The Binding of Isaac

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I searched the forums but didn't find a topic for this game.

The Binding of Isaac is from the developers of Super Meat Boy and only available on Steam. It's described as "randomly generated action RPG shooter with heavy Rogue-like elements". Sounds promising. Supposedly, it'll be out in August (not September) for 5 bucks.

09/28/2011

IMAGE(http://www.cinemablend.com/images/sections/13223/dead_space_13223.jpg)

Better bind him tight. He's an engineer.

"When Isaac’s mother starts hearing the voice of God demanding a sacrifice be made to prove her faith, Isaac escapes into the basement facing droves of deranged enemies, lost brothers and sisters, his fears, and eventually his mother."

Ok, so that's one seriously twisted take on Genesis 22.

Both of the team meat guys are on my "TAKE MY MONEY!" List so yes I will buy it.

rabbit wrote:

"When Isaac’s mother starts hearing the voice of God demanding a sacrifice be made to prove her faith, Isaac escapes into the basement facing droves of deranged enemies, lost brothers and sisters, his fears, and eventually his mother."

Ok, so that's one seriously twisted take on Genesis 22.

I'm a little aroused right now. What does Deuteronomy (or Kierkegaard) say about that?

wordsmythe wrote:
rabbit wrote:

"When Isaac’s mother starts hearing the voice of God demanding a sacrifice be made to prove her faith, Isaac escapes into the basement facing droves of deranged enemies, lost brothers and sisters, his fears, and eventually his mother."

Ok, so that's one seriously twisted take on Genesis 22.

I'm a little aroused right now. What does Deuteronomy (or Kierkegaard) say about that?

I'm guessing Kierkegaard says that Isaac is in despair. As is his mother. And you. And pretty much anyone who is not Kierkegaard.

Marking.

LobsterMobster wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:
rabbit wrote:

"When Isaac’s mother starts hearing the voice of God demanding a sacrifice be made to prove her faith, Isaac escapes into the basement facing droves of deranged enemies, lost brothers and sisters, his fears, and eventually his mother."

Ok, so that's one seriously twisted take on Genesis 22.

I'm a little aroused right now. What does Deuteronomy (or Kierkegaard) say about that?

I'm guessing Kierkegaard says that Isaac is in despair. As is his mother. And you. And pretty much anyone who is not Kierkegaard.

You must work out in the basement with fear and trembling.

rabbit wrote:

"When Isaac’s mother starts hearing the voice of God demanding a sacrifice be made to prove her faith, Isaac escapes into the basement facing droves of deranged enemies, lost brothers and sisters, his fears, and eventually his mother."

Ok, so that's one seriously twisted take on Genesis 22.

Looking at some of the screenshots and other art, it's seriously twisted, period.

wordsmythe wrote:

What does Deuteronomy (or Kierkegaard) say about that?

I always pictured the guy who wrote Deuteronomy as a biblical stoner.

Aaron D. wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:

What does Deuteronomy (or Kierkegaard) say about that?

I always pictured the guy who wrote Deuteronomy as a biblical stoner.

Not exactly laid back, though.

Aaron D. wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:

What does Deuteronomy (or Kierkegaard) say about that?

I always pictured the guy who wrote Deuteronomy as a biblical stoner.

You're thinking of Duderonomy.

IMAGE(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1PyIbh9TpvA/TnRP5fee-JI/AAAAAAAAAmU/jyM9BrzcMSo/s1600/issac.jpg)

While the premise is compelling, what I have seen of the gameplay is not pulling me in. While Isaac's appearance changes noticeably it still all looks like a character throwing small white dots at enemies in cramped single-screen environments. I get no sense of where the mechanical variety lies.

Played it quite a bit and like the game so far. Definitely worth the 5 bucks, IMO. However, I wish they had used something that is not Flash. I don't want to use some third-party software in order to be able to play with my controller. I'm also really, really not fond of seeing a framerate drop as soon as there a few more enemies on the screen. On a relatively modern PC.

I'll probably pick this up to try at lunch on my laptop. Even if it's not good, I can live with $5.

Spunior wrote:

Played it quite a bit and like the game so far. Definitely worth the 5 bucks, IMO. However, I wish they had used something that is not Flash. I don't want to use some third-party software in order to be able to play with my controller. I'm also really, really not fond of seeing a framerate drop as soon as there a few more enemies on the screen. On a relatively modern PC.

It was a very similar situation with VVVVVV, when he recoded it in native C++ it was a night and day difference. It may be nice for making things, but doesn't seem to be the right tool for the job for performance or responsiveness. That's before you get to using a flash cookie to save.

Scratched wrote:
Spunior wrote:

Played it quite a bit and like the game so far. Definitely worth the 5 bucks, IMO. However, I wish they had used something that is not Flash. I don't want to use some third-party software in order to be able to play with my controller. I'm also really, really not fond of seeing a framerate drop as soon as there a few more enemies on the screen. On a relatively modern PC.

It was a very similar situation with VVVVVV, when he recoded it in native C++ it was a night and day difference. It may be nice for making things, but doesn't seem to be the right tool for the job for performance or responsiveness. That's before you get to using a flash cookie to save.

Didn't realise this was in Flash, I thought something felt a bit off about it, especially given how responsive Super Meat Boy was. Gamepad support would have been nice even though this is a Steam-only game and supposedly no PC owners have them
It's a fun enough little timekiller, the pick-ups are pretty amusing though not particularly game changing. So far I've got a halo of flies, a dead cat that follows me around, mom's high heels, made a pact with the devil, laser tears, and a tarot card that made me turn into an invincible rainbow unicorn baby for a few seconds. Yeah, this game is messed up...

It is messed up. I think I found my mothers maxi pad. With flies on it.

I can live without gamepad suppport, but no full screen? WTS!? Could this be the reason to finally tinker with the 'zoom' setting in control panels?

Keep in mind this isn't a 'Team Meat' production. It's designed and drawn by Edmund McMillen but programmed by someone else. (Source)

RPS does a 'Wot I think" here.

I can live without gamepad suppport, but no full screen?

I can switch to fullscreen mode with the 'f' key.

There's an in-game options menu where you can change resolution, window size, go full screen, and mute sound and music.

I don't love this game as much as Meat Boy but it's quite addictive, what you expect from a rogue-like. It took me about 50 runs to finally get the first ending.

Spoiler:

Beating Mom the first time will unlock two extra dungeon levels after the Depths. Oh joy.

Binding of Issac Wiki, still under construction mostly: http://bindingofisaac.wikia.com/wiki...

Some general tips:

Spoiler:

- There's a secret room on every level with some bonus stuff. It's usually surrounded by 3-4 other rooms and you can blow up an entrance from the middle of the wall of an adjacent room. Some items help you find the secret room more easily.
- Bombs can also blow up beggars, hustlers, slot machines, and blood donation machines. They'll drop random pickups as if they were chests.
- Using a bomb on a rock next to a gap can cause it to fill the gap, if it blows it in the right direction.
- The effect of a card is usually limited to a screen while a pill's effect usually goes with you.

More tips here: http://forums.steampowered.com/forum...

Edit: Whoo! Just beat the full game. Quite challenging and nerve wracking, I think I only had like 1 heart left at the end. Funny thing is I was going for unlocking Cain that run and I did it, then I discovered there are no stores on the last two floors. Only thing I could do was feed my money into a slot machine until it blew up. By the end I had The Parasite's split shot, the Gameboy, and mostly stat boosting powerups. The Gameboy was really good against the early bosses but I think it wasn't very useful against the later ones.

I got the Skeleton Key (gives 99 keys) and then something which converts all your keys to bombs, basically turned the game into a twisted version of Bomberman.

Wait until you fight Wrath

Edit: Managed to beat the game two more times. Once as Cain and once as Judas. The game feels a lot easier once you're used to the boss patterns and know how to manage your resources. It definitely helps to get some good items early on though and snowball your advantage.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/qnHf2.jpg)

Here's my Cain playthrough.

Spoiler:

I was lucky and found a ton of health boosts early on. I got the Mark from a devil room to max out my damage and got a few other stat boosting items so I was moving and shooting fast. I also got the Noose which lets you fly over any tile which helped get a lot of items you normally need to waste resources to get. I also got an unusual number of soul hearts, although I squandered them by the time I got to the final boss. Also at a certain point I had so many pennies that I was just feeding them into the arcade endlessly, which is where I got like three pretty flies and as you can see I still had plenty money. The two ghosts I got pretty late and they were more of a fun bonus at that point. Oh yeah, the piercing shot powerup makes a lot of enemies much easier to fight like those bastards you can only damage from behind.

And I have to say, having done it three times, the final fight against Mom's Heart is pretty easy. At that point you should be strong enough to decimate the spawns and the only tricky part is dodging the bombs once she starts chucking them. I find the first fight against Mom to be more challenging. But I guess once you're that deep in the dungeon it would be too painful to die to a crazy boss.

Also I love how each time you beat the game you get a new ending and every achievement you unlock causes more new items to have a chance to spawn into the basement.

Bought it this morning and have played a couple of games, but loving it. The music is top-notch.

I'm going to fiddle a bit with xpadder to see if I can get a gamepad working before my next attempt.

Saw the trailer for this on Steam and was completely confused by the juxtaposition between the epic/scary live-action and the gameplay footage. Just does not look compelling at all.

datawang wrote:

Saw the trailer for this on Steam and was completely confused by the juxtaposition between the epic/scary live-action and the gameplay footage. Just does not look compelling at all.

I think the ad is meant to be a callback to this:

necroyeti wrote:

I'm going to fiddle a bit with xpadder to see if I can get a gamepad working before my next attempt.

I've read that people have had success using JoyToKey.

Podcast interview with Edmund: http://justpressstart.net/?p=4166

Man, this game just scratches some sort of "arcade roguelike" itch that Dungeons of Dredmor didn't manage to get.

imbiginjapan wrote:
datawang wrote:

Saw the trailer for this on Steam and was completely confused by the juxtaposition between the epic/scary live-action and the gameplay footage. Just does not look compelling at all.

I think the ad is meant to be a callback to this:

I cannot believe they advertised the game with that ad.

I won a dollar (A WHOLE DOLLAR!) in the first slot machine I found. It was a pretty easy way to unlock Cain.

I've also discovered that the DEATH tarot card works on bosses. All bosses.

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