The Binding of Isaac

[Olhelm]

This thread encompasses both the original and Rebirth.

What combinations have you found? Any memorable runs?

Also, Afterbirth is coming out. That's a thing. Oh yeah, and the bonus expansion for vanilla that's coming out, too.

 

[Dr. Meme]

i do not much care for isaacs mom

 

[Mauvman Shuffleboard]

I play it sometimes. It's okay.

Spoiler: #TYCED

The greatest combinations of all time will forever be Mutant Spider + Strange Attractor + Soy Milk and Ipecac + Cricket's Body + Parasite + Fire Mind. The first one sucks enemies into you so fast you just kill yourself (if you use it on The Adversary while he does his brimstone attack the beam whips around the room like a swing wing and is entirely unavoidable). The other sets the whole room on fire and makes you kill yourself. I did both of these on the chest just to see what would happen.

 

[Francis York Morgan]

Rebirth is my most played game on the PS4. I have a ton of hours on the original on Steam.

I think it is kind of the perfect "mindless distraction" game for me. Whenever I want to play something but I'm not quite sure what to do, I do a couple of Rebirth runs.

 

[dabluearmedbandit]

I have been playing the shit out of Rebirth. The harlequin baby is pretty awesome, it can shoot diagonally so you can fight most things without even risking getting hit as long as you're patient. I also love Moms perfume, it saves your ass against those charging worm things.

 

[Count groudon]

Dude this is like one of my favorite games ever! I used to play the first one all the time way back when, and I just started playing around in rebirth. Gotta say, playing around with all the new items is cool and I love all the new characters (my new favorite is Eden, even though I have shitty luck with what he starts out with).

I've only gotten a few of the endings and Rebirth seems a lot darker and less campy to me, which I guess is kinda appropriate since it's a game about a mentally unstable kid trying to survive his killer mother in a giant labyrinth under his house (or he's supposed to be in purgatory or something I dunno), and even though I like it being darker i still miss the silliness that the first one had.

 

[dabluearmedbandit]

I've only gotten a few of the endings and Rebirth seems a lot darker and less campy to me, which I guess is kinda appropriate since it's a game about a mentally unstable kid trying to survive his killer mother in a giant labyrinth under his house (or he's supposed to be in purgatory or something I dunno), and even though I like it being darker i still miss the silliness that the first one had.

McMillen himself said this article is the most accurate theory he's seen. Spoilers for the story, I guess?
http://www.twinfinite.net/2012/10/01/big-sloppy-slomper-chompers/

 

[AA 102]

I'm necroing this thread because the last expansion finally came out. I personally have a love hate relationship with this game. On one hand I love hoe it rewards skill that you build up over time and I love the synergies that are in place. On the other hand I hate how it's become so reliant on RNG that skill won't guarantee a run. As for Afterbirth + so far I think, so far, the expansion is alright. It doesn't introduce as much to the game as Afterbirth did to Rebirth but it's still much appreciated added content to me.

Spoiler: Spoilers

The "new chapter" is bullshit in my opinion. The level design is lazy because it just adds rooms from each previous level to the floor. The Delirium is a fun boss though with a nice concept (as far as I can tell it takes on the traits of every bodd you've beaten so far in the game, which makes Boss Rush less or more of an incentive depending how powerful your run is.

 

[P.A]

Probably gonna wait until the Antibirth content gets ported over. The response to this released seems pretty mixed, especially with things like spawners that are apparently super tanky and annoying to deal with and at least one boss that was so lazily designed that the Antibirth devs prioritize fixing its visuals to integrating their content.

 

[Sable]

I accidentall'd a bunch of my data and stopped playing for ages.

I've almost reached where I was before, except not really.

My favourite character is Lillith, because you can do a lot of nonsense with recharge items and her box.

 

[P.A]

So much for Antibirth coming to AB+ - turns out the modding tools straight up don't allow for what they would need to do, meaning that unless the modding tools will see some serious expansion, they're SOL.

 

[Ravelord]

So this seems like release Eternal Mode. Jesus fucking Christ Ed, why didn't you learn from that shitstorm?

For those who didn't play the original BoI, it was a free DLC added to WotL which made the game practically unfair, nerfed a lot of items and made Eternal enemies and bosses Either a bullet sponge or bullet hell. In exchanged the cap for max health was massively augmented (I think something like 12-16 hearts if memory serves right). The problem was that some enemies regenerated more health that you could hit them for if you had X character or Y combination of items. To solve this, they had to add a hidden stat (which I call "Eternal damage"). That stat didn't appear on release. Cue the fucking mixed reviews and complainings.

So from what I gather, it seems AB+ is more of the same. Shame, I think I'll play another game for a while (also I was already frustated with Keeper achievements, specially Boss Rush and Hush).

 

[POWER IN MISERY]

they just didnt care with afterbirth plus

going through the game again with antibirth i realize that when you get everything but items that increase you actual ability to kill shit you slog through half the game only to get killed by a stray projectile

 

[Marisa Kirisame]

The April Fools challenge is stupid and I hate The Bloat. Finding the Piggy Bank in the first treasure room made it a lot more bearable for me.

 

[Olhelm]

Oh wow, this thread's still alive.

Well, I dig Antibirth, but I haven't been able to put much time into Afterbirth+. I prefer the former over the latter, so far.

 

[minmin]

My game wasn't saving and it seems that the Colour HUD mod I was using via Steam Workshop seemed to have fudged up the saves somehow. I lost my progress too

I've been feeling very underwhelmed with Afterbirth+ and just thinking of uninstalling the DLC and giving Antibirth a shot.

I do want to give a shot at modding the graphics a bit. Realism overhaul design would be sweet to work on. And wonderfully grotesque.

 

[Action Orange]

Was legitimately surprised that this thread is only one page lol. Anybody been playing repentance? I started playing again recently as I learned they finally finished it. Tainted Lazarus got a rework and isnt as miserable to play, and every character has a birthright effect now.

Also I love how Ed has refused to back down and make the game easier after jacking up the difficulty significantly with Repentance. I saw a bunch of scrubs saying he was "gatekeeping" lmao

 

[Stormer_1]

Was legitimately surprised that this thread is only one page lol. Anybody been playing repentance? I started playing again recently as I learned they finally finished it. Tainted Lazarus got a rework and isnt as miserable to play, and every character has a birthright effect now.

Also I love how Ed has refused to back down and make the game easier after jacking up the difficulty significantly with Repentance. I saw a bunch of scrubs saying he was "gatekeeping" lmao

Been playing it a lot recently.Very fun game though I wish they had a way to R key on console editions.

 

[Action Orange]

Been playing it a lot recently.Very fun game though I wish they had a way to R key on console editions.

Yeah it's weird that they never added the ability to do that, though my most fun runs have been the ones where I didnt r key and just took crappy items and made them work. Plenty of shitty items make for top tier synergies with a little luck lol

 

[Gender: Xenomorph]

I used to like it, but every consecutive expansion after The Wraith of the Lamb just ruined it more and more. The latest expansion I was looking forward to, but it's just a broken, incomplete mess. I'm sorry, I'm not paying for it to be done X years in the future.

Ironically, Isaac's vast variety of content is what makes it a mess; too many shit items or conditional items clutter the pool and are generally duller and less inspired than the vanilla items, and make most runs dull and uninteresting. Bosses like Delirium or the Witness (Mother) are not fun to play against. Their attacks/mechanics are fun, but it all relies on you having a good run, and less on having good skills. Items/Dice Rooms that ruin the run are just tedious to deal with and not fun at all.

I feel Our Darker Purpose could have been a far more interesting and memorable experience. The core game is just so fun, and all the items feel like they have a purpose and have more impact on the game.

Touhou Endless Dream is another roguelike that just surpasses Isaac 10fold. A good roguelike doesn't need to have 1000s of items and 100 bosses; it needs to nail the core gameplay. TED has many characters that actually play different, and don't offer a simple stat based upgrade or start with a generic item.

Of course you can't go wrong with Enter the Gungeon. EtG kinda showed me what a Rougelike can be and what Isaac should have been. Compared to it, TBOI just seems lazy and uninspired.

Also AAA get a lot of flak for milking the customers for money, but how many Console Rerelease and shitty expansions has Isaac had?