The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+ expansion released
Baby games
The second expansion for The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth [official site], the world's premiere roguelikelike shooter about crying babies, launched last night. Afterbirth+ whacks in new items and enemies and levels and another character and all that but, perhaps more importantly, brings official mod support. Given the wonders players made with unofficial tools - have you seen the Antibirth mod? - I'm mighty excited by what might happen now.
For now, let's focus on what Afterbirth+ already comes with. We're looking at 50-odd new items, a new final chapter with a new boss, new enemies, new bosses, a new character, 2 new transformations, a hard difficulty for Greed Mode, daily Greed runs, and other odds and ends.
From what I've seen, it is - as expected, and as billed - small additions rather than massive changes. I'm not diggin' the portals which spawn random enemies until destroyed; they're jarring because many of my favourite Isaac rooms are clearly designed as encounters with specific enemies. Still, I'll reserve judgment until I've seen more. Afterbirth Non-plus seemed a little light at first but now it feels a natural and welcome part of Isaac.
Afterbirth+ is £4.68/6,69€/$6.69 on Steam, which includes a launch discount. The developers plan to issue monthly updates officially adding some of the best player-made mods too.
If you do want huge changes, hey, check out Antibirth. It's free to download over here and only needs Rebirth to play - no expansions.
Here's a video of Northernlion, a prolific Isaaceer and mostly a polite boy, playing as Afterbirth+'s new character for the first time. Apollyon starts with an item which can swallow up other items, gaining permanent stat boosts from passives and collecting the powers of active items. Yeah, be careful using that around Glass Cannon:
What happened with my quest to fully beat Afterbirth before Afterbirth+ came out? I gave up at 274 of 276 achievements, only needing to collect Mega Blast and beat the 'SPEED!' challenge. But SPEED! can flipping well do one. After grinding Keeper unlocks (ending with Blank Card/Restock/Chaos shenanigans so silly they crashed the game with a single shot) I had no patience for another tedious challenge.