... when everything else comes so close

There's this game I've been playing a lot lately.

It's called The Binding Of Isaac.

According to Steam, I've played it for 9.5 hours, and in that time, I've beaten it zero times. This is not one of those endless survival type games where you just try and beat wave after wave of enemies until you eventually die. This is those type of beatable games that i have yet to beat.

There are 6 levels (for now) and by all accounts, this is not an unbeatable game. It's just really really hard. But as a game it's very solid, considering that it is an indie release (much less funds compared to a publisher backed studio). The music is incredible in that it really sets the mood and atmosphere of the game. Graphics are clean and fit well with the art direction. The gameplay is unique in this day and age because it combines random dungeon generation with rpg elements. You play as Isaac who enters the basement and goes into different rooms, mostly filled with monsters, but occasionally other assorted goodies like items and shops. To complete one level, you need to beat the boss and go (fall) into the next level. Now this sounds pretty formulaic until you add the fact that when you die at any level, you go back to the first level and lose all your items. (ALL your FRIGGIN items). But while that sounds like a gamebreaker, the fact that every new game is randomly generated makes it a whole new game every single time.

This is the most frustrating game i have ever played and yet i can't stop playing it. A little anecdote to put you in the right frame of mind. After 3 (not continuous) hours of playing, i finally reached the last boss for the very first time. At that time I thought i was pretty prepared for it, I had about 6 hearts and 2 or 3 soul hearts, totaling to about 9 hearts. (keep in mind, most enemies only hit for half a heart even though few do hit for one full heart). I can easily take on 18 hits from the last boss. I also had quite a few items that made me more faster and something called Halo of Flies which were these 2 flies that circled my head and could take hits for me. All in all, I'm pretty decked out to kick his ass. But because this was the first time i faced the last boss, i didn't really have any idea what to avoid so everything is completely new to me. I ended taking 3/4 of his health before dying. I thought to myself, ok pretty reasonable, no i know what to expect.

The next game i played, i found an item which could instantly kill the boss, provided it was at full charge. It was the middle levels and i had to sacrifice some other items in order to get it because i could only hold on to one item with "charges". I finally scrapped my way to the level 6. At which point, i had about 5 hearts left. I also had a map in this run through so i figured the best way was to go straight to the boss and take him out. I struggled the whole way there. And when i reached the second last room, just besides the boss, i had only 1.5 hearts left. I knew i had to be careful. I went in and ran straight to the corner. Unfortunately, I got cornered by them and they took me out in 2 hits. I was so pissed. I had the item that could insta kill the boss and i was only 1 room away. FUCK.

That is the kind of frustration you face in this game.

As a game it is incredibly fun and addictive, there's lots of replay value and it's only 5 USD which is more bargain for your buck.

But I'm not sure if I can recommend this game.

I left out the story of this game. It involves Isaac and his mom who is a christian, so for those easily offended please skip the following paragraph. Also the video.

Hopefully, you would have watched the video so what I'm saying will makes sense. Apparently "The Binding Of Isaac" is an actually tale from the bible, which i didn't know before this. Obviously people are going to be offended by this, not even the religious, just well meaning reasonable people would be offended by this. I wouldn't even show this to my own mother. So you can imagine roughly what entails the contents of this game. The items, are in fact items of religious value like the bible (which was the one hit insta kill item) rosary, Whore of Babylon, etc, along with items related to Isaac and his mom like a dead cat named Guppy and Mom's underwear and lipstick. No, I am not kidding. Mom's Underwear is an ingame item. All your projectiles are body fluids, mostly tears, but also sometimes chocolate milk and pee. The game has poop  and flies around and the final boss (at first) is Mom herself. You can see how people could get offended by this.

This is not a game I could recommend to many people. You have to be genuinely open-minded about the subject matter and understand that while this wasn't meant as a joke, it's also not meant as a statement of any kind.

Which is sad because as a game, it is really incredible because many of the elements are from past retro games and this can actually act as a history lesson in terms of gameplay mechanics go. Everything else is really so close to perfect.

To see this kind of everything-about-it-being-great-except-the-subject-matter, watch this next clip by The Lonely Island. Music-wise, it's pretty awesome.

The Creep (Feat. Nicki Minaj)