Key Takeaways
- The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth’s co-op DLC just launched into beta.
- However, it’s not going down well with fans due to janky input lag and a lack of mod support.
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth’s free co-op DLC launched earlier this week into beta, but it’s not going down well with fans.
Already, it has “Mixed” reviews on Steam, with even the positive ones complaining about input lag ruining the experience. In a bullet hell that demands precision, that’s hardly ideal.
What The Reviews Are Saying
“ITS SO FU**ING LAGGY,” one such positive review reads. “Worse than remote play,” a scathing negative review puts it. “Completely unplayable,” another player writes.
This is one of my favourite games of all time, but this DLC has to be the worst implementation of multiplayer I’ve ever seen in any game I’ve ever played,” TheKillerNacho says. “It’s constantly plagued by input lag, slowdowns, and game-ending freezes.”
“The online play is fundamentally built on synchronising gameplay between clients by giving everybody about half a second of input lag, akin to how most Nintendo online games work – that is to say, it’s terrible,” Isaax adds. “I don’t know why they thought this was a good system to choose, and I have my doubts about this being changed for the final release. What a shame.”
Co-Op Also Doesn’t Work With Mods
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth has an enormous and incredibly ambitious modding community. Fans have turned the game into a first-person shooter, developed entire DLC-sized add-ons, implemented cars, created an unofficial Undertale crossover, and even added an in-game wiki.
It’s no surprise then that the co-op DLC has come under fire for being incompatible with all of these mods. But it’s understandable. You would need to have the exact same mods as whoever you played with, and as Reddit user Awakening15 puts it, “I wouldn’t want to join a lobby with a host full of bullsh*t mods”.
However, some fans have put forward a compromise — the ability to mark mods as client side only, namely the aesthetic and quality-of-life ones, so that they can still be used online.
“They could do something like Don’t Starve Together does, separating mods into ‘client only’ and ‘all clients require’ mods,” saltydemise suggests. “Client only mods would be aesthetic and accessibility changes, while all clients require mods would actually change gameplay and such”.
This would avert the need to synchronise unofficial add-ons and identify that everyone has the same mods installed. You could still see item descriptions, charge bars, dice room effects, etc., since those are purely cosmetic changes.
As this DLC is still in the beta, such feedback could be taken into account down the line. But for now, input lag is the pressing issue.
Next
The Game Awards Needs To Start Showing Horror More Respect
Silent Hill 2 deserved better than being thrown in the “Action/Adventure” category.