The Binding of Isaac: Wrath of the Lamb

The Short


Pros
- Adds a hefty amount of content, including...
- Dozens of new items
- Alternative floors for all five distinct levels
- New songs for all new floors
- Handful of new enemies
- One new character
- New passive carry items that self-activate
- Large increase in "risk vs reward" scenarios, which is exactly what The Binding of Isaac is all about
- New items are powerful and actually make the game a bit easier, which can help ease the brutal unforgivingness of the original game
- Challenges are also great for those who really hate themselves
- Only $3

Cons
- Buggy
- No actual extended floors; game length is still exactly the same
- Some items are so good they straight up break the game
- Makes the old items seem weak in comparison
- Game balance seems a bit broken
- While it adds a lot, it only seems a slight upgrade over the free Halloween Update

It's back!

The Long

I'm going to assume you've already read my The Binding of Isaac review or are at least familiar with the game before digging into this review. If you haven't, here's the short: Zelda-eque rogue-like with punishing difficulty, permadeath every game, and loads of crazy items and enemies. Got it?

Ok, so several months after the awesome Halloween Update (a free patch that added two more floors, new bosses, new enemies, and new items) we now have the first paid DLC: The Wrath of the Lamb, costing you a "hefty" $3. So, if you are either a new or existing Binding of Isaac fan, is it worth digging into?

The answer is "Absolutely," but be aware of a few things before jumping in.

Returning to hell. 

So what all is new? Well, let me just list it off!

First, we have a bunch of new passive as well as use items. Most of these are much more powerful than anything in the original game, giving multiple stats boosts amongst other things. The "Dead Bird" powerup, in particular, gives you the power to fly over anything, as well as shoot through anything, which means you can just camp over a rock or a hole and take everything out with relative ease. I got this at the start of one playthrough, and the rest of the game was cake. 

In addition to new passive and use items there's a new "sub-item" that you can get, that sits opposite of the Tarot Cards and Pills. These often provide bonuses upon getting hit or when you are low on life, however, so they rarely seem to activate. Which is too bad, because having to pick between passives that gave constant benefits would have been much more awesome. Oh well, always DLC. 

Perhaps the biggest change, however, are the alternate floors. For every stage (Basement, Caves, Depths, Womb, Sheol) there is a random chance you'll get the alternate floor instead (Cellar, Catacombs, Necropolis, Utero, Cathedral). These have their own specific groups of enemies and style, as well as new music. Generally I've found the Cellar to be harder than the Basement, while the rest seem to be relatively on-par with their counterparts (Willow, one of the new Cellar bosses, is especially annoying if she's the first boss you face). The new enemies don't seem restricted to these new areas, but they do appear much more frequently in the alternates than the originals (and vice versa).

The Blighted Ovum is another obnoxious new boss. 

This essentially means we are rebooting every level (potentially) which is great, but it is a bit unfortunate this didn't add any new stages in terms of progression. Alternates replace originals but don't extend the life of the game like how the Halloween Update did, so the game feels largely the same. If you are already really good at The Binding of Isaac, this doesn't add any new challenge particularly.

There are a handful of minor improvements I'll also go over before addressing the one big "issue" I had with this DLC. There are new hearts that are white that are used after temporary silver "soul hearts." These white hearts are also temporary unless you manage to fill one fully without losing it, as then it becomes a permanent heart container (or if you beat a floor with half of one it also becomes a container). New "sacrifice doors" require half a heart to enter and leave at the hopes for great treasure inside. The "Angel" room sometimes replaces the infamous "Deal with the Devil" room, giving you items instead of trading them for life. Essentially, all these new features work very well in the world of The Binding of Isaac, where calculating risk/reward is essentially the entire game. Is it worth continuing to explore at hopes of items but risk of permanent death? Should I pay a heart for what might be a chest full of spiders, or it could have the Holy Grail in it? All these new upgrades fit perfectly with the style, and enhance the game tremendously. 

The "Daddy Long Legs" boss genuinely creeps me out. 

So what's wrong with it? Well...my first complaint depends entirely on your point of view. With the new, much more powerful items, the game has the potential to become much easier. Now, this might actually be a really good thing, because the punishing difficulty and stress of The Binding of Isaac probably turns a lot of people off. Again, DLC items are still random like any other (though they seem to show up more for some reason) but some are just so incredibly powerful they can drop the difficulty by quite a bit. The game is still hard, I'd like to point out, but those hoping this was going to ramp the challenge to an impossible level will be disappointed.

Another issue is the game is really buggy. It had this problem when it was initially released and they did well cleaning it up, so I'm certain in the months to follow Wrath of the Lamb will be polished. But now there are lots of weird, random problems (my biggest being some items I randomly am not allowed to pick up. Gee, thanks) plague the game. It is far from unplayable, but it's worth noting.

Perhaps the biggest offender is that you could argue it's only a minor upgrade over the free Halloween Update (which added the four horsemen, new levels, tons of new items, and a new character), the difference being Wrath of the Lamb costs $3. Personally, considering you can get both the game and the DLC for only $8 (still under $10) and get at least a hundred hours out of it easily, it's totally worth it. But people will complain about anything, so there you go.

Some of the "new" bosses are also recycled from old ones, which sucks. 

Regardless, I can't not recommend Wrath of the Lamb, either for newcomers or old players alike. Those who've been with Binding of Isaac for a while are probably frothing at the mouth for new content, and Wrath of the Lamb provides that (though perhaps not in ways or as much as they'd really like). For newcomers it is a godsend, as it helps take the edge off the difficulty with the new items, while also adding tons of variety. Yes, I could argue for paragraphs about the balance issues (it is completely possible to "break" the game with right item combinations now) but honestly I think it's a good thing. Having super easy runs sort of makes up for the previous six where I got totally shafted on items, so why not have the ability to completely break the game for clever players? If anything, the added variety is welcome, and I'm enjoying Wrath of the Lamb considerably more than just vanilla Binding of Isaac. 

If you enjoyed The Binding of Isaac or are looking to now jump in, don't balk on this DLC. Again, the combined price for both is still $8, which is a remarkable deal for an awesome game and it's expansion. Bring more DLC, guys! Isaac demands it!

Four out of five stars. 

The new soundtrack is also incredible, as would be expected from Danny Baranowsky.

GRE Induced Hiatus

As you've probably noticed, this blog has fallen silent. I plan on returning to it, but currently I have too much on my plate (the #1 offender being I'm studying for the GRE). I also have multiple trips I'm going on in June, so I will not be able to update this with reviews.

I'm hoping to return to a regular review schedule the second or third week in June, first week in July at the latest. I also will be reemerging with a slew of retro reviews for you all, as I just got a Genesis.

Also, the Really Big Sky drawing has NOT been cancelled. Once I have time to crunch the data and pick a winner I'll be contacting you.

Thank you for your patience!

Week in Review - 5/6/2012 - Win Real Big Sky!

It was a fairly decent week this week, with 12 reviews going up for a new total of 175. It seems like just yesterday I was doing review 100, and now we are almost to 200. How time flies.

I've got another contest this week, but this one's just for one game. I've decided that for the next month I'm going to raffle off one game a week, so if you follow the blog just comment and share and you'll get entries!

The game up this week is Really Big Sky, an indie PC duel-stick shooter slash shmup that I thought was pretty nifty. You'll get a Steam code if you are the winner and that includes a full copy of the game! Pretty rad, huh?

The rules are the same as last time with a few changes. First, leave a comment with one of two things: either a review I wrote you liked, or a request and why you want me to review it. Then, if you share it on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+ than you will get an extra entry for each share. Just give me your handle for Twitter if you do it through there (I'll trust you for the other two).

At the end of the week I'll do a random drawing, and contact you either over twitter, email (if you post it) or GiantBomb's PMing system.

Good luck!

In unrelated news, I wrote a rather long article analyzing the Game of Thrones TV show on my writing blog, so if you like that TV show should you go read it!

And now, the reviews.

Zuma's Revenge - 4 / 5 Stars
Game Dev Story - 4 / 5 Stars
Medal of Honor - 2 / 5 Stars
The Maw - 4 / 5 Stars
Conan - 2 / 5 Stars
Hard Reset - 4 / 5 Stars
Alien Shooter - 1 / 5 Stars
Zombie Shooter - 3 / 5 Stars
Zombie Shooter 2 - 1 / 5 Stars
Alien Shooter 2 - 2 / 5 Stars
Dead Horde - 0 / 5 Stars
Really Big Sky - 3 / 5 Stars

See you next week, and don't forget to comment!

Really Big Sky

The Short


Pros
- Fast paced, psychedelic shmup with dual-stick controls
- "Planet drill" mechanic is fun and unique
- Persistent upgrades, unlocks, and abilities keep you playing
- Dynamic and fast paced action ensures no two games are the same
- Loads of game modes
- Sweet electric/techno music
- Supports the Xbox 360 controller

Cons
- Can get a bit overwhelming with stuff on the screen
- At it's core it doesn't do much different from other shmups
- Once you have unlocked everything, the draw kind of fades

Shooting stuff in space. Er, sky. 

The Long

Something indie games do aside from making dual-stick shooters is making side-scrolling shmups. These "bullet-hell" games (like Jamestown) are another common indie trend, though not as common as zombies or duel-stick shooters (or the abominable hybrid of both). Really Big Sky mixes both dual-stick shooting with side-scrolling shmup action, with an abstract art style and bright visuals that seem to permeate indie games. At first glance, this is just "another indie game," following the current trends and not really going out of its way to impress.

At least, that's what I thought until I started playing it. Now I think it's awesome.

This game has a lot of modes. And yes, my Classic score sucks, shut up. 

Really Big Sky has two core mechanics. You have the usual side-scrolling, dual-stick shooting for points thing. But then you have a "drill" ability. Throughout the world you'll ram into planets, where you have to quickly switch to drill and burrow through. Later stray asteroids and other rocks will come towards you amongst the enemies, requiring you to quickly switch modes on the fly. While drilling you can't shoot, and shooting does nothing against drill-able rocks, so you have to be quick.

It also has a few other tricks up its sleeve. As you start purchasing from the massive amounts of upgrades, you gain some unique abilities. Like an orbiting shield that circles around you to block shots. Or the chance to randomly shoot out a mine. Or summon a massive, multi-gun oblivion ball to follow behind for a while like a demented Option before going away. Again, this is pretty standard stuff, but all mixed together it works quite well, especially considering the game gets very exciting, very fast. No slow burn here.

There's a hefty amount of upgrades available. 

You gain points from killing enemies, and gain upgrade chips by picking them up after enemies drop them on death. Upgrades are all over the place, though Magnetcoil is the one you should buy first (makes you suck up chips from a wider range, getting you more money faster). Since each run can net you a decent amount of cash, and it lets you spend your points between replays, it can be hard to stop. Upgrades come fast but not too fast, with the costs dramatically increasing the more powerful they get. It's a strong system, though I could see that once you've maxed everything the draw would disappear.

Bosses are also fun, and several actually use the drilling mechanic well. To be honest, most reminded me a lot of Ikaruga's, with a similar spinning one and traditional bullet-hell shooter bullet patterns. Still, if it isn't broke don't fix it, and the fact that they essentially spawn randomly on classic mode ensures things are never the same every time you play.

It saves all your stats, which is cool, but no Steam Achievements. 

But the real meat comes in other modes. You can't earn points to upgrade your ship in them, but they all provide unique and cool experiences. My favorite, by far, is "Retro" mode. It axes multi-directional dual-stick shooting and instead is just a traditional, forward shooting game. The catch is that it plays kind of like a reverse Space Invaders: Infinity Gene, where you start in the 1990s and work your way back to older and older systems, with the graphics getting worse and more washed out as you go along. It's a visual treat, and the sound effects match the era you are in, which makes it a fun diversion.

Retro mode is awesome, though I have no idea what is going on. 

Graphically, it looks good enough. Heavy emphasis is played on tons of effects, all the time, so it can become very overwhelming until you get used to it. Early on I had issues telling black objects in the background from stuff I actually had to drill through, which was really obnoxious. After each level you go to "WARP SPEED" and then you really can't see what is going on. However, it works, and they make sure the obnoxious purple shielding ones (which deflect all your shots, but not enemy shots, annoying!) are obvious colored over everything else since they are the worse.

Soundtrack is solid, too, and you can unlock more songs and change them in the options menu. As a super-bonus, it has integrated Xbox360 controller support, which is by far the best way to play the game. It also maps "take screenshot" to the left bumper, which is a handy bonus for reviews.

KABOOM.

Really Big Sky doesn't break any ground necessarily, but it does so well with all the things it steals I have to recommend it. If you like these kinds of games you are getting a very hefty amount of content here with technically unlimited replayability, especially if you like competing for high scores with friends. The asking price for $10 is reasonably fair, but it tends to pop up in indie bundles if that is more your style (that's how I got it). 

Still, a very solid dual-stick shmup that manages to overcome it's genre setbacks and stand well enough on its own. And that will be enough.

Three out of five stars. 

But yeah...that sky is really big. I'll give it that. 

Dead Horde

The Short

Pros

- Has zombies in it

- You can shoot them for points and money

Cons

- Framerate and animations are horrible

- Graphics look bland and uninspired

- Lighting is poor

- Game isn't fun whatsoever

- Upgrade system is lame

- $10? Are you kidding me?

Don't play this game. 

The Long

Bloody hell indie developers, it's time to get away from two things: Dual-stick shooters and zombies. Ok, three things: add tower defense games to that list. Unless you are clever like the Unstoppable Gorg guys. But seriously...no more zombies, no more dual-stick shooters. It's like all anybody ever makes these days.

If you need an example of one that is redundant but still enjoyable, Zombie Shooter is worth your time. If you want to scrape the very bottom of the barrel in terms of useless garbage, we have Dead Horde here that requires your attention. 

The loading screens are absurdly long. 

Everything about Dead Horde is a misstep, with somethings not just misstepping but straight up falling over. The first thing you'll notice is that it plays in a window, at 1080x720. Which is fine, as I usually prefer these types of games in windows, but your mouse cursor is moving...slowly? Then you get into the game and...is the framerate really chugging? Or are the animations this bad?

In an attempt to decipher this mystery, I dropped it to the lowest resolution and full screened it (which takes less resources) just to see if it was true. My conclusion? Even on my Mac Mini with 8 GB ram (yes, I game on a dual-booted Mac, hush) the animations were bad AND the framerate couldn't stay consistent. Brilliant. 

This is the worst game I've played in a long while. 

The second thing you'll notice is how ugly it is. It's a bland, generic, gray n' brown affair, with the ruins of civilization all set in a constant darkness with nothing interesting to break it up. The zombies look as boring as they come, with all of them in the first level looking exactly the same, but luckily in stage two they get one new variant! Don't overwork yourselves, guys, you might need to save your pallet-swapped enemies for later levels!

So after watching these awful abominations run towards you (yes, they run, not shuffle, so that's good I guess) you get to the real turd at the core of this game: the gameplay. It's a dual-stick shooter (as you probably guessed) where the mouse aims and keyboard moves. But shooting zombies is tedious. You have one unlimited machine gun (as your only weapon until you buy more), and no melee. So you essentially run backwards in circles holding your mouse down as he fires his (really small) clip into them, reloads, and keeps firing. More and more zombies pile on and you just keep backing up in circles, like doing some sort of weird dance. Eventually (after way too long) they all die and you move on. Lather, rinse, repeat, and you have this entire game. Not kidding.

It has an upgrade system. It also sucks. 

You can bump your guns up but the upgrades are expensive and don't do much difference after getting them. Buying new guns is also stupid. Say I bought that Shotgun for 15k. It comes with no ammo. So I buy ammo for $1500. Now I find out it's a two-clip gun. Two. Clip. With like 20 total. So you get two shots while running around backwards until you die. Bonus? It isn't even as good as the assault rifle. It's like this whole upgrade system is a joke.

The controls are also awful, even for something that has been done a trillion times. Because of the dodgy framerate, you can't really control your mouse adequately. In addition, since it uses the WASD keys to move, you can't move diagonally with any precision. And then the game requires you to move diagonally with precision on the first level. Which meant I fell off a stupid platform a lot.

It also doesn't tell you where to go, and loves putting foreground objects right in your view. I'll be fighting a zombie "horde" (read: like nine) and be circling around in my stupid little bullet shooting dance, and suddenly a tree will block my view and I'll be a snack. Awesome. 

That's some quality lighting. 

I could say more, but I feel it would be unnecessary. This game goes for the absolutely-not-worth-it price of $10 on Steam. I wouldn't pay anything for it. In fact, the fact I got it in an indie bundle and now it's permanently tied to my Steam account offends me. I want it off, forever. No, I didn't beat it; I only played it for 35 minutes. You should feel lucky I re-installed it after deleting it to get these awful screenshots, because it doesn't even deserve that.

Dead Horde is the cheapest of the cheap when it comes to indie games, and it can't even do the most basic things right. Don't encourage this kind of behavior. Avoid at all costs.

Zero out of five stars. 

And stay down!

Alien Shooter 2 - Reloaded

The Short


Pros
- Keeps the arcade style while implementing more weapons
- Aliens look a lot better than the first game
- Has a sort of a story, I guess
- Improved graphics and animation

Cons
- The new gun system (taken from Zombie Shooter 2) is fine but boring
- Graphical assets are taken from Zombie Shooter 2 in the most obvious ways
- Involves a lot of standing around, waiting for people to do stuff for you
- Still repetitive, like all these games
- Has the two new stupid stats introduced in Zombie Shooter 2 that shouldn't exist

Yep, still plenty of blood. 

The Long

Alien Shooter 2 is solid. Unlike Zombie Shooter 2, which was a huge mess and a step back, Alien Shooter 2 seemed to learn from the shortcoming and try to fix the new stuff they put in Zombie Shooter 2 while still retaining the same arcade feel. And, for the most part, they pulled it off.

So we'll do this in brief because all these games are exactly the same anyway: is Alien Shooter 2: Reloaded worth getting? Well, for $5, why not?

The graphics have improved both technically and artistically

Just a reminder: these games are still repetitive, relatively mindless shooters. You shoot loads and loads of aliens from the get-go, and it just keeps getting crazier with blood and guts and bitsies everywhere. However, for stress-relief games, they tend to work pretty well. There's something weirdly enjoyable about just blasting through hordes of aliens without a scratch, and Alien Shooter 2 realized this is why people play these games (not to play a stupid survival horror experience) and pulled out all the stops for this release.

This is essentially the same game as Alien Shooter or Zombie Shooter. You level up (and the two useless points from Zombie Shooter 2 are back, but the game gives you a lot more points per level so progression is faster and funner) after shooting a bunch of dudes or completing objectives. You can buy guns from a shop (which is the exact same shop sprite from Zombie Shooter 2. Way to be.) but these one actually can kill stuff and pack a punch, so it's a lot funner. Also, play the game on Easy. Even though it might be a little boring at first, it seems to play best on this difficulty. At least for me.

I still hate all aliens. 

The graphics are a lot better, too. It manages to look more "realistic" while still having that old vibrant, arcade look. And still looking like Fallout, but in the best way this time: this is easily the best looking out of the four "Shooter" games that I own. Blood n' guts has also improved, and the monster designs look less cartoony and stupid (like Alien Shooter) and more menacing. Actually, this game looks a crapton like Diablo II, now that I think about it. The enemy designs, the blood, the graphical style...it really has a Diablo II feel. and I loved Diablo II's art, so maybe that's why I like it so much.

Sound is also decent, though the voice acting for the "story" is stupid. Luckily they didn't make the story the main focus this time around; it's just sort of a thing that happens. So your main point is blasting stuff, secondary objective caring about the story. It also does a better job invoking a feeling of being part of a team that is overrun, which adds a bit of flavor to the experience.

Plus, you get to go outside. Hooray for new locations. 

Out of all the shooter games I played, this one and Zombie Shooter (1) are the two I enjoyed the most. They are also unique in many ways (though both play the same) so you can get both and have a somewhat unique experience despite the similarities. Alien Shooter 2 is a good step towards the future of these types of games, though I find it weird it took them so long to figure it out. I mean, seriously, these types of games have been around forever. I can't believe they'd really be this hard to standardize.

Regardless, there's like a billion more Alien Shooters after this one, but this is the most recent one I own and I like it so...there you go. For $5, why not. 

Two out of five stars. 

At least you can equip more weapons this time around. 

Zombie Shooter 2

The Short

Pros

- Improved animations and graphics over the original...sort of

- Actually tries to have a story with voice acting and plot developments

- Car sections are fun

- Wider arsenal of purchasable guns and upgrades

- More RPG elements

Cons

- Fails in execution of nearly every new thing they implement

- While animations are better, the color pallet is very bland, even with "grayscale" mode turned off

- Gun balance with the new arsenal feels nonexistant; guns can range from overpowered to totally useless

- Two new stats are useless, and weird translation makes me wonder what they actually do 

- Story is also poorly translated and voiced over

- Honestly, just play the first game and ignore this one

Time to shoot more zombies. 

The Long

So after Zombie Shooter was weirdly good, I guess Sigma decided to try and up the stakes with the second game. Touting some rather radical changes to the formula, a new engine, and a new aesthetic, Zombie Shooter 2 on paper looks leagues above the original. Is it?

Nope. It's way worse, actually.

That's some quality writing. 

There's so many missteps it's hard to know where to begin. I guess we can start at the beginning: same title song as Alien Shooter and Zombie Shooter. Which...whatever, I guess that's fine. But then you get to the character select screen, and things get stupid.

They have a ton of characters now, each with a wide range of stats. In addition, you have two new stats: Wisdom and Intelligence (or something like that). One gives you more experience and one..."helps you learn skills faster?" What? What is the difference here? Either this is a bad translation or I don't get it (maybe the other gives you more skill points on level up? But I never got more than one, even though I pumped points in that stat...), but both seem redundant. Spending my level up on points to help me level up faster? Why not just balance your game better? 

Then you get into the game, and stuff gets worse. I will say that at least this game had widescreen support (finally), so it doesn't look stretched out constantly, but that's the worst of this messes graphical missteps.

Does this look bland to you? Or is it just me?

The lighting is better and the animations are improved, but man...the graphics are boring. Look at the original: it was cartoony and bright and vibrant. This one is dull and ugly to look at. Which actually is sort of a cool idea; it defaults to a film grain and black-and-white filter overlaying everything so it looks kind of like the original Dawn of the Dead or something. And while I think that's cool, it execution Zombie Shooter 2 looks grainy and dull. Even with all the filter overlays off the game is still bland, so the problem is the underlying art, not the filters they put over it all.

So anyway you get past it being hideous and start playing, and realize something else: there are a lot more guns in this game, and you have to equip them to slots and have a grid-based bag like Diablo II. Which would work if the guns were interesting. Upgrading individual weapons is gone again (like they learned nothing from Alien Shooter) and instead we just have a lot of them to keep swapping out. Except they didn't bother to balance anything, so the zombies take forever to kill and, unless you buy some super-powered weapon, you'll be fire peashooters the whole game. What?

You also fight naked winged demon chicks, which last I checked are NOT ZOMBIES. 

Ammo is scarce unless you are playing on easy, which makes me think that (with that and the art style) they were going "survival horror" over arcade. But you can't just use an old system, slap a few survival-horror tropes on it and hope it works. As an arcade shooter it fails completely, and as a survival horror game it fails too. So a double dose of suck. 

Oh, there's a story this time, in case you cared, further pushing the "We are a serious game now!" idea. Well, it sucks. Translations are poor at best, voice actors obviously not speaking English as their native language, and it's just a boring "go here, go there, damn zombies!" experience. Not enjoyable.

Tons of options, all of them boring and useless. 

I'm kind of mad. I liked Zombie Shooter for its stupid, arcade action and just general disregard to caring if it was good or not. Zombie Shooter 2 obviously tries, but fails completely. Sorry, Sigma, you aren't cut out for survival horror or games with any sort of story. Just...go back to making generic, repetitive arcade shooters with light RPG elements. It'll work out better that way for everybody.

Also, this game is $10? Yuck.

One out of Five Stars. 

Um...sure. Yeah, you do that.