Isaac is the superior roguelite, nothing can top it.

[Newgel]

There is no game of this genre that beats Isaac, I am not afraid to say this, I've been playing this for years and found no game that could beat it in its own ground.
Every run feels truly unique and every one of the 700+ items has tons of synergies with almost every other item and then some. Add 34 unique playable characters that have different playstyles, large number of enemies and bosses further enhanced by champion variants, secrets, stages and their alternatives, and you got a recipe for success. I feel like mentioning a large and creative modding community is overkill at this point.

When talking roguelites you can't not mention Hades, I played all of Supergiant's Games and loved them all. My only gripe with Hades is the combat, which is very boring in my opinion. Before you call me a noob I beat it with a lot of pact of punishment options active and I still think that for a roguelite, it's not that good. When I first started it, I expected some combos, air juggling, etc., like X X Y X does a combo, Y B X X does another, but all you do is spam dash + whichever button has the attack you picked the most boons for, non stop. The attacks are practically the same thing forever. And it totally lacks room and enemy variety. After a few hours I literally stopped seeing new enemies/rooms in this game. What saves Hades is the artstyle/voice acting.
In Isaac you literally hold a key to attack, but unlike Hades this action has so many possible outcomes it's stupid. Hades as a visual novel with action sequences: GOTY. Hades as a roguelite: mediocre.
This is not a post made to bash Hades, the fact that it's the only roguelite even remotely comparable with Isaac says a lot about it. The other games aren't even close to being as fun. All of this is just my opinion though. But unfortunately for every Hades there's 10 Undermines and 10 Moonlighters.

The options of what you can do in a run when you are in a bad situation are also what helps Isaac shine. Low on coins and there are a lot of red hearts in the ground? Spam that blood donation machine. No damage? Try you luck in the curse room, If the gambling beggar pays out with a fly item you can get that Beelzebub transformation!!! You have 2 soul hearts only, Try an angel room!! The list goes on and on.
Hours could be spent mentioning the good points of Isaac and these same hours could be spent searching for a roguelite that gives you the same amount of fun and LONGEVITY, with no avail. This is a once in a decade gem, I'm so thankful for coming upon the Rebirth trailer.

[NW/RL]

Noita

[Lusontrix]

Originally posted by NW/RL:

Noita

Well said.

[Newgel]

Originally posted by NW/RL:

Noita

I played it and found it too easy, maybe it's just my taste though. But really good regardless

[Yugo]

Honestly I agree. Its a perfect balance. Other rogue likes (Like Neon Abyss) get boring after a while, but BoI has such a replayability value

[MERT]

EtG

[Newgel]

Originally posted by Black Swordsman:

EtG

EtG for me is up there with Hades, if Isaac wasn't a thing, it would be top tier.
The thing with Isaac is that it has very specific synergies with pretty much everything. Example: You got an item that makes you shoot bombs instead of tears, great! Now you got an item that gives your bombs a poison effect, that means you can shoot poison bombs! Now you got an item that makes you immune to explosions, you can't be damaged by your bombs anymore!
This isn't even the craziest stuff you can see in this game. Imagine thousands of synergies like this. Topping that is quite the achievement.

[restore]

I would say its about your taste, what are you looking for. Isaac is more strategic while for instance things like hades or dead cells got much better combat. I also like this planing and strategy so it is number one for me, but its quite difference.

[Danizk0]

Originally posted by NW/RL:

Noita

For me, Noita was ruined by ♥♥♥♥ decisions that the devs made. Instead of increasing the amount of content in the already awesome game, in each update they were focusing on adding some obscure-ass secrets that not a single person in the world would be able to find without datamining. And even if you know how to reach those secrets, actually getting to them in the game can require hours of mining/walking/flying around the map. Hell, yesterday I found out about the Leviathan "boss", which has 2 attacks and is a damage sponge that you have to shoot at for 10 whole minutes. Who thought of this?

Edit: granted, they were adding new stuff to the game in each update alongside the secrets, but imagine how much content we could've gotten if they focused on reasonable additions rather than the things I talked about.

[Violeta]

Only because the years of content. Most rouglites give up before making enough content. But some could have come close

Our darker purpose
Atomicrops
etg

[Pup]

Gungeon and the DS PMD games would like a word with you...

[TheMasterArchitect]

everyone here is bias lol

[Amble]

Wholeheartedly agree. Isaac has had some ups and downs in its lifespan but I've always viewed it as the game that defined the modern roguelite/roguelike genre, and for good reason.

It's not only my favorite roguelike but easily within my top 10 or at least top 15 favorite games of all time.

[CJones]

Originally posted by NW/RL:

Noita

I tried Noita and really wanted to like it. But I didn't. You either become Godly powerful really quick, or you get crushed. There isn't much middle ground.

It's Isaac and EtG for me. Undermine is also pretty good. And if you want to go old school, I was a big fan of Nethack and ADoM back in the day.

[Katuchi]

Enter the gungeon is a better game, far more balanced and skill based than isaac, doesn't have so many ♥♥♥♥♥♥ runs that feels unbeatable and things made to troll you but isaac wins by the vast amount of content it has and how fun it can be when you actually get the fun items and/or a broken run.
Hades is crazy good too we all know that but it clearly lacks content too

[Toxi]

Idk how a game like Binding of Isaac is superior to roguelike action games, because to me, combat in Isaac is good, but I can think of several games I would rather play instead for the combat.
I will give BoI this though, Repentance has vastly improved this from where it used to be, after seeing the tainted characters.

with Dead Cells, even now I enjoy a run in that from start to finish even if I get my ass handed to me, it starts out at an exciting place and gradually ramps up the difficulty
with BoI, my problem is how frustrating the starting point of the game is for most vanilla characters and the more that I play it, the more noticeable that becomes.