Recent reviews by Blind ShyGuy

A true hidden gem if there ever was. A fun, fast-paced, 16-bit platformer shooter with focus on tight control and bullet-hell dodging. Precision dodging and aiming is the key gameplay here with a special "bullet-time" special that can be used in a tight situations, as well as air dashing ability, and a good selection of guns at your disposal. Really well done game, played it a bunch when it was realesed on the Xbox Live Indie selection.

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is a remastering of the original 2011 Binding of Isaac in short. The game play hearkens back to old school top-down 16-bit games. The most notable and recognizable being the Legend of Zelda titles for inspiration. In essence, the Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is a rouge-like RPG where you play as Isaac (or one of the other unlockable characters) and you must traverse the basement of your house to escape the wrath of your mother, who hears from the voice of God and is told that you must be sacrificed. This premise sets the tone of the game being very creepy and unsettling as you defend against all manners of your lost brothers, sisters, creatures, and other grotesque monstrosities. Eventually leading to a showdown with your own mother as well (and even beyond that if you get good at the game and carry on).

What makes the Binding the Isaac such a great title comes from it's solid game play elements. The game play itself is very easy to understand at first, but becomes very deep with the inclusion of the upgrades via the rogue-like elements (easy to understand + difficult to master + luck of the draw + perma-death = Isaac in a nutshell). In order to get far into a run, you will need upgrades, and a lot of them. Isaac by default will only be able to fire his tears at the enemies in only the four cardinal directions, but many different upgrades can alter his tears or give them new effects. This is what can make or break a run in Binding of Isaac. Be warned, not all the upgrades are positive, which adds to the rogue-like elements, as some are ultimately poor or are only used in certain situations and can ruin a run, resulting in failure (high risk and high reward situations are the nature of the game). It is the element of luck the drives you to start up another run, see what upgrades and item combinations you will encounter each time. In this remastering of Binding of Isaac, there is the heavy emphasis on item/upgrade synergy. Coming across interesting item combinations and seeing how they interact with one another can create those overpowered moments (Brimstone plus Tammy's Head for example creates a short Brimstone shots in all directions when Tammy's Head is used) that make you feel like a god within the game, or create a silly combination where you have to work twice as hard just to clear a room.

So what if you already have played the original Binding of Isaac, what should you expect this time around in the remastering? In short, a lot more when compared with the original. More items and upgrades have introduced into the item pool, new bosses and enemies to encounter (for better or worse), a whole new art style very reminiscent of Gameboy Advance titles (pixel art style with a pixel smoother option in the options menu for those who prefer not to look at rigid pixels), seeded run options, 2-player local co-op play, controller support with analog stick integration, new soundtrack, three save slots, new lighting effects, and well just more to be honest. The sheer amount that was added to the game is staggering when compared to the original. Even at the $15 USD price, it still feels well worth the investment. You can get several hours in just from doing a few runs and seeing how far you will get and what crazy item combinations you will come across, or what new items/characters you will unlock for later runs. It is a challenging game no doubt, but I will admit that having one of those moments where you just barely defeat final boss of your run with only one health bar left, is nothing short of gratifying. If you have any slight interest in the rogue-like genre, this is genuinely a great title to try and own.

Worth it?: Yes
If on sale?: No question, yes
Available on: Steam (PC/Mac/Linux), PS4, PSVita

It's that game that gives you hats........and it's free......



Why are you still reading this?...

*What is Gone Home? - a bread-crumb trail simulator!

*Is Gone Home scary? - No....the only thing scary is the atmosphere (empty house, middle of the night, no lights on, & heavy storm outside), suspicious notes, and your own imagination of the unknown...

*How long of a game is Gone Home? - short, my personal playthrough clocked in at a little over 2 hours.

*What does Gone Home try to accomplish? - tell a story to the player...that's about it!

*Do you recommend Gone Home? - Yes....when it's on sale...

Gone Home would be best descrided as a vitural installation piece (much like Thirty Flights of Loving or Dear Esther) that tells a story via a trail of notes and pages littered throughout the house you walk through (the bread-crumb trail). As you follow the trail, searching for notes, pages, photos, etc. you'll discover where and what happened to your family. From time to time, narration from your sister will play as key notes are found thourghout the house. The house is full of 90's memorabilia, intended for nostalgia, which I can't deny being a nice touch (since the story takes place in 1995). The focus of Gone Home is a story through and through. I found the story to be solid in what The Fullbright Company were trying to accomplish (a bit campy at some parts, but solid). The voice acting is solid and believable, invoking suspicion early on, and later going down the romantic route (think more the ending/last episode of Friends; 90's referrance, see what I did there? :P).

Gone Home is not a game for everyone. If you take it for what it is, you will find an enjoyable (if short, with very little replayablity) story to be told here. The story is not placed directly in front of the player's face, but chopped up and scattered in little pieces giving it a unique story-telling method (this being the most-likely cause for Gone Home's critical reviews).

I would recommend trying Gone Home... when it goes on sale. It is a very difficult to recommend this virtual installation at full price, under the basis of the story alone and evaulating the "consumer's playtime versus game cost." I personally enjoyed it, it was short, but I found myself going through it, wanting to know what would come next in the story and continued to the follow the bread-crumb trail. It has an interesting story-telling mechanic, that does what it attempts to accomplish well.


-Try it
-Play it
-Enjoy

An interesting take on the DOTA style gameplay. A 2D sidescrolling, DOTA-like sluggfest with a colotful cast of Awesomenauts straight out of an early 90's Saturday morning cartoon (as if the opening theme wasn't evident of that already :P)

Team fights are frequent and management of characters' skills is all time base with skill cooldowns, streamlining into a more causal DOTA game. Though, I would not expect to just spam one's skills at once and expect a kill each time. Strategy and propering skill timing with your other two team memebers will be deciding factor to winning each game.

Still, a great game for anyone interested in DOTA styled games, but intimated to jump head-first into DOTA or other games like it.

-Download
-Play
-Enjoy!