The first thing that I have to say about this game is that even though I mainly played this on PS4, it was in fact first a flash game and made by Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl in 2011 that quickly built up a devout following and became a classic indie hit along with Super Meat Boy and Fez. The Rebirth remake of this game, which was released in November 2014, was made with a much bigger team and included a lot of new content including new playable characters, items and enemies. It also changed the art style from the "drawn" style of flash to a more suitable 16-bit style of graphics, but I'll get in to that later.
Before I can explain the art style I do need to explain the story in order to give the art some context. The story of this game is indeed very crazy and deals with very adult topics ranging from abortion to infanticide. The story; however, is broken up as the game's levels are broken up because of the randomly generated nature of the in-game dungeons and the story is in fact more told by the game play and the art than the explicit story sections of the game. The game that is told you is that you play as Isaac, an infantile child who is all but ignored by his religious mother until she receives a message from "God" telling her to kill Isaac, much like the tale of Isaac and Abraham from the Bible. Isaac overhears his mother's plotting and escapes into the house's decrepit basement, establishing the setting of the game. The rest of the story and background information are revealed to the player through transitional loading screens and through the various enemies and bosses throughout the game. This is in fact a very creative way to tell game play and rather diversifies the story from most triple A games that have come out in recent memory. The minimal amount of story also compliments the rogue-like aspects of the game, as you will be playing this game in different "runs" or lives that will last varying lengths before you inevitably die and have to restart the game from the start in true rogue-like fashion. As much as the story goes your goal is to reach the bottom of the basement and defeat your mother to unlock 1 of 13 possible endings, but there are levels and story given after this point that will vary from run to run.
The game play of this game falls into the mechanics used in the rogue-like genre. You start the game with the goal of going down through dungeons into the seemingly final boss dungeon. You start off the game as a literal naked baby with a low amount of life and a weak attack of shooting tears at enemies. The game's dungeons are randomly generated with random rooms containing upgrades and abilities and sinister enemies and bosses that will fight you. To beat a dungeon you need to defeat that floor's boss using whatever abilities and upgrades you have found. This will then unlock the next floor down with no way of getting back up. On certain floors there are also rooms containing gambling games or shops and special Deals with the Devil, where you lower your life bar for upgrades. As you progress, Isaac becomes more powerful with either more health or an upgraded attack or even a familiar that fights with you in battle. Throughout the game you will also be given bombs, which can be used to either blow open a wall Legend of Zelda style or destroy rocks blocking your path. There are also keys, which can be used to unlock doors or chests that contain special items. There are also coins, which are used to gamble or spend on items such as hearts or bombs. The game does have very in-depth item and ability systems that make it both unique and enjoyable. The boss battles and the inadvertent stories that they tell are also quite remarkable in how fun and diverse they can be. The final result, in which you either die or defeat the final boss, is amazing in how different your Isaac is in his appearance. And even after defeating the final boss there is an infinite amount of dungeons after that not only leading to incredible amounts of replayability but the ability to be immersed in the challenging and creative worlds.
The final segment of this here Breakdown will be covering visuals and sound. The actual fidelity of Rebirth on both PC and PS4 are actually staggeringly good, with the 16-bit graphics style lending to a stable 60fps. The art style is very beautiful in the way that all of the enemies and levels thematically merge into an immersive world and a beautiful game. The music in this game also just adds to the immersion with eerie and fitting tracks to go along with the general creepy theme of the game. The sound effects also hit bulls eye and fit very well with the various enemies and blood or tear based weapons.
After having played this game as much as possible and not even scratching the surface of the game's depths I can testify to how amazing this game is and just how much love and care went into it. The game's massive replay value and amazing art style warrant a high rank on anyone's list of good games. I can recommend The Binding Of Isaac: Rebirth with confidence.
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