Review: The Binding of Isaac Afterbirth + - The feeling of trying hard has never been so good

Developer: Nicalis, Edmund McMillen

Publisher: Nicalis

Release date: 3/1/2017

Platform:
PC, Xbox One, PS4

In recent years, when it comes to Edmund McMillen's games, I have an almost haunting feeling about them. Because they are often strangely simple ideas, but possessing complexity as well as sadness with an extremely horror direction in the way of expression. The same can be said of The Binding of Isaac Afterbirth + , which is portrayed almost like an autobiography of McMillen's childhood.

Although one thing is for sure, as a child McMillen was not forced to kill strange creatures (including his biological mother) in a disgusting basement. The story of the game mainly revolves around the innocence and naivety of children and what goes on in that crazy mind is described in a ridiculously literal way through the illustrations and the characters are built. based on the Bible.

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And although it originally only acted as a remake of The Binding of Isaac game series with the name The Binding of Isaac Rebirth . Gradually the game became more and more popular to the point of having a DLC expansion called The Binding of Isaac Afterbirth + . This is considered the final and most complete DLC that closes the story of the shy boy Isaac.

The Binding of Isaac Afterbirth + was born to serve tireless try hard gamers who have more patience. Every additional content and item in this game is added to increase the difficulty while providing something new to appeal to old players. So it can be said that the Afterbirth + DLC may not be suitable for newcomers who simply want to experience the game for the first time.

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That's not to say gamers shouldn't start playing Afterbirth+ the first time. Holding the variety of items as well as difficulty in gameplay along with many novel mechanics, Afterbirth + is guaranteed to make gamers spend a lot of time researching online before they can break the game. play. Should choose or should not choose Devil deal? Which items go well together and the plethora of choices that need to be made correctly can be frustrating for some gamers.

More specifically, Afterbirth+ brings players over 55 new items along with dungeons, bosses, and 2-player co-op mechanics. The most important thing for fans when returning to this game is probably the fact that Afterbirth + serves as the final chapter in the story of young Isaac. Will the shy boy be able to break free from the shackles that have been holding him back for so long?

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It can be said with the above details, Afterbirth + has really become a sequel game for Rebirth . The game is extremely difficult as well as requires a high amount of knowledge, making gamers who want to experience must be wary. Even those who have completely cleared the island of 100% Rebirth like me, still have to struggle a lot to pass Sheol or The Chest. Not to mention the boss rush that I can confidently rate as the most inhibiting stage in the history of the Roguelike game I've played so far.

Just like the Rebirth version, in Afterbirth + death is not the end. In fact, you will have to accept death many times in the early stages of the game. I was only able to crawl up to the second floor on the first playthrough simply because I was overwhelmed by the number of enemies appearing on the screen. Actually, I think I will at least reach The Womb level at the first time because I am so familiar with the game mechanics in Rebirth . The level of difficulty of the game is in stark contrast to the ability to increase the strength of the character, making the Afterbirth + experience for new players can be said to be completely impossible.

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Perhaps because of that, Edmund McMillen has been very active on his Twitter to listen to players' opinions, adjust the ratio of strength and difficulty of each level. Afterbirth + can now be said to have become a lot easier to breathe than before. But not because of that, the game has lost its try hard nature, the levels are still difficult, it's just that now the character will have more space to breathe instead of having to play dry with small monsters.

Again and again, I haven't noticed much change in the boss fighting mechanics, as the new bosses in Afterbirth + are simply variations of the existing bosses from Rebirth . Old bosses are increased or decreased in size up to double the number of bosses facing each floor. In addition, the game also expands the elite mechanism for the small monsters to make them more bloodthirsty and aggressive, which will definitely make your brain tense like a string every time you face them.

Afterbirth 's most notable addition is a new challenger character named Apollyon . In general, this character is not difficult and challenging compared to the lost  or the keeper . Possessing a fairly low HP, but in return the attack stats as well as the high attack speed make this character quite easy to destroy 100%. Additionally, Apollyon has one of the new items called The void that allows the player to reroll the items they receive into random stats for the character. This somewhat increases the level of randomness as well as RPG for the game. In my personal opinion, ApollonStrong or not depends entirely on the luck of the gamer. After all, the game already has enough of the characters that cause extreme inhibitions like the lost and the keeper .

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Also mentioning the keeper can not help but mention the new level for Greed mode. This mode used to be extremely difficult, now like a tiger growing wings in Afterbirth + with annoying waves of elite monsters. It is extremely difficult to play at the level of Greedier to complete the collection of 999 coins. Not to mention the daily quests that require you to clear the game under certain restrictions, making The binding of Isaac never as hard as it is now.

With all that I said above, it can be clearly seen that Afterbirth + is more suitable for old fans of the series, not new players. Considered as the final version of The Binding of Isaac , there will be many features and storylines that are not as expected by everyone. However, Afterbirth + has released one of the most requested features by fans since the game's launch, the Mod tools feature .

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With Mod tools you have the ability to literally edit any file associated with the game, from character animations to items. In case you don't feel satisfied enough by the main items in the game, you can now freely edit them to suit your preferences.

As a fully supported game on the Steam platform, Afterbirth + has Steam Workshop support . Here players can download and use other people's mods. Therefore, the possibility of new content and character designs will always be updated. One of the highly appreciated mods can be said to be Antibirth , which may also be officially launched and fully supported in the future. This is also a very desirable signal, of course, in case you have 100% Afterbirth cleared .

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Conclude

Even if the Afterbirth + DLC causes inhibitions and countless funny situations for gamers, this is still a game worth playing. Fans will be delighted to follow Isaac as he explores the final chapter of his story. As for myself as a gamer who specializes in trying hard Roguelike game genres, it will take a lot of time for me to be able to break 100% of the game. The proof is that after nearly 3 years since this DLC was released so far, I can only destroy 80% of the entire game, when just breaking the island 100% with the lost and the keeper at Afterbirth + seems to be 1 mission impossible.

Hopefully, through the review, you will have enough knowledge and try hard to be able to try the game The binding of Isaac Afterbirth + . It can be said that after playing this game, I suddenly became more in love with life than ever, in love with life so as not to have to fight the controller against that black and white screen!

Samuel Daniel

Update 05 January 2022