The Binding of Isaac: REPENTANCE: Online!

You heard it right here folks, The Binding of Isaac: Repentance by Edmund McMillen and Nicalis releases its first online beta, granted it’s only for a limited time (ending December 15th).
​by Colton Wise

You heard it right here folks, The Binding of Isaac: Repentance by Edmund McMillen and Nicalis releases its first online beta, granted it’s only for a limited time (ending December 15th), but it’s still great to see! Now, previously, The Binding of Isaac: Repentance had an online system, but you had to mess around with the game’s files and steam properties for it to work. You probably know about that if you’re reading this, though in case you don’t, you have to go into steam’s properties and enable --network test under launch options, then enable the debug console using the options.ini file located within the steamapps folder. Or, of course, just play locally/use steam remote play.

The Binding of Isaac’s online update added some great stuff, such as UI changes, less desynchronization errors,  etc. Generally it’s what you’d expect for a more proper Isaac online (with the exclusion of a proper chat system), such as color coding for players, nametags, and multiple items at the end of each boss. 

Now, there are changes to the base game itself, such as Jacob and Esau controls having a “better” option, though I can’t seem to find a difference, maybe they’re just perfect the way they are. "Fatties" also have something new, getting close to them is now tedious, as their gasses are poisonous. (Try explaining this to someone who has never played TBoI before.)

There is also an online and friend mode, so you could play with people you have added on steam, or with random people. Don’t worry, there’s no chat system. They also have other modes planned in the future, alongside their daily run mode.

They’re only gonna keep this up for a limited time, but they’ll keep bringing it back and taking it down until they completely finish it, which Nicalis said will take until near the end of 2024, guess it’ll be long worth the wait, huh?

Now, in order to set up the online beta, do the following. 

​Then enter code “combthedesert” 

Now, you’ll have to uninstall all your mods for this to work (or disable them, they might’ve patched that by now.), and also be sure to make a backup of your isaac save file, as the beta itself is fairly unstable and may have trouble working properly. After that, have fun playing!

Peace, everybody.