What is so great about this game?

[Frost]

Title. This is not a thread to bash the game, i am just curious as to why it is one of the most played games on steam. Just seems like another generic rogue-like indie game to me :/

[Curious Duck]

http://youtu.be/bMqFTuMECeA

[BOYCOTT]

it's excruciatingly hard, but when you win you get something out instead of a poorly animated cut-scene of some idiots horrible failure of a script.

why did anyone play mario 3 to death for that matter, it's only a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ classic.

[Rumen West]

The fact that it looks like a generic rogue-like indie game is because the original spawned a lot of generic rogue-like indie games.

[Evil Yamato]

the first one created a huge community and spent a lot of time figuring out the game and every single piece of code. Rebirth has about twice the content, new characters and endings to the game, and isn't made in ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Flash this time, and there's been a lot of hype surrounding some of the new item effects Edmund leaked on his website. also it's another game from Edmund, which always helps seeing as he actually makes good games

[BOYCOTT]

Originally posted by Rumen West:

The fact that it looks like a generic rogue-like indie game is because the original spawned a lot of generic rogue-like indie games.

that's a good point, probably an easy mistake to make, our darker purpose and a lot of other games probably wouldn't have happened without the original popularizing the genre.

[Evil Yamato]

Originally posted by Rumen West:

The fact that it looks like a generic rogue-like indie game is because the original spawned a lot of generic rogue-like indie games.

the thing that spawned rogue-like games was the game Rogue. hence "rogue-like".

[Garlyle Wilds]

Originally posted by Rumen West:

The fact that it looks like a generic rogue-like indie game is because the original spawned a lot of generic rogue-like indie games.

Pretty much this. It and Spelunky are by and large credited with being the games responsible for the 'roguelite' genre (Heavy procedural generation every playthrough with minimal "permanent" progress and instead starting from close-to-scratch each time, but not locked to the turn-based RPG format of core Roguelikes). Well, not solely responsible for its existance - but certainly with bringing it to popularity.

That said though Isaac is still really, really fun. It's really challenging, the random elements (especially what items you find) can make each game drastically different, it has a very genuinely unique atmosphere and style compared to basically everything else out there, and it's fun as hell even when you're losing.

Isaac is basically the standard against which the rest of the genre's being measured today, and Rebirth is one part remake and one part expansion pack, so yeah.

[chibilibi]

This game looks like a generic rogue-like indie because the first game was what spawned 98% of all rogue-like indies.

Anyway, reasons why Isaac is really good:

-Hard
-Literally billions of possible level layouts
-Hundreds of items, most of which are not just stat upgrades and actually change the way you play
-Interesting story and storytelling
-Good music
-The hundreds of items mentioned previously all "synergize" together, meaning that each one will change how another works. For example, if you get a Quad Shot item and a Laser item, you shoot 4 lasers. Might seem obvious, but it is really cool how almost nothing will override anything else.
-Many different characters to play
-Lots of secrets
-If you want, you can play REALLY strategically. Some systems can be exploited if you know how to work them (e.g. using the item Dead Cat to farm Boss Items)
-Tons of enemies
-A lot of different bosses
-Can do seeded runs (basically, you put in a number, and it will generate a playthrough based off of that number. If you put in the same number, you get the same run. Great for challenge runs)
-Later on in the game, you can "re-roll" items to change them into other items
-Cool visuals

[chibilibi]

Originally posted by cerret:

Originally posted by Rumen West:

The fact that it looks like a generic rogue-like indie game is because the original spawned a lot of generic rogue-like indie games.

the thing that spawned rogue-like games was the game Rogue. hence "rogue-like".

I think we all know that, but what he means is that the first game caused a lot of indie developers to start making their own rogue-likes because Isaac was really successful.

It's like how CoD's success started turning every game into a generic military shooter.

[BOYCOTT]

pretty much every reply mentions it so far so just to certain:

difficulty

is probably the main reason roguelikes and roguelites are the current trend, can't say how sick of first person shooters where you die "oh, well the last checkpoint was one room ago" or "oh, my health just comes back if i cower like a little girl".

[Pedrusccc]

Aside from what people said it has poop blood and rainbows, dude.

[ChIll Brother]

1) It's style is absolutely unique and it's story and themes are so intriguing that they leave a lot of space for speculation and theorycrafting if you are into that kind of stuff.

2)The gameplay is neat. Well polished, varied and balanced. It's one of those hard games until you get the hang of it at which point it becomes a good challenge.

3)It's incredibly deep in content and mechanics, leaving a lot of space to experiment with different items, different characters, different runs etc... the game really takes a loong time to become repetitive because there really is so much stuff.

Overall I find the game to be a true masterpiece. It obviously doesn't catter to everyone and you are not guaranteed to like it, but it surely has enough good things that if you appreciate good games, you will definitely appreciate this one.

[Momo The Goblin]

fak this troll fak his mother and his dog and his mothyer agian fak u xd

[Naijiro]

Originally posted by Rumen West:

The fact that it looks like a generic rogue-like indie game is because the original spawned a lot of generic rogue-like indie games.

I kinda sorta agree with you, rogue likes and rogue type games have been around since the Sega Genisis days. (See: Fatal Labaryth)

But I do believe BoS was what made them popular again, that and Dark Souls making it big.

[deadering]

A lot of misinformation in this thread.... Roguelike's have been around for a long time before Binding of Isaac and have been popular in the indie community for much longer before Binding of Isaac as well. Binding of Isaac is not even Roguelike, it would be more aptly described as rogue-lite, since it's a top down shooter that shares only some of the attributes of a roguelike. That and the genre has been around for about 10 years prior to the Sega Genisis, considering Rogue came out in 1980.

Semantics aside though Binding of Isaac is popular for a number of reasons. It offers great replayability, tons of content that takes many playthroughs to see, relatively hard gameplay compared to typical games, but most important I think is the art style and general bizzare theme and morbid atmosphere the game has while keeping a comical approach. So I'd say it's popular because of how unique it is, gameplay aside.

Keep in mind this new version adds much more content to bring some new life to the game. If you've never played it this would definitely be a good chance to. Personally I got it for free with PS+ and I've been enjoying it again. Though if you've never played it before it surely won't be as impressive with what else is on the market today compared to the original release though it will still be quite unique.