101 Ways to Die Review

The game plays out a bit like Lemmings. The difference between this and Psygnosis’ ‘90s classic though is that whereas in the former, you’re trying to save characters, in this title you are doing quite the opposite. Mindless zombie characters known as “splatts” are released into the levels and your aim is to use the various tools at your disposal to bring them to a ghastly demise. The game awards bonus points for some of the more creative means of snuffing them out, so the messier and more convoluted the death, the better.

As the title suggests, there are 101 different methods, from crushing the little guys with giant boulders, to bouncing them into giant fans that blow them into spikes, to blowing them up while they’re distracted eating cake, there’s a whole host of ways to get them to meet their maker, and finding them all is particularly addictive.

There’s not much in the way of a story or plot to the game, but it really isn’t necessary for a game like this. You’re an assistant to the morally corrupt Professor Ernst Splattunfuder and it is he who has tasked you with helping chronicle all the ways that a Splatt can be shuffled off this mortal coil.

I think we all know how this is about to end...

As well as the main task of killing a set number of splatts, you’re also rated in stars for fulfilling side quests, usually additional numbers or methods of death, giving a reason to replay levels until you get maximum stars, opening up more levels in turn. There’s also a journal of death methods, the ultimate aim being to fill this with all 101 methods. The sheer number of puzzles and the freeform nature of solving them will give you hours of gameplay. I’ve clocked up about 12 hours and I’m only about a quarter of the way through filling the book.

Four Door Lemon have clearly put some time and effort into the game, some of the puzzles are real head scratchers, with some really complex combinations needed to score the maximum points on a level. The presentation shows a good degree of care and attention too, with even the menus being animated and full of life. Jars with splatt heads bubble, lamps flicker and electrical switches spark. This is a game where attention was paid to the little details.

From the moment you start the game, it’s a bombastically presented experience, with everything being over the top and cartoon-esque. This is a style that works well for the game as it makes the extreme violence more palatable. It’s unlikely that it would be suitable to impale any realistic looking people on spikes with bombs in a game that doesn’t have a restricted PEGI certificate attached. And frankly it wouldn’t have felt as much fun that way either.

The game challenges you with finding unusual and unique death methods.

After you’ve completed a level, you can replay the deaths within. I thought this was a nice little touch, giving you the option to zoom in on your handiwork and slow things down so you can watch the blood-soaked carnage in all its gory glory.

I did find a few frustrating technical issues, the game played like a dream on my desktop, but crashed on launch on my laptop, no matter what I did. Looking at the reviews and community posts on Steam, this isn’t an isolated problem and some people are having trouble with getting the game to work, the developer is working on them and they seem to be very active in the community section of Steam. Nonetheless, at the time of writing, there are some people experiencing issues and I wouldn’t feel right not reflecting that in my review.

When it does work, 101 Ways to Die is a fun little puzzler with a quirky sense of humour. I enjoyed it a great deal. The stability issues can’t be ignored completely, but there’s always the Steam refund policy if you find you can’t get it working, If you can, then look forward to spending many happy hours squishing splatts!