Remake

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

2014 · PlayStation 4 · Linux · Nintendo 3DS · PC (Microsoft Windows) · iOS · Mac · Shooter · Puzzle · Role-playing (RPG)

90IGDB player score
559 ratings

Previously Take

A 90 average across 559 ratings. Firmly in the "everyone should try it once" tier. Horror that commits — fantasy atmosphere, real dread, and scares that aren't cheap. The story is the main course; the multiplayer is the reason it's still installed years later.

About this game

A top-down roguelike action-adventure game and remake of the 2011 original, rebuilt from its Flash engine to enable expanded content and features. Players control Isaac through procedurally generated dungeon floors, using tears as projectiles to defeat monsters while collecting items that modify abilities and appearance in potentially powerful combinations. Runs end in permadeath, and each playthrough offers different layouts, items, and bosses. The game has received four expansions adding characters, floors, items, co-op multiplayer, modding support, and online play. Inspired by the biblical story of the same name and its designer's religious upbringing.

Isaac is a young child living with his deeply religious mother in a small house on a hill. One day, his mother hears what she believes to be the voice of God, telling her that Isaac has been corrupted by sin and must be saved. She strips him of his possessions, locks him in his room, and eventually receives a command to sacrifice her son as proof of her devotion. Facing death at his mother's hands, Isaac discovers a trap door in his bedroom floor and escapes into the basement below. There, he must fight his way through dark and twisted dungeons filled with monsters, with only his tears as a weapon, hoping to survive whatever lies deeper beneath.