Best Versions of Binding of Isaac

Despite the new additions to the game, Afterbirth + was not polished in the slightest, and still isn't. Many new things added were either insignificant, like the awful Greedier mode, or were terrible and rushed, the biggest example of this being the void, a floor of recycled rooms and textures as well as bosses with delirium himself being infamous for animation glitches and impossible to avoid damage.

After the boosters were all released, most obnoxious bugs were fixed, the difficulty was less annoying and was very fair for the most part, and the balance was more or less restored thanks to how many awful items were added, making it the superior official Isaac version.

This is the only mod that I'll include in the list for the sole reason that it genuinely feels like an official version of the game, it's also the best incarnation of this game by far. The extra path gives a risk - reward factor to the game that I've always loved and the game in general feels fun, balanced, difficult and unique. The soundtrack to this version is also mind blowing.

This is where I feel the game was perfect, the balance was spot on, the game's pixel art style worked much better than the vector art that they had before, the entire game was at its most polished right here.

Despite the various quality of life improvements, new synergies and items, as well as more stuff in general, Afterbirth has one big issue, balance. Before this version, you the ratio of terrible items to amazing items was set in such a way that you wouldn't necessarily get a good run, even by the end. The addition of a lot of powerful items, without adding too many extra items that sucked meant that you were almost guaranteed to have a great run, making the game a bit too easy.

I simply find this version of the game to feel quite dated, the lack of items, paths, synergies and basically any form of content compared to later games just make it that this one doesn't stan out in any way.

The lack of content in this is even more apparent than in Wrath of the lamb, while a passable game, it just doesn't have any of the fun that the later incarnations of the game had.