As a passionate gamer and content creator, I live for offbeat indies that take mundane tasks and inject them with absolute insanity. From Surgeon Simulator‘s medical malpractice to Untitled Goose Game‘s avian absurdity, ridiculous hijinks paired with familiar environments make for modern classics.
Well, extreme extermination joins the ranks with Kill It With Fire. This physics-based fiasco arms you with an expanding arsenal to unleash upon pixelated spiders. Does it spin a silly yet satisfying web, or get tangled up in the over-the-top approach? I‘ve torched, blasted, zapped, and stabbed my way through the full experience on PS4 to find out.
Embracing the Mayhem
Right from the initial minutes, I could tell this was my kind of chaotic madness. The intro cutscene welcomes you to protect your home from a "grotesque infestation of the eight-legged kind." Slapstick music sets the tone as the camera pans over assault rifles, swords, flamethrowers and more – your tools of bug destruction.
Once I had control, the satisfying splat of squashing spiders with a flip-flop cemented it. The first-person control scheme made exterminating the infiltration easy. Whacking spiders up close or launching rusty nails with precise aim just feels right. No complex schemes or rules bog it down – only maximum carnage.
inventor Casey Donnellan crafted a physics playground where anything can be a weapon if you try hard enough. Stomp spiders under boots, ignite them with Molotovs, puree them in blenders, obliterate them with RPGs – your vengeance is only limited by imagination and ethics.
The 12 bite-sized levels encourage that creativity within mundane spaces turned chaos zones. Smash up the cluttered basement to unleash leaky gas pipes as flame traps. Toss knives across a kitchen to pin bugs to walls. Turn a convenience store into demolition derby demolition with runaway shopping carts.
Sure, the visuals look rough around all eight edges, but Collateral damage reigns supreme here. Blast spiders to chunks or watch them ragdoll wildly after shotgun blasts – gruesome hilarity sells the impact. Somewhere between all the demented laughing and screaming spiders, joy pours from the screen.
And varied challenges per level put your skills to the test for fresh victims and deadly weapons. Speedrun maps under certain limits, pull off trick kill combos, obliterate all spiders nonstop – they transform environments into personal playgrounds with plenty of replay value.
Managing Shortcomings
Amidst the endless enjoyment of no-holds-barred extermination, some cracks do show in Kill It With Fire‘s foundation. Namely, environments stay visually dull no matter how much chaos unfolds within them.
Early suburban homes offer quaint starting points, but even secret labs and convenience stores late feel flat. With so much physics-driven havoc, destructible set pieces with more dynamic effects would better suit the mayhem.
Occasional glitches also yank you out of the experience – be it spiders clipping through walls, crucial objects getting unrecoverably knocked away, or progression issues. TinyBuild‘s signature jankiness certainly rears its head.
Yet neither shortcoming proved more than passing frustrations for me. The endless weapon and challenge variety breed plenty of replay value beyond the brief 3-4 hour runtime. Roasting rows of spiders with an electric bug zapper simply never loses its sadistic satisfaction.
The Verdict? Mandatory Mayhem
After emptying every last bit of ammo andAzure insight into Kill It With Fire, I stand by my wholehearted recommendation. This isn‘t some award-winning narrative showcase, visually stunning spectacle, or mechanically rich simulation. Instead, it offers unadulterated, demented fun – and passes with flying colors.
"Does it achieve greatness across key areas? No. What it does achieve is enabling irresistible, consequence-free chaos."
So if you thirst for no-holds-barred destruction with a twisted sense of humor, this one should mandatorily be on your radar. Just be ready to cackle maniacally as you roast spiders without remorse, no questions asked. Let Kill It With Fire ignite your pyromaniac video game dreams.
4.5/5 – Mandatory Mayhem
Kill It With Fire offers an absolute blast of physics-driven fun and chaos focused solely around exterminating spiders with extreme prejudice. Destructible suburban areas become playgrounds of creativity turned up to 11. Occasional glitches and dull environments barely detract from the endless humor and satisfaction on display. If you crave permissible chaos, this one should already be in your library.
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