I play horror games all the time and understand how jumpscares work. I know I’ll be running for my life at times. I didn’t expect that with Kill It With Fire…..
Spiders…. Why did it have to be spiders?
Kill it With Fire is a game about killing spiders. Creepy crawlers hide in cabinets, beds, toilets, wherever you can imagine, and finding them is always scaring the crap out of you. In return the game arms you with weapons such as flamethrowers, throwing knives, and basically any object in arms reach. While the “flatscreen” version of the game is somewhat a clunky mess, the VR version totally revamps the game perfectly by putting the scary creepy crawlers right in your face.
Kill It With Fire (PSVR2)
Publisher: TinyBuild
Platform: PSVR2
Release Date: November 7th, 2023
That’s precisely what Kill It With Fire does. It puts one of the most terrifying bugs around in odd places; capturing the fear of finding them in realistic places. The game is innocent enough with its cartoony aesthetic and ability to grab something within arms reach, but that is a fools game. Right off the bat, you know something is up. Something is lurking in the shadows, in the cushions, and in your hair!
The first appearance of these little guys had one storming its way from under a cabinet, across the room, and behind a desk. I lost it. It was the first time I ever had to take my PSVR2 headset off and take a breath in real life, before diving back in. That’s where things get even crazier!
The game places the creepy crawlers so well that even after turning off the game there’s an uneasy feeling; like they’re still crawling around. The placements shock you almost every time. You could be opening drawers on a massive dresser that are totally empty, until one is sitting upside down as you peer inside. You could open a toilet seat and it’s attached itself to the lid. Every door opening, cushion-turning, remote-grabbing task becomes painfully anxiety ridden.
Then comes the fun part: killing these little freaks. While the game enables you to walk around using the thumb sticks, it’s also a ‘room aware’ title as well. That means you can physically move about your real room, and swing away at spiders wherever you are. That also means you need to bend down to look under couches, or stick your head into dark creepy places, and then physically jump when they scare the shit out of you.
The motion controls are extremely spot on and one of the more polished titles I’ve played on PSVR2 to date. Hitting spiders is extremely precise, and grabbing objects works well. Shooting has a minor aim assist to it, but still feels like it takes a bit of skill to get down to make it fun.
That’s great because pretty much the entire world is at your disposal. Want to throw a pillow and love-tap a spider? Cool, do it. Want to take a flamethrower and light the entire house on fire? Also cool, do it. Did I mention there are rockets and grenades? All that is good fun, but with how shocking the game can be, the authentic nature of literally reaching for anything and everything you can get your hands on to smoosh spiders is what makes it so fun.
The physics engine in the game makes Kill It With Fire a perfect game to just simply have fun. The whole world is a creative space, and finding new ways to kill spiders never gets old. Watching objects explode, building traps, and being afraid to pick up objects all blends extremely well. The game also adds various objectives to take advantage of exploring the world a bit too, like smashing pictures or destroying a garden. There are also hidden objects which encourage you to look in creepy places too.
This is a game that is extremely heightened due to VR capabilities as the core “flatscreen” version is kinda lame. However, physically putting you in the space totally changes everything, and PSVR2 got the better version of the game. While it doesn’t necessarily take advantage of the features (like a vibrating headset) it does a good job of just functioning well.
Overall, my only complaint about the game is that it’s rather short. Only a few hours into the game I was already nearly 100% complete with everything, and a lot of the secondary objectives are not too complicated in the slightest. The only reason I didn’t get 100% is because as of playing today, there is a glitch that caused my save to become corrupted upon finishing the final level. Which is quite odd considering it is the only glitch I encountered.
