Nearly everybody hates spiders. Yes, they are a necessity to keep us from being constantly swarmed by a multitude of other critters, but our initial reaction upon seeing one is to scream, throw things, destroy their webs, or outright sell our house and move on with our life. Kill It With Fire is deeply aware of this.
Our fear of spiders is so ingrained in our minds that it is a long running meme to see burnt down houses and some caption about trying to kill a spider – and now there is a whole game based around that exact premise.
Kill It With Fire is the tale of one individual’s quest to kill every spider terrorizing his apartment, office, local gas station, barn house, and more in exceedingly excessive ways.
At first you are armed with little more than a clipboard and the ability to grab and throw items, but by the end you’ll have rocket launchers, Molotov cocktails, a shotgun and pistol, homemade flamethrowers, a frying pan, a spider GPS, and a variety of treats to lure spiders into traps. The weapons and destruction is all incredibly over the top and oh so fun to experiment with.
The game’s nine levels all take place in isolated areas which gradually open up as your spider kill count rises. While attempting to reach the kill count required to open an area you’ll refer to your clipboard for your next task. Thankfully, your clipboard almost always displays at least the first task required – which inevitably is based around killing whatever new type of spider exists in your current level. Scattered throughout the level are additional missions which, while not required to complete the level, add a welcome variety to the gameplay and are necessary to unlock many of the game’s various weapons and upgrades.
Tasks may have you checking items out at a gas station, lighting beacons, sorting statues, fixing electricity problems, taking out garbage, destroying household items, or killing spiders in increasing complex ways.
Spiders evolve each level, keeping the game fresh. You’ll begin with basic small spiders before being attacked by web shooting, exploding, zombie, and mutated spiders – some of which explode into smaller spiders when squashed. These spiders hide well, jump at your face, blind you with webs, and are fast. I found myself launching molotovs just to take out huge areas at once in hopes of decimating as many of the little jerks as possible at once.
The levels are meant to be destroyed. There’s absolutely no reason not to pick up and throw or otherwise demolish absolutely everything you come across. Sure, you can use the Spider GPS to get a general idea of a spider’s location, but I found far more satisfaction by destroying absolutely everything in my path and allowing the spiders to become casualties of my mass carnage.
Thankfully, there is incentive to search, destroy, or otherwise demolish every nook and cranny as only then will you find the various hidden items which will help tackle the harder spiders and accomplish the more complicated tasks as you progress.
As for replayability, you have the option to reply a level at any time with all the weapons and upgrades you’ve unlocked, allowing you to complete any tasks you may have missed the first time through. While this may not add many hours to your playtime, it is a nice feature so you can be sure to 100% the game once you’ve mastered the various means of spider slaying available.
There is also the Arachno-Gauntlet, a timed free-for-all between you and the spiders hidden in each level. Completion of these gauntlets is required to fully enjoy the last level, so make it a point to go back and attempt each one with some of your more powerful weapons.
While Kill It With Fire is rather short, maybe four hours if you’re trying to complete everything, it is enjoyable throughout. I found myself laughing out loud at the outlandish ways I was able to take down spiders and gleefully enjoying the chaos I wrought on every location in my never ending quest for vengeance against spiders.
Do yourself a favor and pick this game up for a weekend full of destructive glee.
Kill It With Fire is available now on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, IOS, Android, and PC. Special thanks to tinyBuild for providing Fandomize with a review copy of the game.
