Let's face it – physics puzzle games are fine for short play sessions on mobile devices, but you'd be hard pressed to make one interesting enough for console gaming audiences. And with a billion jillion physics puzzlers populating the world, any new genre entry needs something special to make it stand out. That special something might just be buckets of blood…
101 Ways to Die is a darkly humorous physics puzzle game from UK-based indie developer Four Door Lemon. Coming to Xbox One, Steam, and PlayStation 4 this March, the game tasks players with finding creative ways to violently kill hordes of innocent, zombie-like creatures. With a silly premise and lots of cartoonish violence, 101 Ways to Die looks like a puzzle game with some kick.
Features
What gory glory does 101 Ways to Die promise? In a nutshell:
- Manipulate the environment to kill the Splatts
- Create mutilation, mayhem and destruction by laying brutal combinations of tools
- A series of bone crunching animations showing your creatures being maimed, sliced, burned, exploded, ripped, and impaled
- 101 delightfully gory death Recipes to unlock
- Over 50 blood-soaked levels
Weird science
In 101 Ways to Die, you'll play as the assistant to a Dr. Moreau-like mad scientist. This evil genius has just completed his life's work, a book filled with gruesome recipes for death. An unlucky accident destroys the book, so now the Doc's assistant will have to recreate each experiment without the good doctor's help. That means finding 101 ways for hapless clone creatures called Splatts to bite the bullet… Well, not just bullets!
101 Ways to Die offers over 50 levels in which players must creatively destroy the Splatts. You'll have access to a variety of tools and instruments of destruction, including bombs, boulders, spikes, harpoons, cannons, slime, proton beams, mines, lava pits, conveyor belts, and even tasty exploding cakes. That's a lot to work with!
Fans of physics puzzlers should pick up the gameplay pretty quickly, positioning devices in clever locations, activating the traps, and then watching the cartoonish Splatt characters get splatted. The more tools used to harm your victims, the greater the combo you'll build. You'll also want to pull off specific combinations in order to unlock the 101 unique "recipe kills" featured in the game's narrative.
After clearing the level, you'll be treated to a replay of the carnage and a rating based on your performance.
Killing machines
101 Ways to Die is a cutesy game — more lighthearted than gruesome. On the downside, the characters themselves are a bit on the ugly side, and the animation looks low budget and rough at this point. Perhaps the Splatts are just too ugly to live, amirite?
We won't have to wait too long to wreak havoc in 101 Ways to Die. It comes to Steam on March 22, PlayStation 4 March 23, and Xbox One on March 24.
Are you ready to play a bloody good physics puzzler on your console or computer?
