An excellent upgrade for fans and newcomers alike.
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.
