When comparing Desktop Dungeons vs The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, the Slant community recommends The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth for most people. In the question“What are the best roguelikes/roguelites on PC?” The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is ranked 14th while Desktop Dungeons is ranked 20th. The most important reason people chose The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is:
The levels in Binding of Isaac are randomly generated. They will have different layouts, monster combinations, upgrades, secrets, and bosses each time you start a new playthrough. You can even change characters to mix up the playstyle, swapping to a really fast but fragile character or a very durable but weak character. As a result, no two playthroughs will ever feel the same, allowing you to replay the game countless times without getting tired of it.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Mix of puzzle and roguelike
The game gets its roots from roguelikes, and the complexity of the combined genre really enhances the puzzle solving side of the game.
Instead of being real time, or taking place in a large expansive world, Desktop Dungeons games take place on a small 20x20 dungeon. Although the map is small, there is tons of strategy to figuring out the optimal way to clear the dungeon. Unveiling tiles is how you recover health and mana, so the game is fundamentally about efficiently using the tools and resources available to you in each map and coming up with unique strategies in such a small space. You must balance the risk between trying to get experience from exposed monsters and exploring deeper into the fog of war.
Pro Tons of character combinations
There are 7 races and 12 classes that are combinable as well as 4 extra monster classes that do not allow choosing of race making for 112 unique combinations, all with their own custom avatar. There are also 6 additional special races as well as 9 different gods you can worship during the game for even more abilities.
Pro Great for short bursts of play
Since each game takes place in one small dungeon, it's a great game to play in small bits of downtime.
Pro Humorous tone
The game doesn't take itself too seriously with lots of clever dialogue parodying the fantasy genre.
Pro Deep amount of content keeps strategy interesting and fresh
Even though the core gameplay is simple, the amount of power-ups and enemies create a massive amount of ways to play the game which keeps the puzzle solving aspect fresh.
Pro Great replay value
The levels in Binding of Isaac are randomly generated. They will have different layouts, monster combinations, upgrades, secrets, and bosses each time you start a new playthrough. You can even change characters to mix up the playstyle, swapping to a really fast but fragile character or a very durable but weak character. As a result, no two playthroughs will ever feel the same, allowing you to replay the game countless times without getting tired of it.
Pro Addictive gameplay that keeps you entertained
Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is very easy to pick up and play with each playthrough lasting about 30 minutes on average. It’s just really fun shooting enemies, collecting treasures, and dropping the occasional bomb, making it really hard to stop playing. One playthrough will turn into ten and many hours will have passed before you know it.
Pro Incredible amounts of content for a low price
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth has all the content of the previous releases and even new content. As a result there are tons of unlockable items, secrets, bosses, power-ups, hidden characters, challenges, and item combinations. There’s just so much to do and try out you’ll be entertained for dozens of hours, adding up to more hours you can spend in a lot of fullprice games.
Pro Character upgrades are really fun
One of the best parts about Binding of Isaac is collecting upgrades and watching your character evolve. This can be nuances in the physical appearance of your character, adding a cute hat, changing its skin tone to green, or even lodging a rock into its skull. It can also be modifications to the way your tear bullets look and shoot, changing their color, speed, firing arc, or even turning them into a massive laser. It’s just really cool seeing your character turn into something entirely different by the end of a playthrough.
Pro Very creepy themes
Binding of Isaac is a story about insanity, religious fanaticism, ritual sacrifices, and even worship of the devil. Once you start paying attention to the various details, it can be genuinely terrifying and dark.
Cons
Con While polished the graphics are still simple
Compared to other modern roguelikes the graphics are pretty minimal where the characters are tile based and lack animation when moving.
Con Hidden map means you can't solve the puzzles on logic alone
The map is hidden by fog of war until you explore it, meaning you can't devise a solution from the start. Because revealing the map regenerates your health and mana you can't explore everything at the start. You need to spend most of the game not knowing the state of the rest of the map.
Con Randomness can be really frustrating
You can have really bad luck in some playthroughs like finding very few keys, bombs, or coins, causing you to miss out on a lot of potential upgrades. There can also be times when the upgrades you find are bad. In both cases, a playthrough becomes unbearably hard and you probably won’t get very far. It’s very annoying when this happens multiple times in a row.
Con Can be really disgusting
While on the surface Binding of Isaac: Rebirth looks very cute and colorful, it actually has some pretty gruesome details within it. Blood, various bodily fluids, excrement, disfigured flesh, umbilical cords, and many more things that can make your stomach churn.