Poor little Isaac. First his mum starts hearing God, then she locks him in a room and then she try's to kill him. His only hope is a hasty escape to the basement. Will he find sanctuary?

Christ no! All he finds are room after room of horrors, determined to kill him. Isaac will die. A lot.

The Binding of Isaac is a game from Edmund McMillen, one of the members of Team Meat, and boy does that fella have a dark imagination. The game is probably best described as rougelike with elements of Geometry Wars. You start in a randomly generated dungeon and have to work your way through each room until you fight a boss and descend to the next level. Permadeath hangs heavy over each encounter - once all your hearts are gone its back to the beginning to start it all over again.

Luckily Isaac isn't completely defenseless. His first line of attack are his tears - yes Isaac must cry his way to safety. In addition he can also carry bombs, special items (that recharge as you kill monstrosities), one-shot items (like pills and cards) and keys and coins to unlock or purchase upgrades.

It's these upgrades and items that you find randomly throughout the dungeon that really make each play through unique. Some upgrade your tears, some your health and others offer a special ability. Upgrades can be passive such as the virus syringe which poisons any enemies you touch while others are geared towards a more active offense. I've played through several times now and not only do I come across items I haven't seen the before and there are also items from earlier play-throughs that I haven't seen since.

Each of the upgrade items also changes Isaac's appearance in some both charming and disturbing ways (such as a coat hanger through the head). As you work your way through each dungeon you pray that you will come across an upgrade that will help ensure you survive through to the next dungeon. But this wouldn't be a proper roughlike if there also wasn't a chance that the upgrade you've picked up will be useless or cause more harm that good, although luckily that doesn't happen too often.

You control Isaac using the WASD keys to move and the arrow keys or mouse to direct your fire. When you enter a room full of fleshy nightmares all the doors will remain locked until you have defeated every last monster. While the control system is basic it works well enough as you manically ping around the room trying to hit the enemies and avoid being hit yourself. It would have been nice to have support for a controller as this game clearly wants to play like a twin skin shooter. The lack of acute control can occasionally lead to frustration as you fail to move out of the way quickly enough and there is rarely a sense that you've cleared a room through your skill at controlling the little naked Isaac.

However its hard to get too upset at your failure as you quickly jump straight back in again to see what roll of the dice you'll get this time. The art style, which is reminiscent of Super Meat Boy, is both charming and at the same time horrifically disturbing. The power ups and items are cheeky and unique and seeped in dark humor. Each bad guy has a distinct style and attach with subtle variations. Blood and faeces litter the floor and the bosses you fight are particularly horrific.

Every time you play there is something new to discover, some new hope that makes you think this will be the time I complete the game, before you ultimately fail. Some levels you will have a ton of money and no where to spend it or on another try you'll have a load of keys and nothing to unlock. But then their will be one play through where it all seems to be going your way until yet again you run low on hearts, risk another room and die at the hands of a flaming headless man. You curse, shrug and hit the replay button and start all over again to give it one more try.

Its not a perfect game and there are plenty of more meaty rougelikes out there to play. But the Binding of Isaac has a morbid charm, simple but deep mechanics and that just one more go-ness that will see a quick ten minute game turn into a two hour time sink.

Its available now on Steam with 10% off and I think it's certainly worth the £3.59 (or $5) is currently going for.

Now - I think I've got time for one more go.