Welcome to our CHEATfactor Game Review of Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+. We review the game and then factor in how the available cheats affect the overall game experience. For better or worse, our reviews will help you decide whether or not to use cheats when playing the game.
What it is: The latest expansion to Nicalis' fantastic Rogue-like adventure game. Well, it's sort of an expansion to an expansion since you need to own the previous DLC to play the newest content. If you're a fan of the original though, it's more than worth the price as Afterbirth + adds tons of new content and features. Be warned though, there isn't much that feels completely new here.
What Works
This IS the definitive version of the game: When Afterbirth came out last year it felt like a re-release of the first game; one that combined all of the content released for the original game (including it's Wrath of Lamb DLC) and felt like a really strong jumping on point. This, is not that. This feels like the definitive version of The Binding of Isaac; it's tough, it's unforgiving and it's everything fans of the game want it to be. The new content can be tough, and maybe even a bit overwhelming for those advanced players but man are they fun to play and even more fun to beat. I'm not ashamed to say how much I struggled with some of that new content on my first play-throughs, and even on some of my later ones.
New content is a lot of fun: It might be a bit of a risky move adding content to a randomly generated game like this since there's no guarantee that someone will ever see all of it but it's more than worth seeking out. There are new items, characters, weapons and some pretty bad ass bosses to seek out. For all of the masochists out there there's even a whole new difficulty level to try out.I haven't worked my way up to it yet but I've been playing Isaac since the original version came out so I'm fully expecting to.
Mod tools: The Binding of Isaac has always been a game about luck, but it's also about timing and doing what you can with what you have. Never had that been more evident than with the newly released mod tools that come with Afterbirth +. Literally everything in the game, from the characters to the items, how powerful things are and even their names are fully changeable thanks to the new mod tools. Even better, the community is constantly uploading new mods and tweaks, meaning that there will always be new content. Buuuuuuuut…..
What Doesn't work
A lot of the new content is hard to find: If you're buying Afterbirth + strictly for the new content, you may be disappointed. While the game does push some of the new stuff to you right away, a lot of the game will feel the same because a lot of the content is hidden so deep into the game. Does it feel good when you find it? Sure, but I couldn't help but wonder if I'd seen everything long before I had. The worst is the modding tools which aren't even really in the game, but in the game's files themselves.
Conclusion: The Binding of Isaac will always be one of my favorite games. It's one of those few experiences I view as nearly perfect as possible and while Afterbirth + adds a ton of new content, not all of it feels completely necessary. There's some great additions here and long time fans of the game will love most of what they find here. New players be warned though, this is not your jumping on point.
