Once upon a time, indie game developers Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl developed a game called The Binding of Isaac (BoI). It is literally based off the Biblical story where God tests Abraham’s faith through the requirement of sacrificing his son, Isaac. The game - eventually - got so popular that fans are demanding for more. This resulted in the Wrath of the Lamb expansion, and needless to say, fans of the game are crying out for the developers to continue. Seeing a great opportunity to rebuild the game, Edmund decided to make a sequel/reboot of the original, leading to the creation of The Binding Of Isaac: Rebirth.
AN ENGINE’S IMAGE
The original BoI is truly a great game. However, there is one major hindrance for the original: it runs on Flash. The archaic animation format has caused some performance issues like slow-downs when there are projectiles, multiple enemies, and massive effects flying all over the screen. With Rebirth, McMillen finally spent some money on a proper game engine. Thus, the game now runs like a well-oiled machine. This is especially obvious when I played it on the Razer Blade 2013 platform. Personally, this is jarring since I dumped 200 hours into the first game and have already gotten used to general sluggish performance of the original.
THE SCAPEGOAT AND THE SOMEWHAT RESURRECTED
Being a sequel to the original game, it is obvious that there will be new content thrown in. Lo and behold, McMillen hath delivered in the form of three new characters being introduced in Rebirth alongside the original seven. Of the three, two can be found in the Bible. First up is Azazel, a demon-type character that starts off with little health but comes with flight and a miniature blood beam. Second is Lazarus, the Biblical man who comes with an extra life - a direct reference to his resurrection in the Bible. Last is Eden, a being whose appearance and starting items are randomised for every playthrough that the player starts.
There is a super-secret character that can be unlocked through a convoluted series of deaths but I’ll leave you to discover him on your own (or you could always Google it for *ahem* spoilers).
THE HORN OF PLENTY
What is a BoI game without a mountainload of power-ups? In that regard, the Rebirth take has jammed in around 100 new items and trinkets for you to play around with such as new pills, additional runes, and improved heart containers. These items range from the incredibly overpowered, to the ‘why did you even put this in?’ junk. Most of these extra stuff have been designed to synergise with the current equipment of old.
DANTE AND VERGIL
Besides the new gear and toys, the core also had some added changes to make Rebirth better than the original. Top on that list is the introduction of the new co-op mode - where a second player can control another character and jump in on the fun. This feature is only available on a local machine however, so there is no online co-op of any form. Another upgrade is the availability of Hard Mode - a mode that causes items like keys and bombs to drop less frequently while increasing the spawn rate of champion enemies. Making a return from Wrath of the Lamb are the Challenge Levels, now with more variety as the conditions for each challenge run can range from fixed items to you not being able to shoot tears at all.
AN EXPANDED WORLD
Items and enemies aren’t the only new aspects added onto Rebirth as the game is now able to support new rooms as well. There are now more variations for the room layouts as well brand new extra-large rooms that are easily four times the size of a standard room. New concepts are also included in Rebirth, such as the Dice room that has a random effect depending on the dice face. Most importantly, two new floors are added to the game, giving it more play time that automatically boost the replayability to even newer heights!
THE LORD AND SAVIOUR OF ALL, RNGESUS
With all the new additions to Rebirth, the core game is still pretty much the same. Like most rogue-likes, the success of your run depends heavily on the power-ups the Random Number Generator (RNG) decides to give you. What this means is that the difficulty of the run can range from stupidly easy to controller smashingly hard. Fair warning, be prepared to be highly frustrated after an extended play session as it is completely possible for the game to consistently screw you over.
FOR THE MASOCHIST
Rebirth is pretty much everything you want in a sequel. It has more items, comes packed out with extra enemies, has added-on levels, and, well, more of everything. The primary aspects are still as challenging as ever and, in some cases, are even more so due to the new enemies that now offer themselves to be real pains in the rear. For those of you who hate the notion that your game can be affected by luck, this game might not be for you. However, for gamers that are masochistic beyond reason, this game is a must have.