The Binding of Isaac

The Binding of Isaac: Beneath the Filth, a Story About Fear, Religion and Childhood

The Binding of Isaac uses bad taste with considerably more purpose than its obsession with excrement initially suggests. A child fleeing religious fanaticism descends into a basement filled with diseased bodies, fears, domestic objects and humiliating transformations. The game deliberately leaves space between those symbols rather than settling on one definitive interpretation. Combined with Edmund McMillen's art and Danny Baranowsky's soundtrack, that ambiguity gives Isaac an identity that remains immediately recognisable long after its technology has aged.