, and tinted rocks. You won’t know which items will win you a game and which will hurt you (even kill you at times). Each time you die, however, you learn a little more, and eventually you will progress further than your last attempt. As you progress, more content unlocks which adds more variety (and sometimes difficulty) to the game. It is unlikely that you will be able to figure out everything by yourself, so you shouldn’t feel bad if you keep the TBOI Wiki near you.
What’s good?
- The game oozes content. It offers 10+ unique characters, two game modes, daily runs (for score-chasers), 35 challenges, 21 endings, 50+ bosses, and hundreds of items. Even after you have discovered everything and played for hundreds of hours, the random combinations of rooms, characters, bosses, and items ensure that you see new interactions every run.
- Controls are tight. With enough practice, you can guide Isaac past his enemies and obstacles without taking a hit of damage (there are even achievements for this).
- Item interactions fuel repeated playthroughs. Isaac may start out with basic tears, but each item can radically change how you play the game. Some items—like Brimstone, Sinus Infection, and Cricket’s Body—are fun by themselves. Other items create beautiful synergy when paired together, like Ipecac and My Reflection. For some gamers, dying doesn’t matter because another playthrough offers a new set of items.
What’s bad?
- Bugs and slowdown do occur. One set of floors in the main game will routinely experience slowdown when the screen is busy. Fortunately, Nicalis did release a patch a while ago which fixed many of these issues (slowdown and some weird, inconsequential bugs remain), but previously, the game could crash and even had a bug so atrocious that it prevented you from unlocking a challenge and certain achievements. As such, you were unable to 100% complete the game.
- Not all new content is necessarily good content. Both Afterbirth and Afterbirth+ added bosses, items, enemies, and gameplay tweaks that have not been well-received by the Isaac community. Because of the volume of mediocre items or annoying enemies, you may lose some runs because of crappy luck. Because the game is randomly-generated, you will have runs that have the best TBOI has to offer, but equally, the game can also choose to unleash all of its crap on you.
- Multiplayer is lackluster. Up to three players can join you at the cost of one of your hearts. Each extra player is represented as a familiar which can fly and shoot tears just like Isaac. They can also take damage just as easily. However, extra players cannot pick up consumables, their damage output is less than Player One’s, and the camera will follow Player One. You might get a few enjoyable sessions out of multiplayer, but usually, more people just leads to bigger headaches.
What’s the verdict?
Despite the inconsistencies and bugs, the Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+ still boasts solid gameplay, butt-loads of content, and a unique experience. If you own a computer and do not care about portability, grab it off of Steam. The Steam version runs more smoothly and allows you to mod the game and download other people’s mods. If you only own a Switch, I give this game a hearty recommendation. Although I still have my gripes, I can’t deny that TBOI is now also the most-played game on both my Switch and Wii U.
Arbitrary Statistics:
- Score: 8.5
- Time Played: Over 290 hours
- Number of Players: 1-4
- Games Like It on Switch: Tumbleseed, GoNNER