Kill It With Fire [Xbox]
As someone with a huge fear of spiders, a game where you face off against an abundance of them seems particularly daunting. Created by Casey Donnellan Games LLC, Kill It With Fire sees you hunting down numerous spiders across multiple different levels, wiping them all out with a variety of different weapons and random everyday objects. Each level has a checklist of objectives to be completed, such as killing a number of spiders, scanning items at a checkout, etc. with additional objectives being revealed as you pick up pages for your clipboard. Once you’ve completed enough of the objectives in a level, you’ll be able to reveal an upgrade, and completing all of the objectives will allow you to take on the Arachno-Gauntlet challenge: a time-limited task to kill a number of spiders in a particular way.
Obviously with a title such as Kill It With Fire, fire would be the expected method to dispatch each of these eight-legged foes, but actually you have a full arsenal at your disposal, ranging from your clipboard, to guns, to lighter-aerosol-combos to torch everything in sight. I really enjoyed trying out all of the weapons, as well as using random stuff from around each level (although these are definitely a bit hit or miss) and once I’d unlocked everything it became obvious that the RPG is my go-to for the chaos it brings. Trying to hit spiders with a gun can be quite a challenge, and then you’ve got shurikens which require a great deal of precision mixed with luck. Thankfully, you’ve got energy drinks to use, which will slow down time and improve your focus, but even this can be a tad frustrating at times when you’re a panicky player like me.
Not much is revealed about you or your role as a spider-exterminator but as you progress through the levels you’ll come across random file folders laying around, branded with the Omega symbol. I tried furiously to do something with these, as they felt important (especially with the title of the second-to-last level), but to no avail. After a quick bit of research however, I discovered that this was updated recently in the Steam version so fingers crossed the Xbox version will see this soon. Without this, there’s not much in the way of a story to be seen - but there are plenty of little curious tidbits that just makes me want to know more.
Visually, KIWF is pretty basic, with an almost cel-shaded appearance that isn’t groundbreaking, but is aesthetically pleasing and it works. Each level has its own area look, with a few in different areas of houses, the local supermarket, an office building (with a Portal reference to boot) and others. These all tie in well with the tasks given, ensuring that each level plays differently to the last, with newer spider types being introduced as you progress. The different species of spider that you’ll come across range from standard black spiders, jumping spiders, to exploding spiders and more. Each having a different signature look, as well as unique traits from how to kill them (i.e: how many hits they take to kill, invulnerability to fire, etc.) and what they can do. The jumping spiders in particular were the bane of my existence, causing frequent panic-screams to escape my mouth every time they sprang out from behind a rock. The soundtrack has this remarkably stealthy vibe to it, that definitely had me wondering if it was to encourage me to be sneaky, or the spiders.
With different upgrades that can be equipped to increase your efficiency, such as Cargo Shorts to give you extra equipment slots, Gel Insoles to enable you to sprint, as well as Cargo Pants to give you unlimited ammo (for most weapons). There are also Tracker Upgrades to give you an enhanced radar that will pinpoint location (as well as how many spiders remain), and a Laser ability to burn through everything in your path. These can all be assigned via the main menu, and are done through a Points system so you’ll have to weigh up the pros and cons of each to see how they best fit your playstyle. But don’t worry if you pick something and then fancy a change - you can easily refund your points to reassign them, at no cost.
One side effect is that immediately after playing I have somehow become even more hyper-aware of any little thing moving in my peripheral vision; a bit of fluff stuck to the couch, a dropped crumb at dinner-time, and the worst of all - the clumps of my hair that gather in every possible place in the house - all of these caused me to jump out my skin multiple times a day afterwards. Maybe I’ve gained a superpower through playing Kill It With Fire, maybe not. But at £12.49 on the Xbox Store, I did have a lot of fun in the four or so hours of playtime it took me to 100% complete it, and felt a lot of catharsis in the process.
In the end, we decided to give Kill It With Fire the Collecting Asylum rating of 8.5/10.
Have you played Kill It With Fire yet? What did you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to tinyBuild for the Kill It With Fire Xbox review code!
