Someone made an entire game by themselves just to poke fun at another game. Now that's commitment to the joke. It helps that it's a decent game in its own right, and free too!

I first installed the Binding of Isaac: Rebirth back in 2014. Since then I've been playing it on and off again for years. Slowly chipping away at the content until finally, in 2018, I unlocked all of the achievements... all 403 of them (at the time of writing this review).

I feel that now I have enough perspective of the game of write a proper review, because after all, this is a game that can't really be judged after after playing for 10 hours, or even 100 hours. It's really something you have to take your time with.

So I won't waste any more of your time. You just want to know one thing. Is this game good? Yeah. It's damn good. It's additing is what it is. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a better rouge-like dungeon crawler. This game is about an inch wide, but a mile deep; there is so much to do it will boggle your mind, even if on the surface you are just doing repeating dungeons over and over. But believe me, on each restart, the game expands, little by little.

This game is difficult to learn and easy to master. Get ready to spend half your playtime on the wiki, researching literally hundreds of items, each with their own potential synergies and value. And the other half dying. But after a while, everything will just click, and you will be able to play this game in your sleep, or in my case, mindlessly playing it while watching podcasts on my second screen. In fact I personally endorse this game as the #1 youtube-watching game to play.

The gameplay is what makes this game work, it's just so smooth. The top-down twin-stick shooting is unbelieveable responsive. After you start to learn enemy attack patterns, you can dodge bullets with ease like freakin Neo, whilst dishing out your own attacks. A big chunck of this game isn't even combat, but rather constant desicion making. You'll have to carefully manage your resources to open secret rooms and locked doors. And believe me, making those choices don't get any easier after 600 hours.

Don't even get me started on the narrative. This game is on the Five Nights at Freddies side of story, where nothing is outright said, and everything is hidden in the subtext. But what a story it is. You could write a thesis on how ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up this game really is, and I love it. I mean, who ever thought going inside your mothers womb and killing an unborn fetus would be so much fun?

On the technical side, this game is up there with Valve with how much they must have play tested this game. The attention to detail is insane. The fact that I can charge up a beam attack on one floor, go through to the next level, and have that attack still be charged is crazy. Everything feels so smooth and intuitive. If you ever die in the game, you will rarely feel like its the games fault.

I guess I should mention the soundtrack too. It's amazing, and has really catchy songs. But honestly, I muted this game a long time ago. It's really not a game you need to have sound on, which is why it's so perfect for youtube watching. So go ahead and play this game while you're watching videos online, Netflix or listening to music.

But I suppose I should stop rambling, nobody really reads long reviews anyway right? I suppose that writing this is a little cathartic for me, almost like writing a eulogy. Because, like I said I've been playing this game since 2014. And in these 4 years this game has been my rock; the game I can always fall back on or play whenever I've got nothing else to do. And now that I've done everything there is to do, and I have no more reason to play it, it almost feels like an old friend has died. And when a developer can make a player feel like they are going through grief just because they beat their game, they have to be doing something right.

In conclusion/TL;DR, This game is fantastic. I really can't think of many bad things to say about it. It may be difficult to learn at first, but once you get over the initial hump, this game offers you an unparalleled dungeon crawling experience. With great gameplay, story and mechanics, you can't go wrong. If you like rouge-likes, I strongly recommend you buy this game.