The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth Review (Poondaedalin)
Everything that you’ve heard about this DLC is basically accurate, even after the changes in Repentance.
+ The Void floor is genuinely cool, and it works very well as a final floor. It could do with a bit more pizzazz to make it stand out, but it’s better than nothing, I guess.
- Greedier mode is painful, and just amounts to being “Greed Mode, but less fun”. Ultra Greedier is cool the first time, but he also amounts to being like Ultra Greed, but also less enjoyable to fight.
- Delirium is the worst boss in the game, and despite the balance changes, it can and will telefrag you. Combined with its gargantuan health pool, immunity to Chaos Card, and confusing rage mechanic, Delirium is a boss that either you will steamroll it, or you will get steamrolled by it, and there’s no in-between.
- All of the new items are either bland, boring, or underpowered. Repentance buffs a lot of them, but that doesn’t excuse their sorry state in this DLC. For example, in its original state, Mom’s Razor did not block projectiles, could only inflict the Bleeding status effect to enemies, did less damage than other orbitals, and Bleeding at the time was just Poison but worse in every way.
- The Booster Pack content is nice, but the contrast in quality of Kilburn, McMillen, and the community’s content vs. Nicalis’s content is staggering. The Forgotten is one of the best characters in the game, and it’s hilarious in comparison with Apollyon.
- Speaking of which, Apollyon is the most bland character in the game, period. Void is a mediocre item at the best of times, and it’s his only differing characteristic from Isaac. His unlocks are uninspired, and there’s no reason to actually play the character apart from unlocks.
- The modding API lacks callbacks that were left unfinished when the DLC initially shipped, and they continue to be broken today, meaning that changes to level generation is completely impossible without using a community-made API, as MC_LEVEL_GENERATOR is completely non-functional.
Overall, when you compare this DLC to Repentance, or even to Afterbirth, it’s downright laughable. What started as a patch to add modding support was ballooned into a shabby, low-effort mess of an “expansion” by executives at Nicalis who wanted to make a few more bucks.
4/10: Makes the game actively less fun in many places. Only buy if you’re planning to buy The Binding of Isaac: Repentance, or if you want to learn how to mod the game.