To religious hard liners, who believe in the biblical interpretation of the Sacrifice of Isaac, it would be a good thing to say to God that they want to kill their own child and then go for it. In the Bible, this sacrifice is prevented at the last minute. In Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, Isaac himself finds out about his fanatic mother’s intention of committing a murder and runs away.

You won’t find a thrilling introduction for an exaggerated story – this is everything the story has to give. And it’s totally okay, because Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is a diverting action adventure not needing a plot. Nevertheless, the scriptural background is good enough to give all kinds of objects, enemies and levels divine and diabolic characteristics.

Randomization is the important fun factor.

Isaac has to fight tons of random enemies and collects random passive and active objects in various levels. You see – randomization is the important fun factor. But this also means that Isaacs death defines the end of the game. A restart generates everything anew so you never play the same game two times, but you have to start from scratch.

If at first you had a weapon with four-bullet shots and aiming device, you may now get an all-pervasive laser and an independent shooting buddy on your side after starting a new round. You see, there is a large variety of enemies and possibilities to kill them. There are more than 170 achievements to unlock new characters, bosses, alternative endings, weapons, equipment and challenges.

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is one of those successful indie games from the past years. It was developed without a big publisher. The game principle of randomization and permadeath usually is assigned to rougelike genres. But because of the possibility to unlock extra content, the game needs to be counted to so-called rougelites.

It is available on Steam, PS4 and PS Vita.