101 Ways to Die is a bloody gore-fest, that much I knew going into the game. I’d previously watched a couple of trailers and what not, so I was somewhat prepared for what stood ahead of me. During my gaming career I’ve died thousands of times across hundreds of games. What normally rings true is that it’s an experience that usually ends up with me swearing profusely while insisting that the game is broken, the console is utter crap, or the other player is a loser who has never seen a member of the opposite sex in the nude.
During my short play-test with a preview build of 101 Ways to Die, I found that death was not only an option, but it’s actually one of the game’s requirements. See, the game plays out with you assisting some mad-scientist to find different ways to shake poor zombie-like characters off their mortal coils, so it’s your job to kill them.
The game’s a puzzler of sorts and it’s reminiscent of the ever-popular Lemmings, except that instead of trying to get as many little people to the end of the level, you’re actually trying to make sure you’ve none left. The game rewards you with a star rating at the end of each level and there’s a good bit of fun to be had in re-trying different levels to obtain the maximum star rating. It’s simple stuff to begin with but there’s some brain power required, though the preview build didn’t include every level, it did have a decent variety to give me a taste of what’s to come.
It’s a twisted little game with a dark sense of humour, but that’s something I’m quite fond off. The graphics (played on PC) were perfectly serviceable and got the job done, although I did sometimes find myself second guessing what was a trap and what wasn’t but thankfully there’s a different view that highlights the traps against the scenery. Graphically, the game is decent but it’s the audio that was a bit of a let down. There’s a nice little tune that plays over and the sound effects were fine, but it just felt a little empty on the ears, perhaps there’ll be more to please my bacon bits in the full release.
101 Ways to Die is an interesting concept and so far I’ve been quite impressed with what’s been presented in the preview build. Death? Yep. Funnies? Yep. Pretty much all a man-child needs to kill a few hours.
101 Ways to Die is due to release on March 18 and will be available on PC via Steam, PS4 and Xbox One. Let the gory games begin!
Disclaimer: This preview was conducted using a preview build of the PC version of the game that was provided by the developer’s PR team. This does not influence our opinion of the game, nor will it affect any future articles or reviews. To find out more about our review policy, please click here.