The Binding of Isaac is an independent video game designed by Edmund McMillen and Florian
Himsl. It was released on Steam on September 28, 2011. Players control a crying naked child
named Isaac or one of six other unlockable characters. After his mother receives a message
from God demanding the life of her son as proof of her faith, Isaac flees into the monster-filled
basement of their home. On November 1, 2011, it was added to the Humble
Indie Bundle as part of the Humble Voxatron Debut. The game and downloadable content was
later featured in the Humble Indie Bundle 7. Additionally, the game and downloadable
content was made available on the Humble Roguelike Weekly Bundle in January 2014. Console versions,
featuring additional features that the developer could not implement in the original Flash
version, are currently being developed by McMillen.
The game's title and plot are composed of references to the Biblical story known as
the Binding of Isaac. According to McMillen, the game touches on dark, adult themes including
child abuse, gender identity, infanticide, neglect, suicide, abortion, and how religion
might negatively affect a child; all concepts which video games generally avoid.
Gameplay
The Binding of Isaac is a top-down 2D roguelike game in which the player controls Isaac or
one of six other unlockable characters as they explore the dungeons located in Isaac's
room's basement. The game's mechanics and presentation is similar to the dungeons of
The Legend of Zelda, while incorporating random, procedurally-generated levels. On each floor
of the basement dungeon, the player must fight monsters in a room before continuing onto
the next room. Along the way, the player can collect money to buy equipment from shopkeepers,
keys to unlock special treasure rooms, and new weapons and power-ups to strengthen their
chances against the enemies. Each floor of the dungeon includes a boss which the player
must defeat before continuing to the next level. On the sixth floor of eight, the player
fights Isaac's mother, and Isaac crawls into her womb after defeating her. Further levels
are significantly harder, culminating in a fight against Isaac's mother's heart on the
eighth floor. An optional ninth floor contains the boss Satan.
Plot The Binding of Isaac '​s plot is inspired
by the biblical story of the same name. Isaac, a child, and his mother live in a small house
on a hill, both happily keeping to themselves, with Isaac drawing pictures and playing with
his toys, and his mother watching Christian broadcasts on television. Isaac's mother then
hears "a voice from above", stating her son is corrupted with sin, and needs to be saved.
It asks her to remove all that was evil from Isaac, in an attempt to save him. His mother
obliges, taking away his toys, pictures, game console and even his clothes and some scenes
point to circumcision. The voice once again speaks to Isaac's mother,
stating that Isaac must be cut off from all that is evil in the world. Once again, his
mother obliges, and locks Isaac inside his room. Once more, the voice speaks to Isaac's
mother. It states she has done well, but it still questions her devotion, and requests
she sacrifice her son. She obliges, grabbing a butcher's knife from the kitchen and walking
to Isaac's room. Isaac, watching through a sizable crack in his door, starts to panic.
He finds a trapdoor hidden under his rug and jumps in, just before his mother opens his
bedroom door. Isaac then puts the paper he was drawing onto his wall, which becomes the
title screen. During the game's loading points, Isaac is
shown curled up in a ball, crying. His thoughts are visible, ranging among rejection from
his mother and humiliation from his peers to a scenario involving his own death. The
game features at least 13 endings. The Binding of Isaac: Wrath of the Lamb
An expansion to the game, entitled Wrath of the Lamb, was released through Steam on May
28, 2012. The expansion adds 70% more content to the original, and contains more than 10
bosses, over 100 items, over 40 unlocks, two additional endings, and two additional optional
levels. This expansion added new "alternate" floors, which can replace the normal Basement,
Caves, Depths and Womb to Cellar, Catacombs, Necropolis, and the Utero. These floors contain
harder enemes, and a different set of bosses. Other features include a new item type, Trinkets,
which have a variety of passive or triggered effects when carried, as well as new room
types and the addition of a "Super Secret Room" to each randomly generated floor.
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
Cancelled Nintendo 3DS port The developers had tweeted that the game would
receive a port to the Nintendo 3DS via the Nintendo eShop and were waiting for approval
from Nintendo. Nintendo later rejected the game because of "questionable religious content".
This decision brought the game's developer Edmund McMillen to praise the Steam platform
and the freedom it gave to the publishers regardless of the game content, and several
gaming websites were outraged at Nintendo's decision.
Reception The Binding of Isaac received generally favorable
reviews from game critics. On the review aggregator GameRankings, the game has an average score
of 84.89%, based on 19 reviews. On Metacritic, the game has an average of 84 out of 100 based
on 30 reviews. In Germany the game has received an age 16+
rating because of potentially blasphemous content.
As of April 2013 the game has sold over two million copies.
References
External links The Binding of Isaac on Steam
The Binding of Isaac demo on Newgrounds