Binding Of Isaac Is Gonna Take Over My Life (Again)

Binding Of Isaac Is Gonna Take Over My Life (Again)

There’s a new Binding of Isaac coming to PC and PlayStation, and it’s nearly ready for release. Series creator Edmund McMillen just released a video of the bloody, malformed roguelike madness. As a recovering BOI addict I’m worried about my ability to function in everyday society.

The video is indicative of “basically what you will be getting” at The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth‘s release. It doesn’t show off anything too complex or surprising, but it’s all so crisp and fluid. I adored the original Binding of Isaac — its mash-up of tough-as-nails permadeath, roguelike randomness, and Legend of Zelda-style dungeon exploration scratching itches I didn’t even know I had — but it felt floaty, uncomfortable in its own sloughing skin. This still has a certain slidey-ness to it, but impacts and individual movements look more satisfying.

That’s a problem, because I once abandoned a friend I was visiting during Christmas for Isaac‘s ceaseless siren song. I still feel pretty bad about that, if I’m being honest. I’ll just have to play the new one for 120 hours before Christmas. That’s the ticket to a healthy, happy lifestyle with friends who don’t hate me and a cat who’s still alive.

But Binding of Isaac: Rebirth won’t just be filling in cracks in the original game’s foundation. It expands the game outward as well, with both obvious changes and some pretty important tweaks under the hood. McMillen wrote about it on his blog:

“So 1st off the base game + wrath of the lamb boasted 198 items. currently rebirth features well over 450 items, not to mention a lot more common item pick ups like the lil battery, black heart, new card types and a lot of double items like the key ring.”

“Rebirth will also feature over 50 new enemies (not counting bosses) and will also include the addition of colour specific champion variations that each will have their own new way of killing you.”

“Rebirth will feature 15+ new bosses, but a new (and very fun) addition to these bosses are the ‘double trouble’ boss fights, kind of like a curse for the boss rooms that forces you to fight 2 previous chapter bosses at once in a larger sized room.”

Randomization has been overhauled too, bringing the possible number of rooms per chapter (e.g. basement, caves, depths) up from 150 to 500. That is a big number. And a new level editor allowed McMillen and co to populate rooms with a lot more variety.

There’s also local co-op (no online, sadly), which you can read a whole, whole, whole lot about here. Short version: it involves babies.

Given how much McMillen is throwing around the word “final”, it seems reasonable to assume this one will be out soon. It’s oozing and undulating its way onto PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, PC, Mac and Linux. Like what you’re seeing?


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