I am not someone who has played this game for many years. I completed Flash Isaac in a month or two a year ago, then I bought Rebirth and all DLCs on the Summer Sale 2025. I knew this game was bigger, but I was nowhere near the actual scale. 722 items, 188 trinkets, 34 characters and also cards, runes, pills, transformations, bosses… man, this game is humongous. There are depths which aren't explored by even the most dedicated players. Nevertheless, all this variety doesn't overwhelm you: the game expands little by little.
https://vip1.qiannidekk.tk/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3733137756
I really missed the music from Flash Isaac. It had terrible audio quality, a low bitrate and was noisy but it was memorable, epic and great overall. In contrast, I don't remember a single track from Rebirth even after ~900 hours. There was another thing I liked more in the older game.

Coming from Flash Isaac, the transition was a little rough visually. I know everyone nowadays is obsessed with pixel art but I am already tired of it. It seems like every indie game today has pixel art. Isaac is one of the older titles, so it definitely isn't chasing the trend, which doesn't make it significantly better. Eventually, I adapted and stopped noticing. Funnily, it has a filter in the options to soften pixel graphics, which I didn't use because I prefer to play the game in the way the developer intended, but if you play with the filter enabled, don't mention it on Reddit, they will kill you.

Yeah, for some weird reason the Reddit Isaac community hates the filter. Luckily, that's the only weird thing about them. The Isaac community is very big: Twitch, YouTube, Steam, Reddit, etc. That's just the casual side of the community, but if you want more there are streaking communities centered mostly around Eden and Lost runs, and even a speedrunning community.

As I wrote in the Flash Isaac review, Edmund McMillen reflects his religious experience in this game and does it masterfully. There are a lot of references, parallels and observations, and some of them may be very deep if you want to dig into them. However, all of this fades if you are an achievement hunter.
https://vip1.qiannidekk.tk/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3711550105
No matter how big a game is, there is always an end. Completing all marks with every character, completing all challenges, picking up all items and a couple of more achievements is called Dead God, which essentially means unlocking every achievement on Steam. If you reach Dead God on all three files, the Dead God icons transform into an infinity symbol and the title screen shows "Stop Playing!". By the end of my second Dead God, I already felt a bit burned out. By the end of my third Dead God, I didn't remember a single cutscene from the game: I just got used to skipping them so I forgot everything. I got the first Dead God in 488 hours, the second in 268 hours and the last in 205 hours. I wrote a Steam guide with an efficient route, feel free to use it:
https://vip1.qiannidekk.tk/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3712501774

I played around 500 hours with a keyboard, then 300 hours with a controller, and eventually came back to the keyboard. I played with a keyboard first because I always play games with the intended control method but after my first Dead God I switched to a controller and got my second Dead God with it. So, I am more than qualified to compare inputs. I genuinely think that the keyboard is superior. The controller has a slight advantage in movement, which is barely noticeable and there is an item called Analog Stick which is hypothetically better with a controller ONLY if you shoot with the right stick. On the other hand, the keyboard makes Mars a Q4 item, and with mouse controls enabled you pick Marked or Epic Fetus without hesitation. Keep in mind, you need to remap pill/card from Q to LShift.

The Binding of Isaac is a one-of-a-kind game. A game that leaves its mark on gaming history.

• Flash Isaac review
  
• Curator page

The game of all time

One day I will beat this game :3