The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth has been my go to "chill out" game for a while now so the moment I realized Afterbirth released on steam I snapped it up, dropped everything I was doing and started playing.

I will do a proper review after I've put in some more hours but even now I feel like I can confidently say that this is a great piece of DLC, it expands on pretty much every aspect of the main game while still adding enough new things to keep it all fresh. You can get it right now on Steam for $10,99/€10,99/£7,99 though keep in mind you will need the base game (The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth) in order to be able to play Afterbirth.

Oh, and before you begin playing allow me to spare you the 2 minutes of panicked googling because your prized real platinum god save has gone missing, it has not. Everything is ok with your save, you just need to import it in to Afterbirth by pressing down on the save select screen. I mean its so obvious, who would make such a mistake...

Anyway, if you do decide to get the game do yourself a favor and try out the newly added daily challenge, a version of the game's standard mode with some predetermined factors (in this case starting with a specific character and maybe pre-set items, I'm not sure about the last one) shared across the entire player base who then compete to be the first on the leaderboard. The score calculation depends on what items you take, how much damage you receive, how many areas you explore and naturally how fast you can get through it all without dying.

If you want to be on the very top you're going to have to take big risks in the name of speed while ensuring you take as little damage as possible. Oh, and did I mention you can only do the daily challenge once?

One of the new bosses for the first set of floors

Today's daily challenge showcases the new character Lilith, a demonic looking red haired gal who is completely blind and as such can't actually fire tears herself. Instead she comes with a nifty familiar who does the shooting for her. This is both a boon and a curse because in The Binding of Isaac familiars lag slightly behind you so its not always easy to aim with them, though it does allow you to put yourself out of harms way while still being able to shoot with the exposed familiar. And as her final attribute (from what I've noticed anyway) she starts with a space bar item that duplicates all of her familiars with a measly two room recharge rate.

From the early moments of my challenge all seemed lost as I foolishly misidentified what is arguably the worst item in the game, Soy Milk, an item that absolutely DECIMATES your damage but gives you a very high rate of fire, a trade off that sounds ok on paper but is actually dreadful since Isaac is a game about constant movement rather than standing still and firing a hundred tears per enemy. To my surprise, my little demon buddy inherited the item's effect turning it from a rather slow firing standard familiar in to more of a gattling gun... that was loaded with peas for ammunition.

While my run should've ended then and there I mustered all of my Isaac skill, cranked up the game's music and delivered what might be my finest performance yet. Exhausted but victorious I collected the trophy only to realize that I was position number 454, on a game that literally just released, ouch.

While my ego might need a few weeks of vacation after that I still enjoyed myself, the daily challenge was both interesting and... well... challenging but most importantly it was a great deal of fun. I'm going to go give the greed mode a try now, I should have a review up in a day or two once I've managed to collect my thoughts.