Although the session hangs over my soul like a thundercloud and I don’t have time to write texts, I still wouldn’t be me if I didn’t carve out an hour and a half for myself to play games (it’s always useful to take your mind off the source of stress). At such moments, although there is a temptation to play something fresh and big-budget, the best way to relax is to play a session or Rogue-like. And my choice fell, as usual at such moments, on the good old Isaac.

The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth † – Booster Pack 5

The life of the new Isaac was long – entering the open spaces of Steam November 4 far 2014, almost a year later, namely October 30, 2015, the game got big DLC, changed the subtitle from Rebirth on Afterbirth. It’s hard to say that the game had a lack of content – even in the original Isaac on flash there was something to occupy myself for hours, and only in a new game, and after DLC, you could sit for several hundred or even thousands of hours without seeing any synergies, rooms or transformations. And, of course, mods – a good game with Workshop is simply doomed to last a long time.

But one day Edmund McMillen (Edmund McMillen) thought: "Hmm, why don’t I release DLC for DLC?». And if the idea came to a bright mind, then it would be necessary to bring it to life. And so, January 3, 2017, everyone could get acquainted with the new portion of content under the name Afterbirth†. But among the fans, everything did not go so smoothly..

Yes, DLC brought it to the game new mode (well, like new – hard mode of the mode added in the first add-on), appeared new character, the new one is pretty indifferently assembled level, ending and some other content little by little. But for a game with several global mods, such a paid addition looked simply like a desire to make a little more money from a game that was almost two years old. The situation was slightly defused by Edmund’s statement that the game would receive small packages throughout the year with content developed both by McMillen himself and including the best crafts from the Workshop. These packages began to be called Booster Pakami.

Not everything is gold.

But Booster Packs did not become a panacea – they were released rarely, and there was not that much content, and then mostly reskins of old items or some elements of global mods. Well, Eden’s hairstyles – there were almost more of them than all other content.

And at this rate a year passed, four Booster Packs were released, and the release of the final fifth was postponed either to February or to March, and then they even said – expect it in the near future. At least teasers on Twitter stirred up public interest. And then it came May 1, 2018 – it was then that the last Booster Pack came out and unexpectedly brought something really worth waiting for – a new character with unique mechanics, which was even interesting to open for the game. And although the character has been available for the second month, my little hands only got around to testing him today. And as soon as my emotions subsided a little, I realized one thing..

Everything in the modern world is a remix

Many people know where https://slingo-casino.uk/login/ the name came from Rogue-like — one ancient game provided such an interesting concept that it would be a sin not to use it in the future. Even Maxim Solodilov increased my My Game score at Le Mans thanks to this knowledge. But it’s still too difficult to do anything now based only on some skeleton. So did Isaac – taking a little from everywhere and bringing in a lot of his own, the game still very clearly felt the spirit of another old, but far from forgotten cult game – The Legend of Zelda (namely dungeons, to be more precise). There are references in both items and enemies, even the “I’m a mistake” room is here – there’s a whole Reddit post about it.

Even some of the secret rooms are identical

But Isaac didn’t adopt one iconic feature from Zelda—until the fifth Booster Pack..

Hit – close, throw – far

Who remembers Link’s standard attack from classic Zelda?? Dealing a strong blow close with a sword or throwing the same sword at a distance is a kind of long-range attack in which, although you do less damage, you remain safer.
Who remembers Isaac’s standard attack?? Just tears shot into the distance. Yes, there are many more types of attacks in the game, including a knife that may slightly resemble Link’s sword attack, but it’s not the same. And then go on stage Forgotten (Forgotten).

Strong swing of the bone close, weak throw at a distance. The mechanics, ingenious in their simplicity, have finally found their place in the game, partly inspired by the project in which they were first used.
The first time I saw this attack, either in a trailer or in some video on YouTube, I didn’t give it any attention – it was interesting, but nothing more. But having experienced it in action, having gotten along with it, I was pleasantly surprised that another piece of the soul of The Legend of Zelda appeared in my favorite “bagel”.

Moreover, the character with all his mechanics is very well balanced for the game itself – he doesn’t feel like an imbodiment (after all, he doesn’t have any special advantages over others from the start), or an overly difficult character to play. It makes it possible to play through the game dozens of times, providing new game situations and experiences even for experienced players with hundreds of hours in the game.

Let me say in advance that this cannot be called plagiarism. The character with this attack brought at least two more new mechanics to the game – bone hearts and the ability to change characters mid-game.
Someone once said:

And this is not a revelation, not a new thought – it has always been like this. I’m sure even the first wheel was square. So, every time you drive a car or walk with a cart in a store, remember – you are using what many should consider a product of plagiarism)

The Binding of Isaac

The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+

Best comments

Afterbirth is not a continuation, but a reworking of the game from the Flash version into a more workable and visually beautiful one. And Edmund has nothing to do with the SMB sequel (as can be seen from the trailer cut out my eyes)

Here we can also add that some items from the last addition were only slightly reworked items from the same mods

You spend most of the blog retelling the story of the game, and then rejoice new mechanics that the ideological founder (Zelda) had. Such an eyeliner to share your impression of the mechanics. The story of the game doesn’t have much bearing on this. In this case (in my opinion) it is better to talk about other mechanics of this game (of which there are more than thousands in combinatorics) in comparison with that very Zelda, and then talk about the new one. Or concentrate entirely on your own experience from this mechanic.
The title of the blog conveys the concise meaning of what is written. "Isaac and Edmund – roundabout ways to the origins". You wanted to say “Edmund took a lot, but not the simplest and most important thing – attack mechanics,” but it turned out "history, reactions, comparison with the original, mechanics, your opinion, plagiarism? (doesn’t matter; important). Now I hope you understand why the blog is controversial, not bad, but not good either

Like the killer in Isaac 2.5k hours I can’t help but get bored. Lost with us for a long time and his name is Lost. Forgotten – Forgotten.
Oh, and we can also mention that the workshop featured a cute Persian, Reaper. The weapon, which is not surprising, is a scythe, you can shred enemies at close range or load and throw.

But there is no need to release additions to the game after official support for modifications appears in it. It’s better to take on the next part right away. In any case, there are more players, and if the game is popular, then they will create “content” at such a speed that the developer cannot keep up with. And even if all the mods turn out to be inferior, they will be free, but the add-ons will not, many players will find this a sufficient reason for dissatisfaction.

Edmund never makes sequels to his games. They are all original, complete and complete. It’s not about the DLS for pennies (all content costs no more than 1000 rubles), it’s about the soul that he puts into the game

But the difference is one changed characteristic after hundreds of hours it becomes obvious and irreplaceable. As a result, even greater replayability (which was not present in Zelda)

At first I wanted to reduce everything to my own experience, but the idea seemed a little bland to me and that’s why this “historical” summary was written.
Thank you very much for your insightful comment – ​​I’ll keep it in mind for the future.

Oh, comrade, I admit my guilt and am already correcting myself.
I didn’t even know about the Reaper – I tried a bunch of mods from the workshop, but I never got around to custom characters

Well, I didn’t really care about mods (although from what I’ve played I can personally recommend May, interesting character mechanics), I just saw Vitka on streams.

Um…Are you sure??
I’ll even miss the point that The Binding os Isaac: Rebith is essentially a continuation of the original Isaac on Flash – the first game was still free. Well, it seems like a sequel to Super Meat Boy is being prepared for release)
But as for the originality and soul in his games – yes, I can’t help but agree.