Trigger Warning: The following article reviews a game that approaches religion and a few other touchy topics in a satirical manner.
Spoiler Warning: The following article contains spoilers about unlockable parts of the game.
Creator of the extremely difficult Super Meat Boy, Edmund McMillen, has recently had The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth ported to consoles and handhelds after its initial release on the PC at the end of 2014. I decided to pick it up again for the Wii U because of how much I enjoyed playing the game, and because it now has multiplayer for up to four people.
It was everything I remembered: a Roguelike game with a bunch of disturbing items and enemies, and a plot that is essentially reminiscent of the part of the Bible where God asked Abraham to kill his son – except this time around, Isaac overheard this conversation and decided to run away from his mom. After replaying through this game, however, a couple of questions started to pop into my head: was Isaac’s mom really talking to God or was she just crazy?
Now it is quite possible that God was recreating the event from the Old Testament for some greater purpose, but certain elements of the game counteract that. For instance, once you delve deep enough, you run into Mom and eventually Mom’s Heart as bosses. If you happened to pick up the Bible along the way, you can use it to kill her instantly and continue running; however, you also run into Satan, as well as two other versions of yourself (one living and one dead), and if you try to use the Bible on any of these bosses you end up killing yourself. What is this saying about Isaac and his mother?
One hypothesis is that you are cleansing Isaac’s mom of the evil spirits that plagued her, but if that’s the case then why is the Bible not strong enough to kill Satan, and why does it have a reverse effect on Isaac? It could be that Isaac is demonic himself, or at least possessed, as some scenes show him looking at a mirror and having the mirror image alter to a demonic Isaac looking back at him. There are a lot of possibilities, but not many actual conclusions.
Have your own theories about this game you want to discuss? Message the writer at znorth@students.kennesaw.edu
Release Date: November 4, 2014/October 30, 2015 (Afterbirth DLC & Update)
Publisher: Nicalis
Difficulty: Variable, since it’s a Roguelike game
Replay-ability: Lots, since it’s a Roguelike game