Kill It With Fire! Review: Making Spiders Go Splat

Title: Kill It With Fire!

Developer: Casey Donnellan Games LLC

Publisher: tinyBuild

Genre: Simulation, Comedy, Action

Available On: PC

Official Site: https://www.killitwithfiregame.com/

Release Date: August 13, 2020

Where to Buy: Steam

In the modern-day, there are usually two types of people when it comes to spiders. There are some with no fear of them whatsoever, and then there are those who would rather see them burn. Some may even have a guilty fantasy about taking them out with a homemade flamethrower. In an effort to curb that fear of arachnids, here is a spider-fighting simulator known as Kill It With Fire!

Personally, I’m no more afraid of spiders than any other person. Need me to take out a Black Widow? No problem. But put me up against something like a camel spider, and I’ll want something to crush it with. It is that mindset that drove me to take Kill It With Fire! for a spin.

Kill It With Fire! Gameplay

Imagine, if you will, a world where ‘any means necessary’ was how one exterminated spiders. In the world of Kill It With Fire!, no method of extermination is “too violent.” But because many are afraid of spiders up to a certain point, they may not even play this title. While I don’t have a phobia in the clinical sense, like any sane person, I’d freak out was I to see a swarm of spiders. Running through the house felt like an excellent way to exact my revenge on the arachnids for the few times they made me jump.

Running around the house and killing the spiders was simple enough. My first weapon turned out to be the clipboard containing my list of current objectives. The movement was controlled through a combination of w,a,s,d and the mouse. The way the character moved did seem pretty rigid at first, but it wasn’t something absolutely game-breaking.

My favorite part of the gameplay had to be the state-of-the-art “Spider Radar.” How useful would a spider radar be in real life? The read-out was similar to a Wi-Fi signal’s level of strength. The more lines on-screen, the closer you were to those dangerous arachnids. After finding the little buggers, I had to switch quickly to my clipboard to ensure they could not getaway.

While smashing these things with a clipboard was fun, the best part was grabbing the hairspray bottle. First, I had to find the lighter and then attach it to the bottle. Next, there was one more objective regarding 5 spiders: Kill It With Fire!. It was pretty satisfying watching the entire room go up in flames without having to call the fire department and explain what happened.

Spider Power

While the radar meter is useful, it is limited by the battery life it possesses. But this is no cause for worry. Despite the fact that it can drain relatively easily if one is not careful, there is a very simple way to refill your battery life. In order to refill the battery life of the device, you must kill an adequate number of spiders. For every spider you kill, your battery gains a small percentage of energy back.

I did find myself getting nervous when the battery went too low. When I kept it out for too long, I was unable to use the device and had to hunt and Kill It With Fire! the old-fashioned way. Just running and bashing everything I ran into seemed to help me reveal them enough to recharge my tracker.

The Tools of The Trade

While burning and smashing the spiders is fun, there are other methods to dispatching them. If you want to keep your distance, there is always the option to shoot them with your revolver or shotgun. Sure, it sounds like a hilarious concept. But I took issue with the size of the reticle.

For the revolver, the reticle seemed appropriate for the size of the firearm. That being said, shooting anything moving with it seemed an almost impossible task. Unfortunately, the shotgun’s reticle was the exact same size. My problem with this was that it was unusually small in relation to the rifle’s spread upon firing at a target. I found myself wondering why I didn’t hit anything when I was pointing right at a target. Had the reticle been sized appropriately for the gun type, I might have found aiming easier.

The reticle issue made it nearly impossible to complete any of the ‘Arachno-gauntlet’ challenges in the game.

Final Verdict: Kill It With Fire! is a Casey Donnellan Games LLC. It is a comedic simulation game where the main objective is to exterminate all manner of spiders. What works on one spider may not be enough to kill another type. And while firearms were slightly disappointing, the game more than made up for it with flamethrowers and explosives. If you are looking to get over your arachnophobia, check out Kill It With Fire! on Steam.