Kill It With Fire Review: Boris The Spider

This Kill It With Fire review was so much fun. While I’m not particularly eager to inflict cruelty on any living thing, bashing an eight-legged crawler with a clipboard is liberating. 

Dash around the upturned living room, hopping over the pile of books and smashed picture frames of Aunt Doris, then witness your arachnid Pollock sprayed across the carpet – that’s art.

As a fan of the tinyBuild catalogue, I was eager to play this pretty early on with the demo, but I only really played for a few minutes as didn’t have the time to allocate it. I wish I had as it’s brilliant.

Kill It With Fire Review

If you came here looking for an opinion, then I shall give it to thee: Kill It With Fire would be a perfect VR game. The levels aren’t particularly big, often opening up in sections as you complete an objective. The picking up and throwing of items feels like it would work great with a PlayStation Move controller, and the graphics aren’t so elaborate that there would be any slowdown.

With that said, it’s the visuals that are one of the big appeals as they’re so charming. The colours are bold, the explosions and flaming debris that you’ve torched with a make-do hairspray can are almost cute in a Minecraft manner, but best of all – you can’t die, and there’s no timer.

In some respects, this Kill It With Fire review felt a bit like a sandbox with God mode. I stood next to propane tanks, blasting with my 12-gauge at point-blank range without a scratch, or had web-slinging spiders spitting at me without consequence. You just can’t die.

For some, that might be off-putting as it appears that there’s no challenge, but the optional objectives throughout give it some meat on the bones for repeat plays.

Don’t expect any story in Kill It With Fire as there’s an infestation of spiders in all different varieties and you have to kill them. Preferably with fire. In the first level, you’re in a small apartment. You have the option to hit the spiders with a clipboard that lists your objectives, a revolver, and arguably one of the best weapons – an aerosol with a lighter attached.

But you aren’t restricted to just those in your arsenal as you can lob a book at the spiders or feed them snacks to slow them down or other debuffs. Then, of course, you kill them.

Creepy Crawlies

The aim of the game is merely that, and there are a set number of spiders to kill and objectives such as smashing picture frames or scanning items on a garage to exceed $100 using only ten things. Each objective completed gives you a skill point to use to upgrade your skills and your radar. Wait: radar?

That’s right; you have a pocket scanner to locate the buggers by holding down the right mouse button. The faster it moves, the closer you are to one, and you have to pick up objects, rotating them to find the spider hiding behind. 

This little technique is wicked. I’ve lost count of the number of games I’ve played where you pick up a 3D object, spin it around, and nothing happens. I don’t have a fear of spiders, but seeing one on the other side of a vase you’re holding that drops to the ground and scurries away, or worse: jumps and attacks you can make you jump a little, but fun nevertheless. 

If you don’t like spiders, well… you’re kind of screwed.

Kill It With Fire is quite a short game to run through, but the additional objectives and killing spree/rampages on offer are a blast. It just has a simplistic escapism feel to it, and while you aren’t in awe at the high attention to detail or other technical feats, while playing, you forget about your worries and your strife. Yeah, man.

Kill It With Fire Review Summary

On face value, I was perhaps a little unfair with my dismissal of this being a bit too simplistic to warrant repeat plays. I was right about the simplicity, but I missed out on the fun part – I had a lot of fun with the game. If I was to lie on a couch to recall the experience of playing this game, I don’t remember one element of frustration or irritation with the controls, difficulty or what to do next.

That’s a pretty good endorsement I think, so I’m going to keep this one short and wrap it up here. Well done Casey Donnellan for an entertaining title!