Beating the Backlog: Binding of Isaac

Time to beat: 16.9 hours.

Old-school isometric Legend of Zelda style combat that carves away the puzzling and pitfalls of those games in favor of showcasing the frantic run-and-gun combat, constant upgrading, and juggling of tight resources.

The item pool is massive, and the selection of passive and active augmentations pushes the player into new playstyles even double-digit hours into the game. The staged progression allows the player to obviously feel their improving skill and knowledge as the hours pass.

The randomized instantiations of the rooms, items, and bosses make some runs feel almost unwinnable. And, on the other hand, I, for one, absolutely fumbled the bag on other runs, squandering powerful set-ups with no ability to go back and correct my mistake. The omission of descriptions of what the litany of items do before you pick them up, or even what they do after you pick them up in some cases, is something that is very hard to believe passed muster in the development process. Be sure to have a wiki on hand as you play or prepare for headaches as you learn through unnecessary trial and error.

But though it's less fair in many ways, it's overall a much less frustrating– and more fun– experience than the developer's previous game, while retaining the 'just one more try' quality when you inevitably hit the game over screen.