The Binding of Isaac is an independent roguelike dungeon crawler game created by Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl. The game was inspired by the Biblical story of the same name. You play as Isaac, a young boy who lives with his religious mother in a small house. She receives a message from the voice from above calling for the sacrifice of Isaac to proof her faith. Isaac escapes by jumping into the basement below where he must fight unknown monsters and eventually his mother.

The game is similar to that of The Legend of Zelda as you navigate your way around labyrinth-like levels fighting enemies with tear projectiles and bombs. With procedurally generated maps, every new game you play feels different as the items you collect and bosses you fight are also randomly generated.
The Lens of Elemental Tetrad

Mechanics
The goal of the game is to reach the final level and defeat Mom. Each floor (level) consists of a randomly generated layout of rooms with monsters. You need to find your way to the boss room, which upon clearing you can then proceed to the next floor below.

As a top down 2D game, you control your character with the standard WASD and fire projectiles in the direction of your arrow keys or left mouse button. These controls come natural as they are similar to that of FPS shooter games. Along the way you pick up an assortment of collectables (items) which changes the player’s stats and appearance. These items you pick up synergizes with one other and with some luck, your character usually becomes stronger the more items he picks up. Collectables can be obtained in several ways in all levels, from trading souls with the devil to entering treasure rooms.

Story
The game’s story is loosely inspired by the Biblical story also called The Binding of Isaac. It’s creator Edmund McMillen wanted to show the positive and negative aspects of religion as he was raised by a family split between born-again Christians and Catholics. As such there were several references made in the game that relates to Christianity. Items such as the rosary, the Bible, and several controversial symbols can be picked up and had different but relevant effects in the game. For example, using The Bible in a boss fight against Mom would instantly kill her. It is then explained in the cut scene that followed that God had intervened and struck Mom with a Bible from the shelf above her when she was about to kill Isaac. The plot closely follows the original biblical story where God commanded Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice, but intervened when Abraham complied.

Aesthetics
The game elicits a dark and mysterious feeling as the game art and soundtrack works very well together. Drawn in a 2D Flash art style (because it was made in Adobe Flash), the elements in the game are highly stylized but yet it achieves its goal of conveying its themes. Another reason for the simplistic character designs was because the game was initially a result of a short game jam – all of the game art was done within 2 months. Even so, the game sold well and Edmund reworked the game art in the subsequent remake The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth.

Technology
The game was originally created with Adobe Flash and you could play it on a computer using keyboard controls. Due to software constraints in Flash, there were several bugs and performance issues discovered by players when the game became popular. However, the game was smooth for the most part when I played it on my desktop, besides the occasional lag, and did not affect my gameplay experience.
Analyzing Isaac as a whole, the game fuses these four elements well considering the short amount of time spent in development as each element is well thought out and brings about the common theme together.
The Lens of Surprise
– The game is filled with surprises from the start, where the only instructions you get are the controls. You are to discover more about the game through playing it or looking up the game wiki page online.
– Every game is different as the maps are procedurally generated and the items and bosses are randomized.
– Achievements will only be unlocked after certain activity in the game that is told to you explicitly

instructions for the game is seen on the first room of every run

The Lens of Expected Value
– Chance and probability is a huge factor in this game. One of your stats (luck) directly affects how lucky you are in the game.
– However, the perceived chance is not completely reliant on the game’s RNG as you are allowed to alter the values (with the items you pick up) that determine the probabilities in the game.
– This gives the player choices when picking up items as they may have future consequences in the game that may not be apparent at that moment.
– The game may appear to be quite challenging at times especially in an unlucky run where a consecutive number of “bad” collectables show up that does not improve the player’s stats by much.

The Lens of Dynamic State
– In the normal game there are 100 collectables (much more in the future versions!) but only a few will be available at the beginning. As you play the game and unlock other achievements, you also unlock more characters and rare items that are meaningful to the game.
– For example, by using the Bible in a Mom fight, besides defeating her instantly, you also unlock an item called The Halo, which implies that Isaac is a good boy and has been spared by God.
– After a certain point in the game and completing it a few times, the game becomes permanently more challenging and more content is revealed to the player such as going deeper into the basement and meeting new final bosses.

The Lens of Skill vs Chance
– Ultimately the game is mostly a balance between Skill and Chance. You need to master dodging enemy projectiles with WASD controls and fire accurately with your arrow keys and at the same time to choose your pickups wisely and know how to use it to your advantage.
– The game appears to be designed for casual play as each the current state of each run cannot be saved. Hence, one would think that to win the game, luck is a huge contributing factor. However, I disagree with that it takes requires the player’s skill to know how to use every item well even if it is a “bad” item.
– A skilled player is able to win the game most of the time as he uses whatever item that is given to him to his advantage.
– Thus the game does not take away the player’s sense of control even if the outcome of each run is reliant on RNG.