The Binding of Isaac Unspoiled First Playthrough [Ep. 6] // Broken Run Holy (Also IT GOT HARDER)

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[@Grigorii-j7z]

Isaac is a hard game when you have permanent curse of blindness.

[@GRNKRBY]

What does Temperance do again? 😅

[@klopsmmm]

**cough cough** devil/angel room chances...

[@thejerg]

See, don't say that because my ratio of runs to wins is sooooooooooo horrific compared to his...

[@CyberweaverVT]

I once got Curse of the Lost on Void

[@Destorarc]

Curse of the Carl

[@chorizord6974]

You know he is a true Isaac fan cuz he became back his money

[@CrypticBore]

It made me unreasonably happy to hear that at the start of the vod.

[@ehwa6780]

i feel like this is the only 'true' blind playthrough of modern isaac on yt, love that he doesnt let twitch chat spoil even little things

[@Sergkx]

If he keeps playing regularly I need a video of him reacting to his first run just for him to realize how better has he gotten

[@Streunekater]

... which would work IF he actually got better 😁 Right now it looks like he forgets faster than he learns.

[@rsvdark_main]

@@Streunekater He's definitely learning! It's easy to notice the mistakes he makes but he is definitely no longer repeating old mistakes nearly as much as before

[@Anusien]

I think you’re confused. Let me give you the complete list of things Carl has learned:

[@martinprince8253]

You forgot a thing:

[@jannik323]

i sometimes think the game could have isaac do sick backflips and carl would only notice by accident 15 min later

[@jannik323]

he just has a different focus i suppose

[@BurnerBagel]

I don't support back-seating but I do understand the frustration of seeing a player call an item bad due to not understanding how it works. Annoyingly there is so much in this game you would likely overlook unless you googled it. I'm glad to see most people not spoiling things though.

[@RPG_Hacker]

Your Isaac run has been a super-fascinating experience for me so far for many, many reasons. For one, I've played Isaac for so many hundreds of hours already that I've completely forgotten what it felt like when I first played it without any prior knowledge. I've just become so familiar with the game already that I can't imagine not taking certain obscure mechanics for granted. Naturally, this leads to quite some moments of frustration whenever you miss a cool thing and I'm like "oh come one, why didn't he...", but then immediately afterwards I remember "oh yeah, he wouldn't know about that yet, and even if he did, it's so difficult to remember absolutely everything in this game". For another, this playthrough makes me more aware than ever about just how much ADHD affects your visual perception. Most of us have of course known about your ADHD for quite a while already, and it just so happens to be part of the reason for why watching you play troll levels is so much fun. I guess Isaac is a perfect demonstration of the flip side of that coin. Since the game is so full of obscure interactions, effects and secrets and we're not supposed to spoil stuff, we just have to hope that you'll figure these things out on your own - so whenever one of these obscure effects randomly drops a big hint that could lead to some learning and you completely miss it, it can be quite painful to watch as a seasoned Isaac player. It sometimes makes us want to go "HOW DID HE NOT SEE THAT?", but then of course we realize that it's not really your fault. (Even disregarding the ADHD, there's just so much stuff going on in the game that it's super easy to miss something everywhere). I think the contradiction with troll levels is quite fitting, because in troll levels, it's always funny when your ADHD makes your overlook something, whereas in Isaac, it's usually quite sad/painful. It also makes me ponder "if ADHD can affect a person to this degree in a video game, just how much does it affect their daily life?". I think it's important to have that awareness. For a third, it's just super fascinating to see how despite having played Isaac for literally hundreds of hours across different versions and platforms, there's still buttloads over buttloads of completely new content in the game that I'm seeing for the very first time in your playthrough. Like, after so much play time, you'd think I surely would've seen everything in the game at least once by now, but nope. Just in your playthrough so far alone, I've already seen dozens of completely new items, enemies, rooms and effects that I was never aware of before. Knowing this, it makes me feel so silly whenever I get mad about you not knowing something, because I realize that I'm literally in the exact same boat - for all the many things that I do already know about the game, there's probably many, many more that I don't know yet, and if I were to play and stream the game right now, I'd probably also piss off some long-time Isaac players by making some really bad decisions purely based on a lack of knowledge. We should all remind ourselves of this fact whenever we want to scream at the screen again after a thing you did in the game - we're all ignorant to something.

[@alkki4294]

you are passionate

[@TopOfAllWorlds]

I have ADHD too. I can see myself missing stuff, but I usually work backwards to figure out what I missed. I'm also medicated for it, but IDK is carl is? I also might be lightly autistic though so when patterns change I notice it immediately and need to stop everything to figure it out.

[@Maximo2204]

It’s surprising how he gets intimidated every time he gets to Necropolis instead of the Depths but is always completely unaware of the times he gets to the Cellar instead of Basement, or the times he gets to Catacombs instead of Caves

[@MDoorpsy]

Admittedly, he probably feels like if he gets the hard version of level one, no biggie as he isn't invested in the run yet, but if he gets the hard version of Depths, he might actually lose right when he's starting to snowball.

[@musicaccount3340]

That's cause he checks for whether it's mom yet, so he remembered depths in particular. And the music change was the most noticeable for him too.

[@thejerg]

by the way, if you really want to "immerse" yourself in the already.. cursed.. lore of the game, ask yourself questions like "Why would the wooden spoon make you faster?" If you really sit down and think about what the items do, the game takes on an even deeper level of horror

[@oxOXChargeXOxo]

hey carl love watching you play this! this moment at 4:26:17 was just way too funny. "I wish there was something to spend my hearts on" while there is literally a guy holding up a heart sign two meters away from your pile of hearts.. felt like you were trolling for a second but then you left the room and never came back. it's understandable though it was late into the stream

[@musicaccount3340]

I hope he eventually gives these dudes a chance and learns their true power

[@acxrn]

I'm actually surprised that I haven't seen a certain green explosive item that tends to be the downfall of many beginner's runs...

[@the_lade3146]

He just unlocked it

[@rubixpotato1301]

Bob's Brain is Eds favorite item... and mine 😈

[@acxrn]

chat spamming one more, me too, chat, me too

[@dW-td2ul]

I love how most players start off avoiding things like bobs brain, the jar of bombs with monocle, and the throw up medicine in the early days, but learn just how good they actually are once they get good.

[@trololoev]

he too good so game give him cursed eye twice.

[@TheAceOfFire]

0:00, Godlike first run! 57:20, Solar System challenge run. 1:29:34, Eden run. 1:35:48, Eden run attempt 2! 1:57:37, The funniest part of the stream! 2:01:04 HA! The same one! 2:01:49, Eden attempt 3. The deadliest foe: 2:32:25. Curse you spikes! 2:32:31, Eden 4th try... Huh? 2:36:15, 5th, Dude is slaughtering Edens... 2:51:09, Eve... Instant death. 2:51:40, Eve second try!

[@lolzold4]

Love you for this! ❤

[@Yakup-b6d]

The hero we needed

[@sck8000]

Still loving your blind playthrough series! Keep it up! 😁 A lot of folks in your chat were debating how much of the game's mechanics can actually be discovered organically, and I'd like to throw my own hat in the ring. It's a long read, but I'm hoping it's insightful and more nuanced than just "you're playing it wrong; install item description mods"! I'm someone who went into OG Isaac blind and have been with it since the demo first appeared on Newgrounds, and only took to the wiki and used outside help when things got bigger in scale and the devs started adding cryptic ARG content to the game. I've been playing regularly for a long time, but absolutely think there's value in uncovering a lot of the game's mechanics yourself. The main issue comes down to the fact that the game has existed for a long time, and the devs' approach to its new content and secrets has changed over the 10+ years it's been around. Originally, Edmund wanted everything to be cryptic, but discoverable naturally through exploration - it's why all the item descriptions in-game are so unclear, and only expressed through vague clues. Playing blind can be incredibly rewarding because of this. A lot of the items carried over from Flash Isaac are pretty intuitive and fun to figure out on your own. But Ed's also gone on record as saying that in-game item descriptions "have been needed 1 or 2 expansions ago", due to how massive the game became in scope in the years since. A lot of the items and mechanics added later in the game's lifespan were implemented with the knowledge that there's a wiki out there and a community who already know the game inside-out. These kinds of things were intended to be figured out as a community rather than individually and it shows. Some of the more obscure means of unlocking secrets or rare interactions are borderline impossible to figure out with outside help, because they were made with the community as a whole in mind. Point is, the game's a huge wonderful mess of mechanics, and most (but not all) will be a joy to discover at your own pace. But the more obtuse and rare mechanics are going to be a struggle no matter how slowly it drip-feeds you its hundreds of unlocks and new content, because that's how they were designed. You mentioned a theory about being able to somehow find / generate entrances to those crawlspaces somehow, for instance - I won't spoil how/if it works of course, but it's a good example of something you're unlikely to discover naturally. You 100% should continue playing blind and spoiler-free for as long as you feel able, but you'll almost certainly reach a point where spoilers and are necessary - but hopefully that's a long way off. It's a joy to discover from scratch, and I'll be happily watching you along your journey. But don't feel bad if you eventually decide one day that you do need spoilers after all. It's just another part of the process 😊

[@sck8000]

Also, to give a bit more detail on Edmund's stance on in-game item descriptions - earlier this year he talked about online co-op, an item encyclopedia, and a rework of [REDACTED] as three major milestones he'd like to see added. He's not directly involved with development of Isaac any more, but the rest of the dev team are taking his ideas on board, so it's reasonable to assume there will be an official item description feature in the game at some point one day. Online co-op has literally been added in the time since this series began, after all! I feel like it's only a matter of time before we get in-game item descriptions, though I'd personally like it to still reward discovery and experimentation - only unlocking the description after picking the item up, for instance. They already have a screen to show you which ones you've found, and which ones you have yet to see, after all.

[@MDoorpsy]

Feels like we should at least be able to tell him how to begin the process of unlocking the Forgotten and the Lost are, as those would probably take thousands of runs for anyone to figure out on their own.

[@retroid8357]

"Colored dude, got to be careful" - Carl 2024

[@RaiOshynnCat]

So many starving Dark Bums. I feel so bad for the one in the arcade all those tantalizing hearts just left there.

[@Platinum_Imp]

"I feel like I've learned something" immediately picks up Cursed Eye

[@LowIQsocietymember]

Yeah, if there was SOMETHING, that he could spend those extra hearts on...

[@LowIQsocietymember]

That just hurts

[@musicaccount3340]

It sucks, but people sometimes get into a habit of doing certain things and it's hard to break it. I think that's why Carl keeps blowing up beggars and blood donation machines.

[@ForestGramps]

Pretty crazy that Ed kinda just showed up in the middle of the stream (I caught the end of the stream live and watched the twitch vod).

[@CarlPlayin42]

Sad I missed it :( Isaac is probably the hardest game I've ever played to read chat

[@ForestGramps]

@@CarlPlayin42 While we might lose a bit of the streamer-chat interaction, it's totally worth it so we get a real raw look into a blind play-through. I'd rather it be this way if it means you get spoiled less and/or focus and enjoy the game more! :)

[@FunnyMan69-ci9yk]

When was it?

[@francolmable]

@@FunnyMan69-ci9yk 57:32

[@FunnyMan69-ci9yk]

@francolmable thx

[@Scarthcaroth]

Eve might be a good learning experience for Carl but I also feel she runs counter to how he usually plays. Not that I can blame him. Generally most roguelikes tend to teach you that you should stay at high HP as much as you can when Eve's potential is unlocked when you're at low HP. Though to be fair using your HP as a resource is one of the hardest things to learn. So I have faith that once he becomes more comfortable playing at low HP (which he will have to once he unlocks some of the other characters iykyk) he'll start using all of the available options better.

[@loganhonors4154]

Yeah he also doesn't use demon beggars even when he has a bunch of health available. Other than a little classic carlblind and the knowledge gap, he is pretty good at the game for someone who basically just started.

[@JonahChickering-j9n]

His mechanical dodging skill is pretty unreal for someone with sub 50 hours

[@Snitsky9]

You know he's becoming a fan when he starts disrespecting range ups lol.

[@WiF_Gaming]

i have NEVER seen the "beyblade" mechanic used on Bethany's Book of Virtues, that's CRAZY! (1600+ hours btw xdd)

[@Bobbias]

Yeah and if you'd asked me how those items would interact that's not what I would have guessed.

[@kylerivera3470]

The Solar System challenge will become easier once you are more used to the game. That challenge requires you to play aggressively with the orbitals, so knowing the enemies attack patterns and having the confidence to dodge them from close up helps a ton. By the way, "orbitals" refers to any item that circles around you in a fixed pattern.

[@MDoorpsy]

That, or just by being familiar enough with items to know which can let you cheeze the challenge. A single shooting familiar makes it much easier. Getting Rotten Baby on your first Devil Deal is basically a free win (as much as any win is free in this game). Actively choosing to skip the first DD in favor of Angel is also a viable strategy, as that room has more defensive items.

[@mathiaswesterlund292]

Harsh words right from the get go

[@KikoBean]

I AM BECOME BACK MY MONEY.

[@The_Devourer_Of_Gods]

I cried, he needs to make an apology video rn

[@MawileLover]

I was beaming with pride ngl

[@Everyone_Loves_Wang]

2:44:40 before he enters the shop the room has a chest and a spike block in the bottom left corner. After exiting the shop the room has swapped contents with another room with the same door layouts and now there's a chest in the top left and bottom right corner. I've never seen that interaction before in my 7 years of playing. Curse of the maze is wild

[@dobregt]

Its really hard for Carl because usually a player familiar with isaac can get a new item and observe the changes because they know some items/characters already, but Carl has to observe EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME, including multiple items, cards, character mechanic and such, so its hard to find the effect of one specific thing

[@j.n.-fr5uh]

ultimate science. especially with the attention deficit. i can only play isaac because ive watched countless hours of someone else playing (and explaining) it b4 touching the controller myself

[@cheadlestudio]

this is understandable but there are so many moments where it's a clear cause and effect even if the item doesn't tell him what it does

[@Yurgaloo]

That second Eden run was a whole roller coaster of "it's so over" and "we're so back"

[@Kaktanternak]

Streamer luck is real with the Guppy's collar 1:57:44 The rite of passage for every Isaac player. 2:01:03 NO WAY XDDDDD 2:28:20 that's a spicy run 2:36:00 softlock? so many funny moments in this series of runs, I can't even 3:25:44 a learning experience for sure 3:37:23 "I feel like I've learned something" 4:22:47 NOT AGAIN

[@ascerin]

4:42:01 a million hearts on the floor, zero blood bank usage. Smh

[@j.n.-fr5uh]

i like the idea of a "first roguelike playthrough" i wonder how long it takes until the "first playthrough" is over ive been playing isaac since 2017 and im still on my "first playthrough", i think

[@SiculusTheEpithet]

Ughhhh, I so wanted you to survive the almond milk/parasitoid run, that's such a good combo

[@caby202]

greeat to see carl learnt about how bridges can be made, lets see if he remembers in future runs!

[@alkki4294]

I SCREAMED WHEN I SAW THIS I WAS SO BORED THANKS CARL!!!!

[@groerhahn225]

What I love about Isaac is that it has seemingly infinite content which means that it is almost impossible to know everything about it. For example, I had no idea that the almost completely useless Spin to win had such an insane synergy with Book of Virtues. That was so funny lol

[@dereklamont8998]

Love how Carl always picks the cursed eye then forgets what it does and complains.

[@ivakichan5724]

I love the begining bit with the Edmund meme

[@Sheer_Falacy]

It's pretty funny that Carl used the donation machine a couple of times when he first saw it and then decided to always blow them up, no matter what.

[@someairbender4414]

This is my absolute favorite series going on right now haha I love carls reaction to everything!

[@CaioHenrique-or1ng]

i never realized some people have trouble looking at the conners like this, from stats he doesnt notice to a whole new resource with bethamy.... i never realized some peooke just cant look at it all at oncw this is not to throw shade at him, it is just interesting to me

[@sglyph]

0.001 seconds in and I'm flashbanged by Carl spewing pure FILTH

[@noctisflamma]

Envy vs Bethany. Envy: I am legion. Bethany: Lol, I am beyblade

[@KikoBean]

Theft from the twitch chat

[@noctisflamma]

​@@KikoBeani said that in twitch chat

[@klopsmmm]

Even the glasses won't cure the blindness :(

[@finderrio]

Carl walking on the spikes TWICE right after saying something along the lines of "somehow i'm alive" 😂😂

[@benjaminharris8431]

YES ive been refreshing my page for this

[@superxbetatester]

2:05:28 "Colored dude, gotta be careful" I was washing dishes and that made me laugh out loud

[@francolmable]

i cant belive that edmun just spawns in at 57:32 in chat

[@teemuaho4807]

rare spawn

[@crowcoregames1785]

"i will become back my money" is a quote of time also i love how carl gets spin to win on beth because yeh lol

[@calccalccalc]

Insane-o run, followed by endless drought, with the memory of glory still persisting. Typical Isaac experience.

[@schmingbeefin4473]

2 minutes before I search for it, hell yeah! Thanks for the awesome content!

[@GRNKRBY]

Carl, keep playing how you're playing. Always learning. =)

[@LoanRepresentative]

This game has been second nature to me since i was 10ish, honestly, it's amazing see you learn but some things are so deeply rooted in me that I just can't help be impressed whenever uou don't know about it

[@trololoev]

4:26:16 people with weak heart should skip this moment.

[@an_annoying_cat]

carl is learning so much, im so proud of him

[@MetroidFission]

Finally my favorite item in the game shows up, almond milk lmao

[@Skkull]

Since he seems to be ending up with very low health every run I think it'd be a genuinely good plan if he started avoiding devil deals entirely

[@fafniroth]

Spin to Win Damocles Bethany is definitely one of the runs of all time

[@matthewhutton8275]

Hundreds of hours in Isaac, never seen Book of Virtues/Spin to Win. That's crazy.

[@cowboyclip]

4:26:20 I am SCREAMING at the screen right now

[@NotQuartz]

Larl: I wanna win Also Larl: takes almost every devil deal he can understanding how the devil and angel chances work will definitely help you in future runs (as well as self control in devil rooms XD)

[@teeebeee]

3:42:51 the silent fade to black made me laugh so hard because it's so damn relatable

[@BenRHarsh]

3:33:40 "Jesus-fuckity-shit!" Best quote from the entire video.

[@Nikzzza]

Oh damn. That was the last vod. Been watching on the side while doing other stuff and I was confused how YT didn't give me ep7 next. Guess I gotta wait for more

[@sannice]

Love the death here 😂 2:01:06 Carl spoke too soon 😂😂 2:01:03

[@MDoorpsy]

4:41:13 Carl's thought process does give an idea for what the cartridge could do in an arcade. What if it had an increased chance to activate when walking into a blood donation machine, thus resulting in a lot more money?

[@Acaran]

The second Eden run is a fever dream. :D

[@LegonTW0]

Ngl, it's really frustrating to see you not ever using dono machines or devil beggars even when you have bunch of hearts to spare

[@emeraldworldlp8828]

Wow I'm like the only person who likes cursed eye.

[@wellincolin]

Let's go more Isaac hypeeee!

[@someelbowgeese]

We are so back, and so is our money becoming

[@Zalied]

carl doing the patience challenge of solar system

[@thegreatautismo224]

1:18:50 He made me experience high tide!

[@flyboy288]

Hi Carl, I don't post comments all that often, but I wanted to comment on your gameplay so far of Isaac. I've never played the game before, so when you're ignoring some items, choosing others and people in twitch or youtube complain, I just have fun watching it and see what it does as well. I think you're doing great and it's fun to watch you play as someone who's never played/watched gameplay of this before, thanks for the videos of them :)

[@reaperz5677]

MORE ISAAC, YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

[@anthonyosei-kufuor2784]

As an aside, I don’t understand that weird drama in chat about it being rude to say “it’s pain” watching certain things happen during Carl’s runs. It’s not necessarily being rude as it’s normal for people who have experienced the game to feel bad seeing Carl miss important information or fall into some trouble or issue. It’s not cool to then gaslight that person into thinking they are rude and their behavior is unacceptable since Carl also seems to be doing fine inspire of it all anyways. He’s aware it’s prolly painful to watch, but he’s just starting out. It’s natural for people to feel that way, especially when they have to basically keep themselves from speaking to prevent spoilers. Idk I feel like the real issue is trying to play the hero when saving is needed.

[@fuzzyd1436]

2:01:01 the run continues

[@Allen-jj7vv]

I believe most players have this happen to them😂

[@cowboyclip]

I’m hooked on these maaaaan

[@popmushee]

You are an Isaac player now, MM2 and Isaac from now on

[@TopOfAllWorlds]

Carl does NOT pay attention to his resources. It's not entirely his fault but holy shit. It took me less than a minute to figure out how bethany's charges worked. Sometimes he over analyzes something and then other times he doesn't question it at all or makes an assumption. What does he think they spirit heart counter is there for? It has to be there for something. Why do they descrese when the counter is blue and he uses an item that doesn't recharge itself? *How is he using an item multiple times, that's never been how they work*. Ug it's so frustrating

[@TopOfAllWorlds]

I would like to come back to this comment to say that I mean this in the nicest way possible. When I said it's not entirely his fault I mean I understand that streaming and commentating while playing can cause a good chunk of the confusion.

[@Novastar.SaberCombat]

I *knew* he'd walk into the bloody same spike tile THREE times, lmao. 😂 #LydiaVsGate

[@benjaminghailane9452]

I WILL BECOME BACK MY MONEY ! Man I remember McMillen tweeting that he wanted the entire quote on his tombstone 😂 Edit : 39:33 decision was made, disaster ensued (bandages pog)

[@MoRiSeReeR]

What does Temperance do again?

[@biggerlamp]

Heck yes more Blinding of Larsiic!

[@EvilAliv3]

I dunno how Carl manages to get every 1st run with a new character an item that breaks it to the point learning becomes imposible :D

[@blackseraph5939]

Hey Carl, once you'll decide to use External Item Descriptions and stuff, would you be open to playing with some Isaac KZbinr maybe? I think it could be fun for both of you if you do!

[@seanmclaughlin9283]

Your starting to get the hang of the game. But still missing a lot of stuff.

[@Vazcov1609]

That arcade room was painful to watch...

[@dW-td2ul]

Spin to win book was the synergy i got when i won my very first (*)greed(*) mode

[@aranavenger]

I wonder if he will ever figure out he has technically been sequence breaking lol

[@fackumon292]

rowrow is so annoying

[@abassett22]

Carl- plays challenge. Complains it’s getting challenging. 😂

[@Quiltfish]

Book of Virtues go brrrrrrr

[@hyperventalated]

2:54:00 this sounds like a flash Isaac enemy sound lmao

[@poppinpaper_2721]

He’s starting to go deranged

[@hoboshoe]

2:01:00 what a blursed run . . . . . . . . what's even funnier is that he missed like 6 tinted rocks

[@-amosc.presley-7192]

Use your Bombs wisely! My buddy!

[@HarrHarrHarrify]

what eating too many amnesia pills does to a MF

[@SLCclimber]

Was that really Edmund in chat around 1:00:00? It didn't read like how I imagine he'd talk.

[@emeraldworldlp8828]

Yes

[@nikirol4051]

1:15:09 Jumpscare

[@trololoev]

cool, non-azazel run are fun one

[@Grasfh]

22:29 Mattman spotted

[@Travar1410]

Yay