The Binding of Isaac: Repentance

When this was first announced, I expected it to be the Antibirth mod, which is 2 new characters and an alternate path. What we got a bunch more than that. We did get Antibirth, plus the “true ending”, and alt versions of every character, who of course come with their own to do list and unlocks. I can see why this took almost 5 years. It’s essentially a sequel sized expansion.

After having played this a bunch now, including all the new characters, I think Repentance does a lot to address some of the balancing issues present since Afterbirth came out. Not only is there a ton of new content, a lot of existing stuff got either buffed or nerfed, Some of the changes seem a little pointless (I’m looking at you Maw of the Void), but others made some historically bad items usable (I’m looking at you Holy Water). I can’t say I’m a huge fan of the new reroll mechanics, but if the aim is to make the game harder to break then it definitely does that.

They also made Angel and Devil devils roughly on par with each other now and updated the mechanics on how they work. If anything, angel deals appear to be new preferred path for a lot of players.

As for new characters, they’re mostly good, but there’s a couple of exceptions. The tainted versions in particular offer some interesting mechanics when they’re coloring in the lines of how Isaac works. When they don’t is when things can get a little tedious.

Tainted Lazarus is like getting one pad of butter with two slices of toast. There’s no real reason you’d ever chose to play as his outside of random streak. The Flip mechanic doesn’t do much but make things more difficult. You’re crafting 2 runs with one runs worth of items.

Jacob and Esau are an interesting concept but they don’t really fit into the game as it’s designed, and can particularly frustrating to try and grind through their achievements.

Tainted Jacob is like trying to unlock The Forgotten with a foot stomping on you at all times, but now it’s an angry spirit chasing you. But, at least there’s a damage buff associated with it if you get lucky.

Tainted Eden is far too random to be enjoyable., unless your into constant shifting parameters. Which, maybe you are.

All that being said, the majority if the new characters are lots of fun. Tainted Apollyon, Eve, and Isaac all have fun mew mechanics. Even Tainted Lost is worthwhile, despite being extremely challenging. They even managed to make The Keeper fun now, something I never thought I’d say.

If you’re an Isaac fan, this is a must buy. It’s really the definitive version of the game, and the culmination of almost a decade of Isaac going all the way back to the flash days.

It still feels like it’s not quite finished. A lot of the Birthright mechanics aren’t even implemented, and a lot of the innate active items on the tainted characters are unlockable but aren’t implemented. I’ve also managed to crash the game a bunch, particularly around the Jacob and Esau synergies than aren’t in the game yet. I think Repentance has crashed more in 2 months than Afterbirth did in 5 years.

Finger crossed we will get an update that polishes off the remaining stuff that isn’t quite done yet. If the wanted to tweak some of the more frustrating characters I would not complain either.