Our Darker Opposable Thumbs

[Bjorn]

Was there some sort of indie design conference a couple of years ago where everyone decided that Edward Gorey was the bestest ever?  Now there's Our Darker Purpose. I mean, he's pretty great, but this is a third game inspired by his style in a year.  And also yet another game that was completely off my radar that just exploded on it like a stealth mothership blowing up. 
 
I'll say I'm hesitantly optimistic by what I see.  My only concern is that it seems too perfect. 
 
Art style, beautiful. 
Music, haunting and playful. 
Gameplay, faster and more mechanically complex Binding of Isaac. 
Depth, multiple paths and a deep inventory/power structure
Permadeath with some carryover progression, check
Procedural levels, check
Kickstarter funded - IS DELIVERING THE GAME AHEAD OF SCHEDULE?!  Is this the end of days?
 
But will it have the depth, difficulty and wonder of BoI?  It just seems like there is a chance that all those wonderful things will just fail to coalesce into something I want to play.  But I want to play it very much.  Right now.  It comes out tomorrow.
 

 
Barring terrible reviews, I think I'll have to buy it this week.  I'm jonesing for another roguelike, and feel rather burned out on all the ones I've played.

[Merus]

I backed it, but haven't really messed around with it much. There's less in the way of inventory, most of your upgrades come from level-up bonuses. I don't know how much this changes the formula but I've really barely played it and haven't played BoI at all because I find it repellent.

[Bjorn]

Repellant from a design, aesthetic or thematic standpoint?  I can see someone having that reaction to...well, any part of BoI honestly.  I like it, but it's certainly got its issues. 

[Merus]

Chiefly aesthetic, because it feels like pure uncut McMillen id and I really don't like his id.

[Bjorn]

Uncut id, a rare delicacy. 

 

I played around with this for a couple of hours tonight.  It's pretty good, though I had to quickly untrain some BoI habits, as it's just mechanically different enough that it takes a different approach.  The roll dodge ads this biggest change.  It almost bounces back and forth between a BoI style game and a bullet hell shooter.  Some of the rooms just end up crazy dense with enemies, hazards or projectiles.  I've always been terrible at bullet hell games, so these rooms are kicking my ass so far. 

[clyde]

I backed it, but haven't really messed around with it much. There's less in the way of inventory, most of your upgrades come from level-up bonuses. I don't know how much this changes the formula but I've really barely played it and haven't played BoI at all because I find it repellent.

I don't want you to take this as an attempt to convince you to play it, but I thought you might find my experience with The Binding of Isaac interesting.

I too found it so repulsive that I had no interest in playing it for a long time. I was kind of annoyed at the zeitgeist for mentioning it so much because I wanted to play it so much, but the blood, puke, vomit, and flea-market satanism was too off-putting. Eventually I started to play it. I had thought that the aesthetic was meant for people who like horror movies, esoteric internet porn terms, and gore gifs (and it might be, I don't know), but I found that my disgust for the world actually added to my experience of playing it. I didn't want to weep on poop in the chance that I might find a penny, until I was low on hearts and I needed it. The aesthetic was so repulsive, that it made me question mechanical decisions, but the game puts you in such desperate positions that eventually the slight mechanical advantages win out. I started interpreting the meaning of The Binding of Isaac this way. It was about a child with so little, that his worth is measured in the negatives. His mother is trying to kill him, he is a prisoner in their basement who can do nothing but search for an exit. For me the game became about how desperation can deprioritize basic (reasonable) fears of disease, and simultaneously how desperation prioritizes superstition.

I don't know if this was intentional, but I see the Binding of Isaac as one of the best examples of theme, aesthetic, and mechanics contributing to a greater-than-sum. It's still gross as shit though.