The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is for players who want a roguelike built out of short runs, messy item synergies and a lot of improvisation under pressure. By our assessment, its great strength is the enormous pool of passive and active items, which makes every run feel like a little systems puzzle. The downside is that the game can be brutally random, and a bad stretch can end a run before the player has time to shape it. In practice it is fast, ugly in the deliberate way the series is known for, and full of constant small decisions about risk, health and room clears. It sits among the defining modern roguelikes, especially for the way it turned item combinations into the main event rather than a side reward. People who like replaying the same structure with different tools will get a lot out of it, while anyone who wants steady progress or clean readability may not. By our assessment, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is a sharp, ugly little machine for repeat runs, and that is exactly why it lasts.