The Fight Against Arachnophobia

There's something about spiders that can creep out the toughest of people. 'Kill it with fire' is a fairly typical saying on the internet among those who see pictures of spider infestations but doing so would be prohibitively expensive - at least, in real life. This game lets players live out that fantasy, though whether it does so well is up to the individual player.

What it Says on the Tin

It's not particularly hard to grasp the concept of this game. Simply put, it's all about killing the spiders in your space in the most over-the-top ways possible. There's a bit of a hide-and-seek element to the game, of course, but nothing here feels particularly new. It's just a silly romp through spaces of various sorts armed with an arsenal of ridiculous weapons.

Kill it with fire is a rare game that doesn't shy away from its core premise

That's a pretty admirable thing, of course, but it's not like there's anything else to see here. There's not really a story to this game, nor is there any point towards taking out all of the spiders beyond basic catharsis. The game's concept is about as basic as it gets, though this might be fine for those who truly hate spiders.

A Creepy Kingdom

There's a fairly fine line that one has to walk when designing a game around spiders. On one hand, you need to look good enough that people are going to want to play the game. On the other, you don't want to be so realistic that it's going to scare players off. Unfortunately, this game does the latter very well while not being so great at the former.

In all honesty, the game feels about as basic as you're going to get in terms of graphics and audio. There's nothing bad at all, just a lot of empty space and some purely functional noises. You won't ever end up getting so annoyed by the game that you have to turn off the sound, but you'll never look around in awe at the world that the developers have managed to create.

A Little Buggy

For a game with such a universal premise, Kill it With Fire manages to squander it all by doing one of the worst things a game can do. That's right - Kill it with Fire is actually a little boring. Once you get over the initial thrill of being able to kill spiders with all kinds of weapons, you'll find that the game itself is actually quite repetitive.

To its credit, Kill it With Fire seems to realize that the game can get slightly repetitive so it does throw new challenges at you. Unfortunately, these challenges range from being mildly amusing to not working quite correctly. It's a shame, especially because the first few minutes of the game are actually quite a lot of fun.

Falling Splat

At the end of the day, Kill it With Fire isn't so much a bad game as it is a surprisingly empty game. If you absolutely must set a house on fire to kill a spider, this is probably the space in which you should do that. Otherwise, you might as well try out the demo, get your fill of arachnid murder, and then move on with the rest of your day.

TL/DR

Kill it With Fire is a simple game that never goes beyond its initial premise.