This is an ideal starting point if you've never tried Isaac. Updates like Repentance can be torn between satisfying the diehards or trying to bring in new players, but in time I believe it will do both. "Hell, it's even worth noting that most of the new unlocks aren't tied to Hard Mode at all, so very little is forcing you to play it if you hate it that much." That positive review was written to specifically address the pushback-a common refrain among negative Steam reviews is that negativity is rooted in the shock some players are suffering from losing their primo strats after hundreds of hours of gameplay. "Hard Mode shouldn't be the default way to play, as many people have been treating it since Rebirth," says one Steam review. Hard mode is now considerably tougher due to faster enemies and fewer health pickups, another point of contention. "There's loads of new content, but everything that was already good has been made a bit shit." "I like exploring the new areas, I like the new characters, but there feels like more has been taken away than added," reads one comment on Reddit. The Binding of Isaac has been maintained through years of iteration, so such a dramatic revamp can feel like a shock to the system. And I get why players would react to an expansion this way.
The community is starting to understand this, albeit begrudgingly. Isaac has always had good item combos, like Mom's Knife and Polyphemus, which makes your weapon an all-powerful steak knife, or Isaac's Heart and Blood Rights, where you deal heavy damage to everyone without sacrificing your own HP, but the sense I get from Repentance is that we can now pull from a longer list of weaker combinations, forcing us to be more adaptable. It worked, and far better than either of those items would've done on their own.
Go in, start blasting, kicking my iced companion towards danger at every opportunity. With those upgrades and various health pickups like Dead Cat that kept me alive and respawning, the next few floors came easily. The former is a familiar that shoots at whatever you're firing at, essentially giving you double-barrel tears, and the latter's a baby frozen in an ice cube you kick around the room that freezes anything it touches (if nothing else, the series is as weird as ever.) That was until I got Brother Bobby and Cube Baby. I started fresh on Steam, having clocked a couple hundred hours on Afterbirth on Nintendo 3DS, and struggled to get a handle on even the early rooms when I first started playing.
Repentance is more a game of synergies than its predecessors. (Image credit: The Binding of Isaac / Anthony McGlynn) (opens in new tab)
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