Semiotics of Turds and Child Abuse: The Binding of Isaac (nsf56k! probably nsfw!) - by Vernon
Vernon on 25/11/2011 at 08:34
This game is horrible and totally deserves a big derpy effortpost. WARNING: MINOR IMAGE-BASED SPOILERS AHEAD
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http://i677.photobucket.com/albums/vv137/theeggonlegs/The_binding_of_isaac_screenshot_1_8.jpgIsaac was a man-children who was very happy until his mum realised he should probably do something with his life other than scratching his vagina and making System Shock mods in his bedroom. In the fine tradition of (
http://i677.photobucket.com/albums/vv137/theeggonlegs/220px-Fritzl.jpg) horrible (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armin_Meiwes) deranged (
http://i677.photobucket.com/albums/vv137/theeggonlegs/kirkjohnson.png) weirdos (
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1583009,00.html) worldwide, he refused to listen, and instead went to live in the basement where he could continue uninterrupted!
In the game, you take pity on Isaac and control him as he navigates his basement, removing turds from his path and assaulting fly-belching baddies with nothing but his tears, some bombs and the occasional excellent power-up:
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http://i677.photobucket.com/albums/vv137/theeggonlegs/Shoop_Da_Whoop.pngIt is a zeldalike roguelike what. There's only a permadeath game mode available (so henke (
http://thesims.com/) here you go :D ), and you fight your way through the somewhat randomly-generated basement (dungeon) one room at a time. At the end of each level of the basement is a HORRIFIC BOSS that you must defeat before you can drop down another level.
The control scheme is basically a robotron style, with directional controls for both bullets and movement. The soundtrack is pretty nice too. What's really great about the game is the richness of the game mechanics, like the option to exchange health for cash, or to make a
deal with the devil. Throughout the game you are offered these kinds of compromises where you can exchange something of value for something even better (or not)! Imho this takes roguelikes in a totally new direction, away from level up, pick up wands and swords until you're burdened then randomly dump all the useless shit, TILESETS ARE HERESY VIM KEYS ONLY sperglord syndrome. It's a nice game. Another plus is that you needn't play for extended periods of time - it's isn't exactly a coffee-break roguelike, but you can just play it whenever. The ham-fisted amongst you will probably die once every five minutes anyway.
Everychild:
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http://i677.photobucket.com/albums/vv137/theeggonlegs/25-11-2011205-43-0720PM.png Little-known enemy of fires worldwide: gigant teardrops.
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http://i677.photobucket.com/albums/vv137/theeggonlegs/2011-11-252018-56-2520SNAG-0051.pngGot a PhD; doin' a wee-wee.
Inline Image:
http://i677.photobucket.com/albums/vv137/theeggonlegs/25-11-2011205-38-3520PM.pngChild in noose! Call Jack Thompson!
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http://i677.photobucket.com/albums/vv137/theeggonlegs/2011-11-252018-58-0420SNAG-0052.pngBomberman-style mini-game? Check.
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http://i677.photobucket.com/albums/vv137/theeggonlegs/2011-11-252018-59-5620SNAG-0053.pngMemes: UNFUNNY
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http://i677.photobucket.com/albums/vv137/theeggonlegs/2011-11-252019-02-2420SNAG-0055.pngPoop and satanism. TSK. HOW LOWBROW. JEEVES, FETCH ME MY COLLECTED WORKS
Inline Image:
http://i677.photobucket.com/albums/vv137/theeggonlegs/2011-11-252019-05-4120SNAG-0057.pngJEGUS CHRIST
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http://i677.photobucket.com/albums/vv137/theeggonlegs/2011-11-252019-01-0220SNAG-0054.pngPedigree chum: it's what's for
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http://i677.photobucket.com/albums/vv137/theeggonlegs/2011-11-252019-04-2920SNAG-0056.pngIf you like things based in the realm of the abject, The Binding of Isaac is your game! That being said, if you don't like this game you are
literally braindead anyway. Or have a "teutonic" sense of humour. heh.
As a number of people here at TTLG have already said, this game keeps on dishing out new content - every time I have played, I've found new things. Whether it is a new way to dispatch enemies or some really creepy aborted foetus/sanitary pad/diuretic.
tl'dr: awesome game is on Steam for HALF PRICE at the moment (that's two fitty here in australia). So do yourself a favour and purchase this terrifying piece of crapAngel Dust on 25/11/2011 at 09:53
My current GOTY. I've currently put 70 hours into it and I've managed to unlock every item. Just need to pick up a 'Guardian Angel' and I'll have the 'Golden God' achievement. :cool:
I really love the way all your powerups stack visually, leaving you to look positively horrific at the end of a successful run.
Thirith on 25/11/2011 at 10:06
How's the game once you subtract the humour? Does it hold up well as a game?
Pemptus on 25/11/2011 at 10:21
Humour's an integral part. If you find it offensive or too gross for comfort, or overly unfunny for that matter, you probably won't enjoy the game as much. The mechanics are solid for the most part, though.
edit: 45 deaths, 20 Mom kills so far, 3 Satan kills I think. Still not bored.
Shadowcat on 25/11/2011 at 11:06
Holy crap, Pemptus; that ratio seems ridiculously low! (I have 78 deaths and 2 mom kills to my name.)
The unlocking system gives this game entirely unexpected staying power. Each game is a short self-contained adventure, but also has a strong chance of affecting your subsequent games by introducing new items/weapons/power-ups/enemies/bosses/characters/levels/etc. So even though you have to "start over" for each game, the new game is going to be different to the previous ones, and as you unlock new features there's a real sense of continual progression through something much larger than those single component adventures. In a way, it's a distillation of the progress you would make through a traditional RPG: in those games you gradually become more powerful, find more items, and fight more dangerous opponents. The same thing applies here; except that you're dying a lot more along the way :) The system is really well done, and a bit impressive.
The biggest stumbling block was my first few games. I hated (and still firmly dislike) the game's use of perspective, I was crap at combat (god-damned flies), the game served me up some pretty useless items, and I died quickly neither having achieved anything much, nor gained any real idea of what I was doing. It seemed like an awkward and lacklustre arcade game, and not much else. It was only the accolades I kept hearing that made me persist with it (rarely more than one game at a time, but I kept firing it up each day), and as time went on it all started to make sense.
So yeah... give it a try, and make sure you give it some time. Oh, and don't be shy about using all those mystery items. One of the core elements of the game is gradually learning what everything is for, and the sense of discovery/wonder/horror/disgust that comes with the new things that keep cropping up.
Vernon on 25/11/2011 at 11:31
Does anyone know how to unlock those weapon rooms? I can't quite figure out the logic to them. Sometimes they will unlock after I have come back to them after beating a few more rooms.
Quote Posted by Angel Dust
My current GOTY.
Same. I haven't had a great deal of time to get too far, but I'm always itching to play it when I load up Steam. heh every time I log on to steam I see you playing :D
Muzman on 25/11/2011 at 11:37
The design is always the reason to check out MacMillan's stuff. I mean, just the name Super Meat Boy.
His games cleverly borrow from older game types to do stuff you've kinda seen before in one form or another, but the dark and strange insanity layered on top adds plenty.
Totalbiscuits first impressions was basically him going "I found a... what? Ewww" over and over. And those cutscenes where they throw in snippits of fairly common childhood trauma. Comedy gold
Al_B on 25/11/2011 at 11:41
Quote Posted by Vernon
Does anyone know how to unlock those weapon rooms?
The challenge rooms with several waves? You need to have full health (or sufficient blue hearts to make up the difference from your current health).
It's a great game and as Shadowcat says one of the draws is that each game feels different to the last. My biggest complaint is that it's written in flash and crawls on my netbook - which would be able to handle it with no problem if it were written to take advantage of even minimal graphics acceleration.
Pemptus on 25/11/2011 at 15:28
Quote Posted by Shadowcat
Holy crap, Pemptus; that ratio seems ridiculously low! (I have 78 deaths and 2 mom kills to my name.)
Yeah, it certainly feels like I've died a lot more. :D
I've gotten pretty good though, and unless I get really crappy items I'm able to win most of the time. And a fairly common
Book of Revelations + Battery combo is an almost guaranteed win if you don't rush. I know most of the items and cards by heart by now, so that helps.
One thing I'm not a fan of is the arcade machines. It's quite beneficial to play them if you have extra coins, and it can take way to much time you could be spending on drowning fetuses in your bloody tears or other fun things.
Thirith on 26/11/2011 at 10:21
Well, at this price I was happy to get it. Even if I end up not liking it, I definitely don't mind doing my small bit to support this sort of creativity. (Easy to feel smug for only EUR2.50! :p)
