QCF: The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

t’s strange just how infrequent this particular passing trend has fluctuated within the last two decades of modern pop-culture—the fad I’m talking about here is the vulgar, off-color, wildly gross and trashy gore-porn art style that’s swept the new age of cartoons and animation. Whether it was John K’s Ren and Stimpy or MTV’s The Head, the 90’s pioneered an interest into all things crass and disgusting, and even though the direction has been hit or miss as the years have gone by, one particular video game visionary has taken this niche and ran with it.

Off the heels of Super Meat Boy, revered indie darling Edmund McMillen unleased his liberal adaption of one of the most infamous passing’s from ancient biblical scripture, and much to the same vein, it was grueling spin on the rogue-like formula. While it possessed a degree of his trademark charm and style, The Binding of Isaac was ultimately, a rough mess that was held back from too many issues that kept it from going the same kind of distance that its platforming counterpart did.

Three years later though, and it would appear that Headup Games has given its controversial property a second wind, and whether or not this may potentially be your second field trip to the unholy depths of Isaac’s basement—The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth does everything a rerelease should do. In fact, it’s easily the most definitive means of experiencing the strange madness it has to that this top-down dungeon crawler has to offer.

Let’s start this off by address what may just about the be the single biggest improvement boasted in this revision; the control—and let me tell you, it’s been significantly upgraded. To elaborate, Binding of Isaac utilizes a twin-stick scheme to its movement and combat, and when the original initially dropped, the available options for control layouts and subsequent options left a lot to be desired, to say the least.

Aside from the lack of customization for different keyboard inputs beyond the choice of reversing the key arrangement into a southpaw orientation or AZERTY accommodation, the game didn’t even feature native controller support—lazily opting for players to contend with the highly user-unfriendly trash that is Joy2Key. Needless to say, this short coming drastically hampered the title from the very get go, and was especially disconcerting when you consider that the manner of gameplay found in Binding of Isaac is principally engineered around the facilities of a traditional gamepad—well rest assured, Rebirth makes great strides to ensuring a much more intuitive approach. Aside from the native controller support across the PS4 and Steam versions, the Steam version now allows for full-range remapping, as well as controller remapping as well.

These particular change alone, one of many, and a wonderful testament to the tone of this updated revamp; I mean not to get corny, but the title of this game is about true-to-life as it gets. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, is an actual rebirth so to speak, with an entirely new engine that accomplishes a feat that its predecessor never truly could—reliable functionality and operation that’s consistent.

Not to tread familiar ground again, but I can’t help but belabor the point because it’s what really set’s Rebirth apart, the care and labor put into its development is leaps and bounds above that of its precursor. For starters, in place of the modified flash-game structure is a full-fledged game engine, one that boasts a slew of augmentations and features that not only refines the experience, but radically enhances it as well.

While the humble build of trashy action-RPG is what helps make it so amiable, the visual upgrade to its graphical design manages to heighten to heighten the aesthetic in all of the areas and details without compromising the scrubby sensibilities that the presentation prides itself on.

While the notorious difficulty of the reluctant martyr’s descent to survive is largely intact, the assembly of the game’s fundamental dynamics is coordinated in a manner that allows for a whole depth of calculated play that was never there before. Everything from the appearance of certain item drops and shops to the sequence of specific enemy encounters are much more balanced in relation to their respective modes of difficulty and character abilities involved, and adds a much needed touch of semblance that was ultimately lacking from before.

To top it off, the addition of cooperative muiltplayer introduces a new layer of chaos that surprisingly compliments the frenetic pace and action pumped out from the randomization system. While the aspects of friendly competition and quid pro quo is hardly new ground for cooperative play, the nuances of Rebirth’s cruelty and challenge adds a new sense of appreciation for the dependence that’s exchanged between you and your partner that’s been largely absent from a number of recent team-based affairs.

Any item or perk that’s obtain is shared, and the extra pair of tear ducts from your buddy introduces a fresh set of tactics that’s geared around making the most out of the extra firepower. While it would’ve been nice to have the option of being able to develop individual load-outs instead of simply mirroring the same arsenal amongst yourselves, the retooling, and smoother direction strives to ensure that it pushes the players into working as a cohesive unity around every corner and doorway they enter. Sure, the excitement of friendly grieving and ribbing is mostly gone, but the thrill of working together at consecutively succeeding over every death match housed within the haphazard catacombs almost trumps the gratification of the deliberately isolated yet intimate single player mode. 

Admittedly, The Binding of Isaac was never a game that pretended to be something it wasn’t.  The original was a free-spirited venture from an individual that only came to exist out of the drive to casually experiment with the limits of his own creative freedom—it wasn’t really taken all that seriously, and by extension, not meant to be taken that way either, but in essence, that meant a game with a lot of missed potential.

Rebirth is an emphatic reaction to that, and by all accounts, capitalizes on everything that The Binding of Isaac could’ve been—whether you’ve taken the fight to mom before, or this is your first visit to this twisted ride into hell, this iteration will delight either camp, and an excellent return to form for the arguably cult-indie hit.