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Let's talk about Isaac.

The Binding of Isaac is an roguelike indie game designed by Edmund McMillen, the first half of Team Meat (and responsible for Super Meat Boy) and Florian Himsl. The game is a product of a weeklong game jam that McMillen entered while Tommy Refenes (the other half of Team Meat and Super Meat Boy co-developer) was on vacation. Himsl, who had worked with McMillen on some of his previous titles (such as Triachnid, Coil, and C*nt), began developing Isaac in Flash (using ActionScript 2). When creating the game, McMillen set out with two clear goals: he wanted to make a roguelike game using the Legend of Zelda dungeon structure, and wanted to make a game about his relationship with religion.Unfortunately, Isaac wasn't finished by the end of the game jam, but after three months of part time development, the title was quietly released on Steam on September 28th, 2011, where it slowly began to develop a cult following that soon led to an explosion in mainstream popularity. Isaac rapidly became a hit and was heavily featured as a selling point in the Humble Indie Bundle 7, which is where I stumbled upon it.

Isaac is a top-down roguelike game in which the player takes control of the protagonist, Isaac, in his quest to escape the dungeons within Isaac's basement. The game's mechanics will be very familiar to fans of The Legend of Zelda, while also incoporating randomly procedurally generated level structure. Simply put, Isaac must travel through multiple levels (or floors) of dungeons in order to fight the final boss of the game. Each floor contains a number of rooms that typically contain a variety of monsters and obstacles the player must defeat in order to progress, along with a boss at the end of each floor that must be defeated in order to continue to the next floor. In order to do this, Isaac is provided with a number of tools at his disposal. The player can collect money (in the form of coins) to purchase items and abilities from a variety of shopkeepers, keys to unlock speacial treasure rooms and chests, bombs to access hidden items and rooms as well as deal extra damage to enemies, and new weapons and power-ups to strengthen your chances against the enemies and environment. Isaacs main damage dealer is his tears, which are fired like bullets at enemies, and can be upgraded via a variety of items and power ups that the player will collect while traveling through the floors. One of the elements that make Isaac so unique is the ability for these powerups to stack on top of each other, consistently strengthening Isaac and presenting the player with a nearly always unique and ever changing gameplay experience. The huge number of powerups are randomly generated in every run, meaning that there are nearly hundreds of combinations for the player to use in order to progress through the dungeons and beat the final boss.

So before I continue, let me take a moment to talk about the plot in Isaac. The game's title and plot are composed of references to the Biblical story known as the Binding of Isaac. According to McMillen, the game touches on dark, adult themes including child abuse, gender identity, infanticide, neglect, suicide, abortion, and how religion might negatively affect a child; all concepts which video games generally avoid. The plot of the game is told through an opening cinematic that plays druing the first run, as well as during each startup of the game (which is, of course, skippable). Isaac, a child, and his mother live in a small house on a hill where Isaac draws pictures and plays with toys while his mother, a devout follower of God, watches Christian broadcasts on television. One day, Isaac's mother hears a voice from above, stating that her son is corrupt with sin and must be saved, and in response, Isaac's mother takes all of his toys. Soon his mother hears the voice again, which tells her to cut Isaac off from the evil of the world, which prompts her to lock isaac within his room. The voice talks to Isaac's mother a final time, telling her that she must now sacrifice her son in a display of her religious devotion. In an attempt to escape his crazed mother, Isaac leaps into the basement, where the game begins.


Now, let me make something perfectly clear: I hated The Binding of Isaac for a very long time. I have never been a fan of roguelike games, and if you've never had a roguelike experience, Isaac will likely make you very, very frustrated, which the game is designed to do. Isaac is built from the ground up for the player to do "runs" of the game, which refers to an attempted playthrough of the game. Oftentimes I felt cheated by the roguelike system, due to a lack of relevant powerups or perhaps a string of particularly difficult rooms that result in a very rapid death. There are no save points in Isaac; when you die, you go back to the beginning. I've rage quit this game dozens of times, even going so far as to uninstall the title out of anger.

However:

After hours of playing the game dozens of times, hours of talking to friends and other gamers about Isaac, hours of uninstalling and reinstalling only to uninstall again, and hours of being brutally murdered over and over and over and over and over, I slowly started to love this game. Somewhere along the way, all of the features I originally viewed as flaws began to turn into strengths. If I had to guess, I'd wager that this is most likely due to the phenomenal sense of satisfaction that comes with beating the final boss of the game. After hours of dying again and again, beating the final boss will give you an amazing feeling, one that is practically umatched in any other game on the Steam platform. But that's not all.

The game features at least 13 endings, each ending being a different final boss that you can only access after going through the entire game, the previous final boss, and then another floor.

Isaac is a long, tough, exciting ride of a game that warrants the hours you'll be putting into it. At a $5 price point and a historic low price of $0.99, The Binding of Isaac is a game that deserves the love you'll inevitably give it.

A 10 out of 10.

Saints Row IV is an open world action-adventure game developed by Volition, the developing team behind the Red Faction and Saints Row series of video games, and published by Deep Silver, who have published a variety of other series, such as Metro, Dead Island, Risen, Homefront, and of course, Saints Row. The game was released in August 2013 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It is the fourth installment in the Saints Row series following Saints Row: The Third in 2011.

The game takes place five years after the events of its predecessor, in a virtual reality based on the fictional city of Steelport, in which the protagonist must fight an alien invasion as well as simulations of the gangs and enemies from their past. As in previous titles in the series, the player controls the leader of the Third Street Saints, who has now become the president of the United States. Throughout the main course of the game, your mission is to overthrow the alien warlord Zinyak, who has taken over the world and put every human being into a matrix-like stasis where they can remain as a living energy source in their hypnotic submission. Over the course of the game, you'll find yourself participating in a variety of activities in order to further break down Zinyaks virtual reality while fighting a variety of alien soldiers who attempt to stop you from busting out of the simulation. While most games simulating virtual reality often attempt to recreate the most convincing virtual world possible, Saints Row IV takes this in stride, as you'll often find visual glitches in the game that serve to convince you that the Steelport you're in isn't real, along with the various superpowers you gain over the course of the game that serve to drive home the point that everything you experience in the game is only a fictional recreation of reality. This question of real versus unreal serves as a comedic subject for the game, as the writers made it a point to make a joke of this as much as possible (shocking for a Saints Row title, I know). However, the writing is nearly overshadowed by the sheer ridiculousness of various other elements of the game, such as the weapon loadouts available to your character, like a duel set of Han Solo's Blasters, or the Dub-Step Gun, or even the Tentacle Sword. Furthermore, the character customization in Saints Row IV gives you a huge variety of options to make your character as unique as you are, and, along with the DLC provided with the game (often free of charge on the day of release), will give you many more options than you will ever even care to experiment with. Finally, Saints Row IV presents the most polished cooperative play out of any Saints Row Title, and only becomes more fun with another player. Personally, I played through the entire game with a friend, and I'm proud to say that Saints Row IV offers one of the best co-op experiences on Steam. The campaign is never hindered by the presence of a Player Two, and if you're anything like me, when you play alone, you'll only find yourself wishing that there was somebody playing with you to share the laughs.

While the plot may be ludicrous, the world may be fake, and the jokes may be cheesy, Saints Row IV is still an absolute blast to play, and is a title you should be sure to catch (during a Steam Sale, of course).

A 10 out of 10 (would beat to death with an arms-length purple dong again).

Are you troubled by strange noises in the middle of the night? Do you experience dread in your basement or attic? Have you or your family ever seen a spook, specter, or ghost? If the answer is yes, then don't wait another minute. Navigate to the store page and purchase the professionals: Ghostbusters.

Alright, maybe I like Ghostbusters a little too much. But ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, how couldn't I? Ghostbusters is one of the greatest movies of the 80's, and it's sequel, Ghostbusters II (1989) is a solid sequel (despite what everybody thinks). And if you're like me and have always wanted a Ghostbusters III, Ghostbusters: The Video Game is as close as you're gonna get. It has everything that made Ghostbusters great. Nearly every cast member came back to voice their characters in the game, including Dan Akroyd, Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, the late Harold Ramis, Annie Potts, Brian Doyle-Murray, and even William Atherton, who played Walter Peck in the original film! The game is written by Akroyd and Ramis, who wrote the original films, and who also later went on record to say that Ghostbusters: The Video Game, serves as the "essentially" third entry in the franchise. But before I get lost in praising this game, let's get down to the nitty-gritty.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game is a 2009 action-adventure game developed by Terminal Reality, the team behind the BloodRayne series, The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct, and Kinect Star Wars (one of the greatest Microsoft Kinect titles to date, no doubt). The game follows the player's character as a new recruit in the Ghostbusters and features various elements of typical third-person shooters. However, instead of using a traditional gun, players are equipped with a "Proton Pack", a laser beam-like weapon, and a ghost trap to fight and capture ghosts.The game's plot is set two years after Ghostbusters II, around Thanksgiving in 1991, with the Ghostbusters team training the player's character while investigating paranormal activities in New York City.

Over the course of the game, the player will utilize a variety of ghostbusting tools (such as the PKE Meter and Goggles) in order to track down specters and capture them. As the game progresses, you are awarded with a variety of different proton streams in order to capture ghosts more efficiently, such as the slime thrower or messon collider. Furthermore, revenue earned from busts can be used to upgrade these tools in various ways. In place of a traditional heads-up display, the player's health and weapon status are represented as meters on the rear of the Proton Pack. Health regenerates over time if the player does not take further damage. However, by taking more damage, they can be knocked down; if there are other Ghostbusters still standing, they will attempt to reach the player and revive him/her. Similarly, the player can help revive fallen team members. The lack of a heads-up display presents a more immersive experience for the player in the Ghostbusters universe. A large variety of levels also serves to present the player with a more complete world, as the player will have to travel to various locations including Times Square, the Sedgewick Hotel, the New York Public Library, and of course, the Firehouse, in order to bust ghosts and complete the campaign. Unfortunately, the PC version of Ghostbusters: The Video Game does not have the multiplayer aspect that was offered on the console versions of the game, but as of this writing, the servers for online play on all platforms has been shut down, so you won't be missing anything by purchasing the title on Steam.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game serves as a love letter to fans of the franchise. If you're like me, and you love Ghostbusters, then you'll find yourself nothing short of absolutely pleased with this game.

A 10 out of 10 (would bust again).

Mafia II is an action-adventure video game developed by 2K Czech and published by 2K Games. The game is a sequel to "Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven" (more popularly known as simply "Mafia") and was released on the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC, and Mac platforms. Early development on the title began as early as 2003, but the final product didn't see a retail release until August 24, 2010.

Mafia II takes place in the late 40's to early 50's in a fictional city called Empire Bay, which is based on an amalgamation of New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, and Detroit. Empire Bay spans roughly 10 square miles, and can be easily traversed using any of the roughly 30 vehicles in the game along with simply running or walking. Naturally, through the passage of time over the course of the game, you'll find that faster, more efficient cars become available for you to drive around which, paired with the licensed music from the era that comes through one of three radio stations available in each car, make for a very enjoyable experience. In Mafia II, the player takes control of Vito Antonio Scalletta, a young Italian male who immigrated to the United States with his family at a very young age. Growing up in a low-class family, Vito slowly discovered that the only way that his family could afford to survive was for him to commit petty theft. Unfortunately, Vito is eventually caught and sent to Italy to fight for the US Army as an alternative to prison. Upon his return, he reunites with his childhood friend and partner in crime, Joe Barbarro, and together they set out to change their stars by joining the Mafia in the hopes of fame and fortune.

Mafia II provides a unique gaming experience that can be percieved differently depending on the player. The game lends itself to criticism in it's attempt at a sandbox style environment, but unfornately, Empire Bay feels cold and lifeless. The player is provided with a car (or access to their garage, where cars are stored) at the beginning of nearly every mission and guns are provided as well. Of course, you have the option to steal a car, or perhaps rob a store for extra cash, but in Mafia II, you'll never really need to (unless, of course, the mission in question calls for it). Cars typically handle well, and the inclusion of a speed governor in each car gives the player the option to simply drive the speed limit, avoiding any and all possible police action. In short, the sandbox style is hindered by its safe-ness. Players are hardly ever exposed to a situation in which they have any need to commit a crime; therefore, they don't. Furthermore, combat in Mafia II can feel awkard at times. This is most notably due to the inability to blind fire out of cover, which feels phenomenally out of place in a third person shooter. Also, throwable weapons, such as grenades and molotov cocktails often feel difficult to use because of the inability to throw them from cover. Unfortunately, due to the hindered sandbox style gameplay and lack of a decent combat system, Mafia II becomes a far cry from Grand Theft Auto, a game that 2K Czech was clearly trying to emulate.

However, the distance from Grand Theft Auto provided by the gameplay manages to frame Mafia II's story in a totally different light. By subtly establishing differences between the two series, the player is left more open to the story, which is by far Mafia II's best selling point. The writing in Mafia II is nothing short of exceptional. Every character in the game becomes fleshed out, and all of them have interesting qualities that make them an important part of the game. I found myself hard pressed to ever skip any kind of cutscene and would often wait in the car if I arrived at a destination with a passenger mid-conversation. The story spans numerous years, following Vito from the war in Italy, to his hometown, and from prison, to a top-ranking member of the mafia. Every conversation is meticulously written and the attention to detail makes Mafia II one of the most well-written games of 2010.

At the end of Mafia II, I found myself hard pressed not to simply start the game over from the beginning. The game has it's flaws, but in the end, weaves possibly the greatest, most intriguing mafia story ever told in a video game. It's no Grand Theft Auto, but if you can step back and look at Mafia II for what it is, you will not be dissapointed.

An 8 out of 10.

Antichamber is a single-player first-person puzzle platform indie game that seems to echo the philosophical phrase, "Looks can be decieving." For Antichamber, this could not be more true. While at first glance, the game may look similiar to Valve's Portal franchise, but a second look will reveal an entirely different beast.

Antichamber was released on Steam on January 31, 2013. It was developed by Alexander Bruce and is known for it's brain-twisting puzzles built around a non-euclidean form of geometry. What this means for those of us that aren't familiar with Euclid is that during the course of the game, players will encounter puzzles built around geometrical impossibilities, such as passages that lead to different locations depending on which way you face or structures that seem impossible within typical three-dimensional space.

In Antichamber, you control an unnamed protagonist from a first-person perspective as they wander through the halls of puzzle chambers, each with their own unique brand of brain teaser. Upon entering a chamber, the player will be presented with a sign on a wall that will offer a cartoonish iconograph that's is somehow related to the puzzle in the following room as well as a small bit of text that often provides some sort of hint as to how to progress through the room. It's about here that Antichamber's similiarities to Portal end: each room is solved in an entirely different way from any other room. The player will move horizontally, vertically, through walls, ceilings, and/or floors, and will occasionally use a gun with varying abilities provided to you in the relevant rooms to help travers the chamber and proceed to the next room. The player may have to step on switches place blocks in relevant areas, step through or avoid laser beams that can set off various game mechanics, utilize both traditional and non traditional platforming methods, and more. When the player finds themselves stuck or unable to continue, simply pressing escape brings them back to the hub, where they can adjust game settings, review previous signs that they've uncovered over the course of their journey, fast-travel to any room that they've set foot in (and see how they are connected, which is nothing short of a three-dimensional hedge maze of confusion) and gaze through large window at their ultimate goal: the exit.

Overall, this is a game that begs to be played, as it is an experience that I simply cannot capture in the span of a review. The game will fascinate and often frustrate you with it's mind-bending puzzles, but perserverance will lead to satisfaction within the walls of Antichamber. Keep in mind that it is not a journey that's for the faint of heart: Antichamber is much more difficult than Portal, and oftentimes, you will be tempted to look up answers online. But for those that have played the Portal series and are begging for more, then Antichamber is the game for you.

A 6 out of 10.

Authors Note: While Antichamber is a fantastic game, I would highly recommend picking it up in a sale. Unfortunately, the $20 price point seems a little too steep, but at $10 or less, the game is a steal.

Dusforce is a 2D indie platform game developed by Hitbox Team. The game is short, simple, and tells the story of four custodial protagonists who attempt to sweep away a world corrupted by dust and filth. The game was released on Steam in January of 2012 and will be pushed to the Playstation 3, Playstation Vita, and Xbox 360 consoles in January of 2014.

The game consists of roughly 50 levels in which the player has to use a number of acrobatic skills in order to clean up small sections of leaves and defeat filth-covered creatures to score and progress though the level. Some of the skills that the player will have to master to complete each level in an efficient manner are the double jump, wall jump, mid-air dash, and the ability to cling to the walls and ceiling. The player also has the choice of a light or heavy attack with which to defeat the enemies in the levels. The levels themselves are laid out very well and tend to vary from horizontal to vertical design, which pushes the player to master the controls of Dustforce (a game best played with a controller, if possible). The game tracks your progress through each level with the combo meter, which is influence by the player's ability to move through the level and eliminate both enemies and leaf piles in an efficient manner. At the end of each level, the player is "ranked" by their abilities to achieve a high combo and how quickly they moved through the stage. The game also comes with a four-player multiplayer system with some typical variants such as Survivor and King of the Hill, along with a level editor that was introduced via patch after the games initial release.

While it's certainly an interesting way to promote level completion, the biggest problem with Dustforce's ranking system is that in order to access many levels of the game, the player is required to complete each previous level in a near-perfect manner. I found myself running through previous levels over and over just so I could access the next one. This certainly speaks volumes about Dustforce's ambitious gameplay, but also says a lot about how the game is put together. Forcing a player to run through previous levels 10-15 times will often make it feel as if the developers are simply padding out their game. It's a fantastic experience, but it would be a lot better if it were only longer and if it were easier to progress through the game. Also, the acrobatic abilities are hard to master, and it will take a lot of time with a controller in hand in order for an average player to perfect the play style that Dustforce presents.

However, there are many things about Dustforce that makes it an indie game that you should experience for yourself. The game has a unique art style that is gorgeous to look at, especially when a player is whizzing through a level at top speed. The colors blend together in a fantastic way that makes the game visually stunning. Also, the techno soundtrack was created by lifeformed, and it is nothing short of amazing. The music is stunning, and is some of the best I've ever heard in an indie game. Since it's release, Dustforce has been compared to other indie games, such as Super Meat Boy and N+, and while it shares a similiar style, Dustforce is a game that stands alone. It's innovations seperate it from other games like it, and it's penchant towards speedrunning implies that the developers knew exactly what market Dustforce would do best in.

Unfortunately, while Dustforce is a fantastic game, it is one that is more difficult than it's predecessors, and to the players that have never experienced fast-paced platforming gameplay, I would have to recommend that they play Super Meat Boy or N+ before this one. Those games are simpler, and typically will be a more casual experience than the one Dustforce provides. That being said, if you have experienced either of those games and hunger for more, then Dustforce is the game for you. Dustforce will impress and, hopefully, amaze you.

A 5 out of 10

BIT.TRIP RUNNER is an indie game that, like most indie games, will leave you either wanting more or wanting your money back.

The game was developed by Gaijin Games for the Virtual Console on the Nintendo Wii in 2010, but was released on Steam in February 2011. BIT.TRIP RUNNER is a rhythm-style action plaformer that consist of a protagonist, Commander Video, on a 2D plane. The player controls Commander Video as he runs along the set track from left to right and controls when the character jumps, slides, and kicking. As you progress through the 36 levels in the game (three worlds, each consisting of 11 levels, plus a boss encounter stage), you collect powerups that increase the quality of the music that plays through each level.

The game is notable for it's unique soundtrack, retro feel, and it's frustratingly difficult gameplay, as the current level is started over each time Commander Video runs into an obstacle that the player failed to acknowledge. The game forces a trial-and-error style of play, and in the end, it can hurt the experience. I myself found that I would get particularly frustrated on nearly every level that I played, as I would have to start the level over simply for pressing a button to early or too late. However, the game exceeds in rewarding the player, as the sense of accomplishment that comes from beating a particularly difficult level is unrivaled by most games that are released on the market today.

BIT.TRIP RUNNER is a unique game that can be extremely rewarding, or absolutely crushing. Be warned: the game is not for everyone. While I didn't particularly enjoy BIT.TRIP RUNNER, it continues to be a game that is loved by the Indie community and the games that follow it only stand to be a testament to their devotion.

A 5 out of 10.

Authors Note - I, personally, did not enjoy BIT.TRIP RUNNER. I felt that it was too difficult for me and that it simply wasn't my type of game. However, I do highly recommend this game to any and all gamers that have yet to play it. It's a challenging experience that harkens back to the older days of retro gaming, and for that, I can honestly say that everybody should play these games, at least once.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skryim is an action RPG developed by Bethesda Game Studios. It is the fifth installment in the Elder Scrolls Series, following it's predecessor The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Skyrim was released on November 11, 2011 for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC.

Skyrim's story takes place 200 years after the events of Oblivion in the fictional province of Skryim, a northern region of Tamriel, the continent where all of the Elder Scrolls games (thus far) have taken place. The game opens with you, the player, in chains on a prison cart, travelling to Helgen to be executed. Upon arrival, you'll customize your character's appearance and then escape the town when a dragon attacks from the skies. From here, you are set free in the land of Skyrim, and it is here that the game comes into it's own.

For those of you that have never played an Elder Scrolls game (and I'm assuming that if you've bothered to read this far into the review, you haven't), Skryim truly is one of the richest experiences that has ever been offered in the history of video games. Within minutes of the start screen, you, the player, are suddenly given the option to be whoever you want to be in a fantasy setting that only Bethesda could create. You could become a warrior, fighting with a sword and shield or mace, or a mage, using a staff and a book of spells to defeat your enemies, or a thief, using your stealth and cunning to swindle and steal from others. You could, in fact, be any one of these things. Be all three of them, if you want. This is the freedom that Skyrim offers you. Every NPC in the game has a home, a story, and a full, rich life. Every decision you make can lead to glory and riches, or death and destruction. If an NPC is killed, whether by you or somebody else, they don't just come back: they die, and oftentimes, other NPC's will mourn them. The game has no limitations other than what you make of it. You are, at no point, bound to follow the rules. You could follow the storyline, join a guild, complete random quests that villagers and townsfolk might offer you, or simply go raid a dungeon or go hunting. You could do anything and be anything that you want.

Unfortunately, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is simply a game that is too big for me to explain in one simple review. The game sports a laundry list of things to do that's longer than not just any previous elder scrolls game, but possibly any game in existence. Skyrim is nothing short of a masterpiece, and it begs to be played. You'll find yourself unable to leave the world of Skyrim, and soon returning back to the dungeon crawling fun that only the Elder Scrolls can offer.

A 10 out of 10.