The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

Has anyone given this one a go? It's a game I've always had my eyes on, but was waiting for its handheld debut. The only thing I'm not sure about is the random nature of the gameplay.

I've got like most of us on here with a PS4 due to plus but yet to touch it.

Is it not on VITA.

Yeah it is on Vita, the cross-buy seemed to be a bit confused (I have it but the GF doesn't). It's a decent game but I've never fallen in love with it. I suppose there is enough to aim for but I think it is a bit weak in comparison to other Roguelikes. (It doesn't help that I have been playing Rogue Legacy, which is brilliant)

Once I've cleared Shovel Knight (assuming I'm good enough ) I might have to give it a go. Having said that, the random nature of Spelunky put me off it, sort of. Didn't like the art style of that game, either.

I feel very much the same way about Spelunky. I just did not get what the game was about. Glad it was free on + or I would've been quite disappointed there.

I played the Vita demo several times and was all like "Ehhhhhhhhhhhh."

Aye this is an odd one as I can see a great game underneath it all but I don't quite get why folk go crazy for it, maybe it's just because I'm rubbish at it. *shrugs*

Played this to death on PC. It's my favourite roguelike game by far.

Still tempted by this! Got a more than disturbing backlog to deal with already though...

It's a lot of fun! I'm a few items away from 100%, and I reckon I'll be at around 100 hours of playtime by the time I get 100%. There's a huge piece of DLC for this imminent too - it's a timesink Stu, but a worthwhile one!

100 hours? Crumbs! You must be super pro at it by now, Jay.

Well, more or less! I'd put 100 hours into the original too, so I beat the game on most of my runs, barring horrendous item luck.

Just looked the price up, wasn't expecting it to be £11.99...

I say it's very much worth that price for the amount of game there. A full run through the game takes about an hour to and hour and a half, and it'll take you a long time to reach that point. It's definitely not for everyone - most roguelites aren't, to be honest.

Unless the Mystery Dungeon games count, the only real roguelike game I've played is Spelunky...

Spelunky's harder than Isaac, I think. If you got on well with Spelunky, then I reckon you'll enjoy Isaac.

The slightly crappy look of everything and the spongy controls put me off Spelunky, but I can kind of see why people dig it.

After your further plugging of it in the podcast, Jay, I've just bought this. It's just downloading.

I hope you're happy.

Yes!

Let me know how you're getting on, and if you've any questions about it then fire away too!

Thanks! I'm struggling a bit getting my head round all the powerups at this stage. I had these little white ball things with the effect of ??? before finding cards that had noted effects. I kept the balls because I thought they might do something super mega amazing.

Also, I've seen a few rooms where keys or chests seem to be out of access even to bombs. Are these victims of the randomly-generated nature? (also gold chests, which I presume require keys which I didn't happen to have to hand at the time? Soz for all the questions )

I'm liking what I've played so far. It gives me that Metroid feeling of growing power.

Oh... the pills? Yeah, you can use those to get a random stat effect - some good, some bad.

Ideally, you'll want to use your keys on the golden rooms - the item rooms - because, yep, keys and bomb drops are also randomised.

Stupid rare currency.

I hoping the donations box drives prices down/encourages better items? Or is it a way for the game to troll me?

It doesn't drive prices down sadly, but the shop will sell more items per visit, and you'll unlock some new ones too. Well worth your time to do so.

Excellent! Just about to fire the game up again for ten. The save feature is very handy.

Yep! It wasn't in the original game, but it lends itself very well to handheld play - means you can do a floor on a commute or something like that instead of having to sit down for a full run.