House of the Lost: Revived channels 2012 jank, in both good and bad ways

The Binding of Isaac is one of my favourite games of all time. I've sunk upwards of 200 hours into it across several platforms. To me, it's still unsurpassed in the roguelike world. So, when House of the Lost: Revived recently came to my attention, highlighting the fact that Edmund McMillen's masterpiece was a big inspiration for them, I had to check it out. And I've come away with mixed feelings.

The Isaac influence is clear the moment you hit start. You find yourself in a spooky house filled with all manner of strange and wonderful monsters, needing to battle through them to save your sister. Whenever you step into a new room, all the doors will lock until the enemies are cleared out. Everything is procedurally generated, too, meaning that starting over effectively presents a slightly different house to explore. 

It's all very BoI, even down to the little map that slowly builds in the top-left-hand corner while exploring. And even though the concept is that I'm skulking through a scary place full of evil entities, I felt right at home. The monster designs are great too, once you get past the standard zombies. There are these giant blue cuboid guys and slightly less giant, sentient eyeballs that, while not entirely original, aren't overly commonplace either.

That's largely thanks to the art style, which is very Flash-era-adjacent, a topic that is in vogue at PG right now. And that comparison isn't too surprising since House of the Lost: Revived is actually a revamped version of a game that first launched in 2012. It's like stepping into a time machine, for better and worse. For instance, the movement is a little floaty. It's not unlike one of those platformers where the jumping doesn't feel quite right. 

Gone in a Flash

By itself, that's not actually a problem. In fact, aside from one glaring exception, it adds to the difficulty in a way that doesn't feel unfair. Merely touching an enemy does damage, so it's important to give everything a wide berth - a tricky feat when your character is a little unwieldy. You get used to it, though. However, there is that glaring exception. It's very easy to get stuck on door frames when entering rooms. With particularly bad luck, you can get mobbed by enemies before having a chance to respond. 

The shooting, meanwhile, is just bad. You can fire in the cardinal directions using the virtual buttons, but they are incredibly tiny and buried at the bottom of the screen, making it easy to misclick them. Figuring it might be better with a controller, I plugged in my Razer Kishi V2 Pro. To my initial delight, it had controller support. That joy was short-lived after I realised the screen wouldn't rotate the other way, though. So, I'd either have to play it upside down or hold my controller funny. Naturally, I went back to the touch controls. 

And while I still had to wrestle the controls, my experience improved as I got better at dodging, helping me stay out of harm’s way as I attempted to fire in the right direction. The gameplay here is tough. The rooms are fairly small, and enemies are good at striking you in one way or another. The zombies march you down with evil intent while those sentient eyeballs I mentioned earlier make an SAS sniper look like one of those overly committed airsoft rifle enthusiasts. It doesn't take long before death is certain.

I'm all for that side of it. Lightning-fast reactions and solid awareness of the room are the keys to success here. It doesn't bother me that I'm lacking in that department. The issue is when unfair things happen. Take cardboard boxes. These are generally solid, static parts of the environment that can be used as cover. That is, unless they're needed for a basic puzzle. Apparently, when a box becomes movable, it loses its usual physics, meaning a laser bolt from Chris 'Big Eye' Kyle will fly right into my unsuspecting face. And, no, there's no visible difference between the ones that will and won't move. 

Both sides of the jank equation

Now, you might be sitting there thinking, “This sounds atrocious.” I completely understand. Yet, despite that, I keep hitting that 'Try Again' button every time I die. For every negative I discover, House of the Lost: Revived remains compulsive. I want to get better. I want to find more items. I want to kill all the giant eyeballs. 

So, if I had to sum up House of the Lost: Revived with one word, it would be 'janky.' Of course, given that this can be an insult and a term of endearment in the gaming world, a longer explanation is required. In this case, I'm using it for every possible definition. At times, House of the Lost's foibles are charming, and at others, downright annoying. For me, the charm ultimately wins out, just about, but I can't see that being the case for everyone.