Are you afraid of spiders? Do you live in fear of the fact that humans supposedly eat eight spiders a year in their sleep (which isn’t true, by the way)? Have you ever wanted to get revenge against the eight-legged creepy crawlies that terrorise you in your own home? If you answered yes to that last question specifically, Kill it with Fire might just be the game for you.
The goal of Kill it with Fire is pretty simple: you’ve got to kill all of the spiders that are crawling around, and yes, often it will be done with fire. There are eight different levels to play through in total that are full to the brim with arachnid menaces for you to take down, with just about every object around you available to use as a weapon.
See a book? Launch it at the spider. See a can of hairspray? Burn them to smithereens. Find a revolver? Bang-bang, baby. Your arsenal grows more and more absurd as you progress through the game, with the ever-expanding means of mayhem ensuring that disposing of the eight-legged nasties never gets boring. It got to one point where I had burned down an entire room hunting down ONE last spider – it can really, REALLY, get out of control (but in the best way possible). You’re also armed with a Spider Tracker that’ll allow you to stalk even the most well hidden of arachnids, whilst more devious hunters will lure them out with treats. You’ve got to be creative if you want to take some of these eight-legged bastards out…
What keeps things interesting is the fact that each level brings with it a set of different objectives to complete, with each challenging you to approach the spider-killing in a specific way. Some of these aren’t clear from the get-go either, but will only become available when the player finds an item in the environment. It’s a neat idea that adds a sense of progress to the experience, with the act of taking out the spiders in these objectives demanding a very specific approach. You can unlock upgrades as you progress and complete these objectives too, with each one not only making spider-killing a bit easier but often more fun too.
Now I know what you’re thinking, “Do the spiders fight back?”. Well, I’m happy to report that they won’t cause players any harm, so if you’re afraid of the little blighters in real-life there’s nothing to be scared of here. Sure, they’ll run away from you and often shoot some web about, whilst the menacing music that plays when they’re nearby might set an ominous tone, but they’re harmless little things. It almost makes you feel bad to kill them really, doesn’t it?
Whilst there’s something very satisfying about the insanity of killing spiders that Kill it with Fire brings, there are some areas in which it falls short of the mark. For one, the firearms in the game are very inaccurate, making it difficult to line up shots to hit the spiders perfectly. Now sure, maybe this ties in well with the fact that it’s a bit absurd to try and shoot a spider in the first place, but this is a video game – if I want to shoot a spider, I should be able to… but maybe I’m nit-picking a little.
The game formula can be a little bit guilty of growing a bit repetitive over extended playthroughs too, even IF there’s plenty of creativity in place to killing the spiders. There might be plenty of tools of destruction at your disposal and the objectives do vary things up a little, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’re doing a lot of the same things over and over. It probably doesn’t help that the spiders don’t offer any threat; it almost eliminates any sense of urgency or danger from the experience, which in turn takes away the tension that battling against spiders should bring.
Does it make Kill it with Fire a bad game? No way. It’s not perfect, but it does offer an anarchic arachnid killing-romp that is as silly as it is satisfying, with the roughly four-to-five hour experience never outstaying its welcome or growing into a bore. There are some extra mini-games that’ll see you take on an onslaught of spiders in a set amount of time and some hidden bonuses to flesh out the experience too, so those looking for a bit more spider-disposing will certainly find it.
Summary
Kill it with Fire is as absurd as it is fun, with the over-the-top methods of taking out the spiders making for a really enjoyable time. Sure, it can get a little repetitive in places, but it’s hard to complain too much when the game allows you to use the likes of flame throwers, RPGs, or even a lawn strimmer to annihilate the eight-legged creepy-crawlies (and maybe even destroy the room they inhabit in the process).
Developer: Casey Donnellan Games
Publisher: tinyBuild
Platform(s): PlayStation 4 (Reviewed), Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC
Click here to visit the official website.
