Kill it With Fire VR – Review

It’s time to take the fight back to the arachnids, only this time they’re all around you. I reviewed the flat version of Kill It With Fire fairly favourably. It was straightforward arcadey destruction, a fun distraction. This VR release is on one virtual hand pretty much the same game, but on the other disembodied collection of digits, VR is exactly what Kill it With Fire needed to elevate its gameplay.

As before you’ll be let loose to hunt spiders that are hiding all over the house (and other environments such as a garden or petrol station). They can be in drawers or boxes, behind furniture or CLINGING ON TO ITEMS YOU PICK UP! Sneaky Spiders!

Anyway, you start out using your clipboard of objectives to smash them into green jam but in VR it’s so simple to just pick up whatever is at hand and fling it at them. So many pot plants have given their all for the cause in this way, also random books, bits of crockery and a surprisingly effective pillow.

Once you’ve done some exploring, you’ll find helpful items like frying pans, improvised flamethrowers or straight-up bundles of C4. They’re all fun to use but I’ve had some trouble switching items in VR, having to pick them from a floating grid and pressing the trigger. Sometimes I used grab, sometimes I used activate, and half the time I was as likely to drop the weapon than fire it. It takes some getting used to.

There are also hidden objectives, challenges and upgrade batteries to find in each level, which makes things more interesting and structured than pure destruction. Limited ammo will also mean you’ll be making use of several items rather than just setting everything on fire and standing back to watch your handiwork.

The presentation is pretty simple and polygonal still but in VR that works pretty well. It’s certainly immersive enough that I now care about these spiders – just not in a motherly way. More in a way that if I pick up a pot with an arachnid attached it will be getting yeeted. If I find a little blighter in a drawer: I am slamming that thing and setting it on fire. If one runs out from under a sofa: I’m going to panic and throw the nearest pot plant at it. This didn’t happen in the flat version. And where the sound design might be just as straightforward there’s a skittering noise and some odd spider squeaks (spiders squeak IRL right?) that are pretty unnerving, especially when you can tell it’s nearby but not know where.

This tension is pretty thrilling although it may fade by the time you’re halfway through the game. Jumping and bursting spiders provide more scares but they’re introduced pretty early too. This leaves you with much the same experience as the flat version of the game but with that slightly clunky inventory system. There’s still fun to be had and you could always throw your friends into a level with a few tools unlocked to witness the carnage – if the mood takes you.

Kill it With Fire VR is straightforward, fun and gentle shocks, but with a few niggles and a very specific audience of those that hate spiders enough to enjoy killing them with fire, but not so much that being trapped in VR with them is downright terrifying.