
User reviews: Very Positive (297 reviews)
Release Date: Jan 29, 2014


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“A challenging and beautiful foray into the genre.”
8.75 – Game Informer

About This Game





Key Features





Allocate precious skills


Choose your own ghastly fate


Acquire eternal powers


System Requirements

    • OS: Windows Vista/7
    • Processor: 1.6 Ghz
    • Memory: 2 GB RAM
    • Graphics: X1950 Pro, 7900 GT
    • DirectX: Version 10
    • Hard Drive: 300 MB available space
Helpful customer reviews
113 of 118 people (96%) found this review helpful
3.9 hrs on record
Posted: November 4



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30 of 40 people (75%) found this review helpful
12.7 hrs on record
Posted: September 20
There are definitely things to like in Our Darker Purpose. It has great atmosphere backed up by a great art style and music. Everything is functional, but the more I played, the more one thought kept coming back: "The Binding of Isaac did this better."

Our Darker Purpose plays very similarly to Binding of Isaac, but just about everything it does, Isaac does better. Isaac has more variety of powerups and enemies. Isaac has a deeper and more interesting resource management system. Our Darker Purpose is much more focussed on the moment-to-moment combat then big picture balancing of resources. There are no keys, and your "bombs" are used exclusively for fighting. Most upgrades offer only numerical stat increases. The actual gameplay, however, has different ideas. Hit detection is awkward, enemies and hazards are more annoying or frustrating than interesting, and for all the focus on numerical upgrades, you never really feel more powerful than when you start. Isaac had it's share of numerical upgrades, but on any given run, you were bound to find at least one item that fundamentally changed how you approached the rest of the game. Each run felt different and unique. Each run of Our Darker Purpose just feels the same, but with the numbers shuffled around a bit.

At the end of the day, if you spend all your time with a game thinking about a different, better game, then that's not a very good sign for the game you're playing. If you've completed everything in The Binding of Isaac and really need something similar to hold you over until the remake, you'll get some enjoyment out of Our Darker Purpose. To everyone else, I cannot recommend this game as long as The Binding of Isaac exists.
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16 of 19 people (84%) found this review helpful
9.3 hrs on record
Posted: November 1





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8 of 10 people (80%) found this review helpful
8.7 hrs on record
Posted: October 31
Appealing art style, fantastic soundtrack, and overall an atmosphere I find much more interesting than Binding of Issac, which is the first thing all people compare it to.

Some quick things to note:
You only have 4-directional shooting. If you're shooting while strafing, the shot will fire at an angle, also requiring precise movement while shooting.
Hitboxes are odd, but you get used to them after a while.
Your character isn't very mobile unless you utilize the dodge mechanic, so remember to use it in combat.
It's very expensive for what it is. It's on Humble Bundle right now, so I'd recommend getting it there.
Where the balls is the soundtrack!?
Got the Touhou flowing through my veins a few times.

Ultimately, though, this review is coming from someone who has never played Risk of Rain, Binding of Issac, or any other games people compare it to. But this is because it's the first that I looked at that just from the screenshots and description, it grabbed a lot more of my attention.
I'll check out Binding of Issac when the rerelease comes out.
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10 of 16 people (63%) found this review helpful
6.5 hrs on record
Posted: November 20
Our Darker Purpose is a decent top-down roguelike shooter in the style of Binding of Isaac, which is to say, it has a similar perspective and level layout to Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past, minus the puzzles.
You'll quickly discover, however, that Our Darker Purpose lacks the terrific depth and balance of the truly great roguelike games.
As you progress you'll find passive powerups which provide any number of abilities, from adding bubbles to your projectiles to speeding up your foot speed. Sadly, you'll find these powerups are mostly useless, and you'll inevitably find yourself slowly, slowly, losing the game due to gradual loss of health. There juist isn't enough health around, and there aren't enough tokens (money). Time and again you'll find a vending machine and barely have any money to spend. There aren't nearly enough enemy or level drops of money or health, and, as the aforementioned powerups aren't very compelling or suseful, you'll be wondering why you're even playing, there's no sense of progression, you never feel like you're really getting more powerful.
all this might be acceptable if the gameplay itself was spectacular, which it's not. The enemies and graphics quickly become repetitive (there's almost no color whatsoever), and the game's overall darkness also makes it less fun than it should be.
Not a bad game, maybe check it out if you're a huge fan of BoI roguelikes, but otherwise avoid.
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5 of 7 people (71%) found this review helpful
9.1 hrs on record
Posted: November 2
Surprisingly, remarkably good. It plays a lot like The Binding of Isaac, and is obviously inspired by the same, but I quite enjoy the setting and backstory.

There are a few ideas also brought over from Rogue Legacy, I've noticed, which is also a plus.
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5 of 7 people (71%) found this review helpful
0.4 hrs on record
Posted: November 9
Was this review helpful? Yes No
6 of 10 people (60%) found this review helpful
3.1 hrs on record
Posted: November 6
Was this review helpful? Yes No
4 of 7 people (57%) found this review helpful
0.3 hrs on record
Posted: December 19
Oh jesus. Oh man. I so wanted to like this game. But wow its so boring. Not really bad, just really really boring.

Now, I've played many Isaac-esque games and I've loved most, one or two even taking my favor over isaac. And not once did I feel the need to compare the two. But in this case? The entire time I played it (which if you look really isnt long) I just kept thinking 'This is isaac this is isaac' until I realized 'No, of course its not, Isaac was actually fun.'

Lets start with the positives. The music is gorgeous, I adore the soundtrack to this and hoestly, despite not liking the game I would buy the soundtrack. The art style is great, for what setting they were going for it works, almost like a more detailed 'Dont Starve' look to it. They also have a dodge roll type feature which I like the idea of, but it also has its downsides. But thats really all I can give it.

I found this game just didn't feel right, it lacked the polish. First off, the controls, your forced to used the keyboard only, so WASD for movement, arrows for shooting. And right away that put me off, I didn't like those controls in isaac (Used mouse in the first and controller in rebirth) and I certainly don't like them here. They feel really tight, and not in the good way, you feel so restricted to having both hands in a set place on your keyboard and the fluid motions of moving and using the mouse for shooting cant be replicated through a keyboard. Also but having to use the keyboard, you are forced to snake your fingers around trying to use your active item, chalk or rolling. Yeah remember I said about rolling having its downsides? Being forced to use the keyboard it limits how effective the rolling can really be when your also trying to shoot at the time time almost making the rolling redundant.

The animations are lazy. I can't really say it any other way than that. Especially on the main character (Cordy) where you would expect to see the most. Her movements look clunky (all 3 frames of it (not including the rolling)) and most enemies just seem to rock side to side.

One thing I find amusing is the store page for this game 'Key Features: Fast-Paced'. Let me tell you, it most certainly is not. The combat is so incredibly tedious and slow its insane. Even the weakest of the enemies take more than a necessary amount of hits. I've seen people say that this adds a level of depth and strategy to the game. I say it adds too much monotony and repepativeness to the game.

While were talking about combat, you know with isaac how shooting things feels so satisfying? You feel the thud, you hear the collision? You don't get that with this. Due to everything taking so long to die it became quick to realize that its not satisfying to shoot things, the sound effects are incredibly bad and really get on your nerves really fast plus things just seem to waltz through your shots like nothing.

I also saw someones review saying 'Where The Binding of Isaac is a fast-paced, almost bullet-hell game', which yes isaac is much more fast-pace, but the 'bullet-hell' thing also applys to this game, more so than isaac in my opinion. While not directly bullets the begining floors at least had A LOT of electrifying obsticals making it very difficult to maneuver while in combat and not getting hit. Not to mention the second boss I faced (some cauldron thing) which quite literally a bullet hell boss, an insanely tanky one at that.

So while no its not a bad game per-sey, its incredibly boring and slow and while you play it, like it or not your thinking 'Isaac did this better'. With that I genuinely cannot recommend this game when other games like Isaac, Hero Seige, Risk Of Rain etc exist.
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2 of 4 people (50%) found this review helpful
8.2 hrs on record
Posted: November 1
Long before Binding of Isaac (BoI), there was a diverse cornucopia of rogue-likes. This is not one of them. Instead, it borrows whole-heartedly from the formula that made BoI so successful. The similarities make it impossible to review in its own universe.

First, the difficulty is increased relative to BoI. This isn't neccessarily a bad thing, but I would recommend you play that game first if you are unfamiliar with the top-down rogue-like.

The artistic direction is superb. It still certainly draws on themes from BoI, but still manages to differentiate itself through its story-telling which was by-and-large non-existent in BoI. The story is generally told in the form of text with accompanying images, through small chunks of "lore" found after accomplishments, or by overhearing the conversations of sacks of potatoes. The small details like chattering furniture paint a more complete picture of the Edgeworth School for Lost Children.

The quantity and variety of items is somewhat lackluster. Most items act solely to adjust the unseen variables of the system (e.g. +10% movement speed. +10% range.) The items which alter gameplay stand out, but are relatively rare and thus, the stat-altering items feel monotonous by comparison. Sure, it is easier to design several items around the "attack speed" variable, but grabbing those items is not as impactful as picking up one that changes the trajectory of projectiles.

However, ODP play the rogue-like balance well. As opposed to a more hardcore rogue, it has a system of persistent upgrades known as "classes" which grant the player new traits. The classes add depth by removing some of the randomness over multiple playthroughs while not detracting from the difficulty. Additionally, it incorporates a "leveling" system within each individual session that allows the player to augment the strength of the character to suit his styles.

Overall, if you like BoI, you will like Our Darker Purpose. You are getting the same dish cooked and served by a new chef.
If you haven't played BoI, you can still enjoy Our Darker Purpose, albeit with a slightly steeper difficulty curve.

In either case, if you are looking for a challenging game saturated in gallows humor, I would recommend Our Darker Purpose.
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172 of 205 people (84%) found this review helpful
50.6 hrs on record
Posted: January 29

Was this review helpful? Yes No
98 of 112 people (88%) found this review helpful
22.3 hrs on record
Posted: January 29




Was this review helpful? Yes No
79 of 103 people (77%) found this review helpful
24.2 hrs on record
Posted: May 9


Was this review helpful? Yes No
40 of 58 people (69%) found this review helpful
31.8 hrs on record
Posted: January 29





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22 of 29 people (76%) found this review helpful
37.1 hrs on record
Posted: June 28
"Our Darker Purpose" is a stew composed of "Binding of Isaac"'s gameplay, a "Don't Starve" art style, and an atmosphere similar to Tim Burton's earlier movies. Whenever I start it up, I feel like I am playing an extension of "Coraline."




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145 of 255 people (57%) found this review helpful
1.6 hrs on record
Posted: January 29


-- movement speed --




-- hitboxes / collision detection --




-- pacing --






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26 of 40 people (65%) found this review helpful
9.3 hrs on record
Posted: February 25
Our Darker Purpose is essentially a bullet Hell rogue-like with a passive, persistent upgrade system. I do like the game but right now, I cannot recommend it for the simple reason it needs more time to bake. Currently, my two major issues with the game are gameplay and balance.

The game lacks a decent reward system. Your character starts off weak and stays weak throughout the game. You can earn experience, level up, and get 1 of 2 perks. Unfortunately, some of the perks are completely worthless (for example, -10% move speed for +2 healing pack capacity.) while others offer such a negligble benefit you can hardly tell they are there (+50% drop rate to items.) You do find gear that can be useful but a lot of them don't work on bosses, others are broken, and some are so poorly implemented they do not make sense (2% health per 5 enemies killed. Worthless when you have around 100 life on average; why bother?). Health, coins, and chalk (bombs essentially) drop in the game at a pathetic rate, leaving players scrambling for health. I have had several runs where healing packs don't even drop. You can buy items at vending machines but you cannot rely on them for survivability for long. Lastly, you can donate credits (which you earn by completing levels) to unlock lasting benefits called "lessons" or donate to a counselor for passive, persistent upgrades. You can only carry so many lessons and you only get more by donating to the counselor. Unfortunately, you are forced to waste thousands of credits on the counselor and you only get upgrades every other level. So while it is great to get +2 health pack capacity, it really sucks wasting 500 credits and being told the counselor was "expecting more." I get the purpose behind it but since you get so few credits per level, it's insulting more than anything.

The enemy balance right now is all over the place. Most are fine the way they are while a few are ridiculously cheap (firing homing clouds that phase through everything and confuse you [interesting bug with that; if you exit to the menu while confused, the menu controls are inverted]). Enemy strength scales with level so you take more damage while having very little way to heal yourself due to the aforementioned awful drop rates. Bosses are incredbily tedious due to how long fights last. If boss health was shaved 20%, I think the balance would be right. Currently, all you get for defeating bosses is decent amount of experience and progression to the next level.

As to the graphics, I greatly enjoy the grim feel of the game. The music is appropriate and the sound effects are adequate.

Due to the lack of balance at this point, I cannot recommend it. I enjoy hard games. I have spent way more time than I should in Binding of Issac and Dark Souls. Those games offered a sense of accomplishment when you defeated a hard enemy. Our Darker Purpose offers little for anything you accomplish. That said, I would watch the progression of the game. The developers are working hard and constantly updating the game. I believe when all is said and done, Our Darker Purpose will be a great product.
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16 of 24 people (67%) found this review helpful
61.2 hrs on record
Posted: February 8



Keep it up.
9/10 for now.
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6 of 7 people (86%) found this review helpful
6.1 hrs on record
Posted: March 10
If you like Binding of Isaac's gameplay, FTL's progression, and Don't Starve's art style, you'll love Our Darker Purpose. It's lacking a bit in variety (but plenty hard to keep you from blowing through it) but they are consistently updating and hopefully if the game is successful they will add more content.
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30 of 54 people (56%) found this review helpful
5.7 hrs on record
Posted: January 29

+The art is dark and morbid creepy but very cool
+The game is hard (I like it)
+The music is as creepy as the game
+This game includes Lore!
+Roguelike game, Death = permanent

-No controller support
-No voice acting for the texts
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