The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

The game itself is excellent; certainly, one of the greatest rouge-likes created. The base game is great, and the DLC (for the most part) improves upon it. However, I cannot recommend purchasing this title on GOG due to how little support it has received compared to other platforms (specifically Steam). Unlike Steam, the GOG version has no achievements, little to no mod compatibility, and has not received any updates since being dumped on this platform. While Steam players have had access to the 1.7.8 update for months now, GOG players are stuck playing an inferior, antiquated build of the game. I and many others have reached out to both GOG and the developers of this game asking when (or even if) this game will be updated/supported, but have yet to receive any response. This is extremely disappointing, especially for a game this recently released and popular. Being ghosted like this reflects poorly on both GOG and Nicalis; I myself am already in the process of obtaining a refund. Save your time and money and purchase the game on a different platform; while being DRM-free is fantastic, it is not worth the lack of support/updates.

The game is amazing, dont get me wrong. But this version is the problem, do yourself a favor, and buy it somewhere else. The game is not updated and does not have daily challenges (wich are mandatory to get certain items)

Since I played the flash version of The Binding of Isaac, it quickly became one of my favorite games of all times due to its amount of content, the unpredictable runs, its difficulty and the huge effort you have to put to unlock all the content. With The Binding of Isaac Afterbirth everything was improved including the look of the game, its stability and performance, the content, unlockables, bossed, mechanics, etc. making it the best version and a must play for every gamer who wants a challenge. Unfortunately, unlike the steam version there too much to improve in this GOG version, my biggest complaint is related to achievements, which are not available in this version, also the mod support is something that many steam players who might want to get a DRM-free of this game version will miss. I will consider to modify this review if in following updates this gets fixed.

This nasty indie game is the cornerstone of modern roguelike indie revival. It's a classic game, and as such, comes with both big pros and cons: Lots of content translates into great replayability. You can play this game forever, the emergent gameplay that can deliver is gargantuan. Unlocking everything is far beyond the skills and available time of the average videogame player. The game is very accesible. There's only 2 difficulty modes, but the game unlocks its content gradually. This helps with the initial difficulty curve, making it accesible without sacrificing depth. However, this also means that, for some time, the more you play, the more frustrated you will get. The game is intentionally obscure about its own mechanics. This encourages observation and testing new combinations and strategies. Players who don't like this will waste lots of time checking the game wikis. The theme is original, but unpleasant. Enemies are themed around body fluids, inception, diseases, abuse, and the unpleasant part of Christian religion. This has a point in the "story" and eventually everything fits and it's pretty clever. I learned to detach myself from the theme, but the nastiness can creep on you on the long run. Lots of RNG. You can mitigate it by clever playing, but never fully overcome it. Many items are useless and some are quite an "insta-win", so when your skill level peaks, the game becomes very replayable, at the cost of becoming a slot machine: a run consists on enduring frustration, squeezing the usefulness of shitty items, until you grab a couple of good items and you know you have already won. The advanced difficulty settings are based on feeding frustration to the player. You need to be that specific gamer that likes to endure frustration to really have fun with this game. It's not just "old school mechanics", it goes beyond that. Practically every roguelike inspired by this game have fixed these points and distanced themselves from this formula.