2014 to declare a year of remakes and reprints-too much “re-” has appeared on the shelves lately. But if some of the publishers are looking for methods of additional earnings (see. “Updated” Sleeping Dogs), then certain projects restart and modification are really needed. Among them – The Binding of ISAAC, The last “big” game today Edmund McMillin (Edmund McMillen).
The fascinating “pungent”, which dragged on thousands of users for hundreds of hours, received folk love, but was completely disgusting in technical design. Made on Flash, he did not know how to persist, abounded with bugs and physically could not cope with the support of the gamepads. Therefore, the publication of a special version for 3DS was a great reason to rethink the material.
The release is preceded by a fairly long story. At first, a very slightly expanded version for a pocket console was planned with a resolution of 400 by 240 pixels. The high-quality art of the original was decided to “worsen” and stylize under 16-bit games. However, over time, there were many additional content, the plans changed: it turned out, Nintendo does not allow any religious freedom on its consoles, and the game will never come out on 3DS. Therefore, the project was reborn into a full -fledged remake, where Macmillene was only a leading designer among a whole team of developers, Nicalis.
Little Isaac ran into the basement
All variables remained in their places. The story begins with the fact that Isaac and his mother live peacefully in a small house on a hill. But at some point, a woman, having seen a Christian program, goes crazy and decides to sacrifice her child from her own head. In a panic, the baby runs into the basement, where it is transferred to the player’s control.
This is just the beginning of the long way: at every start, the dungeon with monsters is generated randomly, and there is many times to go there. To just get to the “real” ending, you will have to look at ten intermediate finals. To open all the items – several times to the end each of the dozen characters, perform tests and get a number of achievements.
The gaming process has remained unchanged. Passing takes about an hour, and death is permanent and discards to the very beginning. Going down and killing (more precisely, pouring tears) of enemies, the main character collects improvements, special weapons, keychains and “consumables”: money, keys, bombs. Then such a complex and complex combinatoric begins that dozens of pages of thematic “wiki” are spent on its description. Each of the items is a bunch of applications. Subtle management is needed to spend the most efficiently and stay in the plus, collecting new and new improvements for the protagonist.
The charm is that there is not a single clue in the game. The selected item is described by a whole pair of words – if the effect is not obvious, then you have to guess. There is no this in the rooms: what is hidden behind special icons on the map, you can only find out the test and error method. You constantly feel like a researcher, tactic, a pioneer. Surprises are thrown by the game that can be shocked even at the thirties of o’clock, and the tension during the first timid attempts to defeat the dungeon is generally difficult to evaluate.
Rebirth – This is a compilation of the original game, two large updates and completely new material
. Therefore, the content here is unmeasured: 20 tests, more than 450 items (160 of which are new), 10 playable characters, 50 “bosses”, more than 100 types of enemies, 16 endings and 4 billion options for building levels. It is possible to cover all this, according to developers, can only be in 500 hours of gameplay.
Series veterans can only be congratulated. Two unknown people appeared on each familiar subject, for each familiar room – three mysterious. In addition, everything familiar was subjected to the rebalance: the battle with the “mother”, for example, has become easier, and with her heart – several times more difficult. This will seriously complicate the lives of beginners: gameplayers have now become so many that it will be difficult enough to join.
The only significant difference in the process was the variable size of the premises. If earlier the game worked as part of separate rooms, now the premises can occupy two or even four screens. And this is excellent: in the cells of the maximum size of the arcade, it begins to feel completely different. Especially successful in the scale of the battle with the “bosses”.
A friend can now help to cope with particularly difficult moments – a local cooperative has become available. But this is a risky venture: the second player enters as a satellite of Isaac (a small flying spirit) and takes away the unit of life from that. If the partner dies, it can be resurrected, again giving away the “heart” forever. And not the fact that this facilitates the passage. Moreover, the type of partner is determined by accident, and sometimes it appears weakened or only interfering. Such a peculiar balance.
If with the advent of new objects the passage seems too light, then you can always switch to a new level of complexity. Hard more often imposes “curses”, more selective offers “bosses”, but gives more rare objects in the collection. This difficulty is perhaps equivalent to the original.
Finally, technical problems were solved. The game honestly works at 60 FPS (which turned out to be critical – after five minutes it becomes generally not clear how it used to be played from 30). The hero is controlled much more responsive and for once from the gamepad, and not just from the keyboard. You can even change the layout.
The most important thing is that the “Continue” button and a clear conservation system appeared. Now it is not necessary to master all the dungeons in one sitting: you can close the game and return to it after. But death still throws back to the very beginning, so no concessions. Well, or almost no.
Another little thing: the card is generated at the entrance to the game as a whole – by writing out a special set of characters, you have the opportunity to transfer it to a friend so that he will try to go through the same version of the “track”. And finding a successful alignment, you can save it and reproduce it over and over again.
However, not all changes delight. The most controversial point is the visual style. Honestly, pixelization here is not very appropriate – no retrostilism smells, and the smallest of the icons become frankly illegible. At first, the format causes only rejection (however, pixelization can be turned off in the settings). Until you start to look close.
Nicalis processed and saturated every centimeter of the game space with details. Where there were always just stones, now skulls, vases, multi -colored bonfires. The rooms are overgrown with little things. On the floor, for example, worms of only a couple of pixels crawl, but they can be crushed and left a puddle of blood. Streams flow down the walls, special effects appeared, such as fog, smoke, dynamic degree of illumination. The grass moves, light falls on top, and the animation of all creatures has become smoother. And if you come to terms with the number of pixels, Rebirth You quickly begin to adore for the study of everything.
Original The Binding of ISAAC Compared to the current reprint, it looks like a simple demo version. IN Rebirth Absolutely all the shortcomings were fixed, the quantity and quality of the content has become completely fantastic, and the picture, first seemingly bad, quickly demonstrates how good it is.
The only question remains in how to relate to the game. The number of innovations does not pull on a full -fledged new part, but it is not necessary: Macmillene Not a sequel did, not a port or an independent project, but a reprint not in everything of a successful original. Reprint, good so that many should learn.
Pros: increased amount of content;Attention to little things;Lack of technical problems.
Cons: The game is unlikely to call a simple development.