In 101 ways to die you are the assistant of the genius professor Splattunfuder. He has researched of unique ways to die (but you might have guessed that from the name). Sadly, due to an unfortunate accident, his research was lost and he had to start over. Lucky for us, we have been called to help with the recovery of all the different ways to die.
101 ways to die is being developed by Four Door Lemon and is a physics-based puzzle with a “the lemmings” twist. You see, instead of helping your Splatts (= your lemming) to survive, you have to do everything it takes to kill them in the most unique ways possible. Someone has to die for science, and this is the most importance science there is out there!
Dead around each corner
The game consists of different levels, all with the focus on different ways to die. You start the game with a nice overview of the level and then you are “free” to place your traps and gadgets in the game. And those are a lot, going from the classic mine and the well-know bomb to teleports, deathlogs and proton beams (but sadly no sharks L). You should defiantly check out their indiedb website.
The further you progress in the game, the harder it gets. I mean, for you. Your Splatts only have to die, but the ‘how’ gets more challenging and the Splatts get reinforcements from their Tank, Rapid and other brothers. You also have to make combos, if you want the higher ranking or advance through the game. This will require some skills and knowledge of the game mechanics because they go from mine -> spiked to mine -> bounce -> ball-of-death -> teleport -> spike -> extra ball-of-death just because you can (or something like that ;)I said “free”, because you have to place your attributes on approved locations. You can’t place mines at the spawnpoint nor near the exits. While this might seem as a limitation of the game, it actually improves the puzzles, making it a challenge to get the highest ranking.
The sad part
I have had some fun with the game, but I find it sometimes a bit too slow. Once you have placed the deadly traps, you release the Splatts. Since they are some kind of zombies, they rather move slowly through the game. You can speed the game up, but the beginning of a level always feels dull. And since you have a lot of try and error going around in these kind of games, you see a lot more from the beginning of the game, then the end. A second minor point is the difference in texture quality. The menu’s (and even the icon on your desktop) are very pixellated, while the game itself is rather sharp. My last objection is that the zoom levels are either on an atom scale or the size of the universe. You either miss the fun of killing your Splatts because you are to close or simply because you are too far away
| The good | The bad |
| + Challenging puzzle | – Zoom functions aren’t handy |
| + Killing has never been so much fun | – Slow in the beginning of each level |
Four Door Lemon has an amusing physics-based puzzle game thanks to 101 ways to day. The twist of killing your Splatts instead of helping them survive is a welcome variant in the otherwise crowded puzzle genre. 101 Ways to Die comes to PC in March (the version I received is a pre-release build). There’s still development work to be done, but it’s on the right track. To GLORIOUS DEATH OF ALL SPLATTS!!!
