Kill It With Fire VR

This spider-killing game, which was released three years ago, got a VR version earlier this year and now it's time to play it on the Playstation 5. Actually, it's very logical to transfer this to virtual reality since it's in first person perspective, but after hunting hundreds of spiders in several rooms and houses, I wonder if it was really necessary. Of course, something that is very fun in VR is to interact with objects. I remember the thrill of the first time I tried Job Simulator and stood behind the counter throwing things around, opening doors and pressing buttons. It may seem a little unfair to judge this partly because time has passed, but that's part of the problem here. As time goes on, everything evolves, but Kill it With Fire VR feels a little too simple, and like it's arriving far too late.

I start in a house and the first little black bug quickly appears, running for its life while I grab a photo frame and run after it. Repeated blows are required, then it lies dead and well, that's really how the game goes. You look for and find one or more spiders by messing up the environment, and then you kill it. The game wants me to do it in different ways and the very first task is to throw a book at the bug. Done and done. Then I can set fire to both the bugs and the surroundings and when I unlock a box I get a revolver so I can shoot them to death as well. This is how it continues, bit by bit.

A big problem here is that everything sounds much more fun than it is. Sure, there are moments of euphoria, like when I'm at the petrol station blowing up its petrol pumps. The flamethrower is also quite fun, and as the title refers to, it's also the one you tend to use most for the easiest way to kill bugs. Set a bookshelf or cabinet on fire and hopefully you'll kill some while it burns.

The biggest strength, in terms of the format, is that you can pick up and use most objects you see. So you can knock over books, household appliances, photo frames and wine bottles among many other things and although the environments offer the same goal of killing spiders, there are other things to do as well. You pick up tasks that are tied to the path you are on, but these are optional. To get further in the game, you only need to kill the number of spiders needed to unlock the door out, but if you want to extend the game time a bit, there are some other things you can do. In addition, you need to do these things to upgrade your equipment. Because it is not just a flamethrower you can kill the bugs with, no, there are revolvers, frying pans, petrol cans and other things you can pick up and you can always take an object in the environment and kill the spiders. Everything feels very simple, but quite fun in short bursts.

game, with poor tracking, and I've also encountered some bugs. The worst has been that if I've stood too close to a wall, the game has gone completely black and I can't return to the game area. I've had to return to the menu and then restart the course, but luckily the progress has been saved except for the number of spiders killed, which is a bummer. I also think that the rather primitive graphics in VR are a bit too simple. Effects like fire and other things look pretty bad, and I would have liked to see the game polished up a bit for this version. I don't feel that the version does much to add anything extra. It was fun when I played it before and it's just the same in VR with a frantic waving or setting fire to everything you see to make the spiders die. As an example, I would have liked to see that you could burn things down to the ground instead of them just burning a little. That would have done a lot instead of only certain things exploding. However, it is possible to destroy a lot of objects, but not everything. Which feels a bit inconsistent. Similarly, it's a bit boring that some objects seem to be "locked" so you can't pick them up and throw them around.

So, even if you can think that this should do well in VR and take advantage of all the possibilities of the format, it does not feel particularly fun. It is a bit too simple and really it is only the perspective itself, and the ability to pick up all kinds of objects, that could be a plus. But despite some kind of pleasure in short bursts, Kill it with Fire VR is not at all the entertaining or natural transfer to VR that it should and could be.