For many people, the thought of spiders brings them out in a cold sweat. These eight-legged, hairy beasts are the stuff of nightmares. Usually those that suffer with Arachnophobia would turn the opposite way when presented with one of these creatures. Now you can stand your ground and smash them into a million pieces.
Kill Them With Fire is a tongue in cheek first-person action adventure game. It focuses solely on the decimation of every arachnid you face. Developed by Casey Donnellan Games LLC and published by tinyBuild, this amusing fighting game has you running around many levels. You’ll rip apart its contents, and beat the crap out of anything that moves.
Potentially shallow.
Let’s be honest for a moment, it doesn’t sound the most complex or in-depth concept I’ve ever come across. Effectively, it’s; explore, ransack, hunt and destroy, though not necessarily in that order. Though the premise is simple, there is a lot more to it than meets the eye.
Each stage contains a multitude of objectives and hidden objects. Doors are locked until you the hit the spider killing target, and many of the items are hidden behind the objectives that you must complete. Alongside all of this, you will also obtain new; guns, projectiles, make shift flamethrowers, and several melee weapons. Each allows you a different approach, and some have limited uses. This ensures that some thought process must be applied to how and when you use them. You will also be able to upgrade equipment to increase character attributes and inventory size.
Mindless fun!
Admittedly, it has more going for it than I first expected, yet it still has that undertone of mindless fun, and I loved it for that. Though each level was small and easy to navigate, it was packed with detail. There were plenty of hiding places for spiders and lots of objectives to complete.
Although it has much to do to keep you entertained, it doesn’t offer much in the way of a challenge. At least not if all you wish to do is run through it as quickly as possible. The spiders come in many shapes and forms, but they are more afraid of you, than you are of them (maybe it’s the flamethrower pointed at their head?) The ransacking of each area takes little to no time, so success is all but guaranteed. You will fly through level after level; squishing, shooting and burning everything in sight, and you will laugh like an insane evil genius. It’s childish, inane, but so much fun.
Last gen graphics.
For all of its enjoyment factor, and there really is a lot, the presentation isn’t one of them. Though it’s not terrible to look at, it doesn’t wow you either. The first-person perspective lacks detail and has few smooth edges. It reminded me of a last generation console game, or low end PC title. It’s perfectly serviceable, but won’t blow you away. The bright colour and tone was gaudy to look at, and the level designs are simple and fail to evolve much past the initial stages. It was a shame that more polish wasn’t applied to this element.
The audio is equally uninspired, with what can only be described as lift music pattering along in the background. I expected a variety of tempo’s and tones to represent the danger that you face from the spiders, and this happened with a sharp piano tune, but I wanted more drama. What I did like, however, was the sound effects for each of the weapons and the screech of the spiders that you faced. Each had a unique sound, so once you familiarised yourself with it, you knew which arachnid you were going up against.
Clumsy controls.
Having originally been released for PC, it’s obvious to me that the game was optimised for use with mouse and keyboard. Though it’s not terrible to operate, it can be clumsy, jerky and a bit of a pain on the finer details. Shooting your gun lacked finesse, and there was no way to look down the sights. Selecting objects was a challenge because of the accuracy of the cursor, and buttons weren’t as responsive as I’d have liked. You won’t struggle to play it because of this, you’ll just wonder why it hasn’t been tightened up in nearly every aspect.
If it wasn’t for the many objectives that you face, you’d argue that this lacks depth and replay value. Thankfully, the challenges that you face will make you replay each level, and you will aim to gather all the weapons and the upgraded equipment. A moderate achievement list adds a reasonable amount of game time, but will probably to be ignored by most players. Only the completionists among us will consider taking this task on.
Silly spider squashing fun!
If you jump onto this thinking that you’ll get a massively deep experience with lots of lore, and a rich story presented on a glorious tapestry, you will be sorely disappointed. It’s a casual, silly and fun first-person fighting game that doesn’t take itself too seriously. You have the freedom to explore, destroy and kill anything in sight, so make the most of it. Do I recommend it? Yes, if you want to have a light-hearted game in your library, then buy it here! Spiders are running wild, grab your weapon of choice, find where they are hiding, and take their lives.
