Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+ adds more items & enemies

Ace roguelikelike allegory 'em up The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth [official site] last night launched the fourth 'Booster Pack' for its Afterbirth+ expansion, adding new items, new enemies, new room layouts, and more. As with the other Boosters, this is bringing player-made mods into the base game. I do recognise one tasty addition brought over from ace mod Antibirth: the Schoolbag, which lets players hold an extra active item. Only one more Booster is left to come so I'm glad this update seems a good'un.

Booster Pack 4 has brought five new items, one new trinket, six new(ish) enemies, hundreds of new unique rooms, and new sprites for several old Booster Pack items, as the unofficial patch notes detail. Some of those items do seem neat.

The Schoolbag I already know is great and I have enjoyed Death's List, which gives stat bonuses or items if you kill a room's enemies in a specific order. It adds a nice little bit of risk/reward and a new element to how every fight plays out, making me dance around to hit specific enemies.

I've not met all the new enemies yet either but the combination of those with the new layouts are welcome fresh air. Vihn and Nikola from the Antibirth team were actually behind the new enemies and rooms, Isaac co-creator Edmund McMillen explained on Twitter. Antibirth is a staggeringly impressive mod so I'm glad to see Edmund and Nicalis finally brought them in. Antibirth is due a big update of its own soonish too.

The bug fixes, tweaks, and new sprites are all welcome. Afterbirth+ has felt a little scrappy and unpolished, and some Booster Pack items especially so. I've still played Isaac almost every day, so none of this was game-ruining to me, but I am glad to see it tidied up. Isaac is like tea to me: in idle moments, I'm always thinking a cuppa and a quick bit of Isaac would be lovely.

McMillen says that one final Booster Pack is still to come and he hopes to include some new bits of his own.

I am marginally miffed about the timing of this. Over the weekend I finally grinded through the tedious Ultra Hard challenge, after which I only needed to collect two items to complete everything and get the 1000000% achievement. Now there's more. Ah well, I guess I'd better put the kettle on and fire up Isaac. I'm now told Booster items don't count. Heck yeah, let's go.