Fly in the House – Review
Fly in the House is a game about.. euhm.. well a fly in the house. Which you are simply trying to destroy for disturbing your peace. This odd but hilarious sounding concept was developed by Mykhail Konokh, who also created Inside the Gear. As a simulation game, Fly in the House tries to be a comedy sim in which you can explore the game’s world and destroy things in any way that you can – much like Goat Simulator.
Story
After several years of traveling, you find yourself standing in your own home. Memories come flooding back to you as you stand there, in the middle of your apartment. Suddenly questions come to mind, questions that demand answers. You begin to wonder, what has gone wrong? What has gone wrong with your life? As you are deeply in thought, trying to come up with answers to those ever-demanding questions, you hear buzzing followed by a large shadow on the wall. Your inner thoughts are interrupted by a fly and this get’s your blood boiling. This creature has disturbed you and now it must see its end – and quickly!
The storyline in the game is certainly not much, although it is slightly original while it still hits close to home. Everyone has been disturbed by the buzzing of flies or blood-sucking mosquito’s and we all do the same thing… we gather what we can and hunt this annoyance down until it becomes another fleck on the wall. Except, we don’t destroy our apartment while doing so, or at least I hope you don’t.
Graphics
Surprisingly enough, the graphics are not exactly realistic. Nor are they the typically bad rendered visuals that we often see in ‘indie’ simulations. The visuals are just not something to write home about, although the representation of the interiors is done quite well if I may be honest. The game does look better under different lightning conditions and luckily the game has three types of lightning conditions ready for you to venture in. As the game is all about the doomed fly in the room, the visuals don’t really matter since you’ll end up picking up objects and smashing them to bits only a second later – no time to waste, that fly has to die!
Sound
The soundtrack in the storymode is simply a blast. It will surely get your blood pumped up as you seek to revenge the peril of your thoughts. Perhaps you’ll even start head-banging. Yes, I’m talking about the good solo’s you used to hear in the best rock songs ever – but not literally as it’s different solo’s.
Unfortunately the other modes don’t have the same soundtrack to get your blood all pumped up, willing your body to murder that buzzing creature. The ambiance sound here is soothing and way too calm in comparison to the rhythmic rock-sounds from before. There’s birds chirping, car horns and the occasional screams of innocent pedestrians who have managed to run directly underneath whatever you’ve thrown out the window. Yes, the arcade modes are too quiet.
Gameplay
The controls are simple. You can move around with the WASD-keys while you can jump over objects with the spacebar. Picking up and releasing items is simply done with the left mouse button. Throwing an object is done with pressing F. The last control is something you’ll need to ‘look up’ since this isn’t very clear in the gameplay itself as there are no tutorials in the game. Nor are there any helping commands that tell you what to do.
There are several modes for you to venture in. The first mode is the story mode, which can be completed fairly fast. Then there are four arcade modes, which you are forced to play if you wish to unlock the next level. There’s a free mode where you can simply smash items, a kill many flies mode which explains itself, an accuracy mode where you need to kill the fly without breaking any objects and a fast destruction mode where you need to kill the fly as fast as possible. Each of the modes have almost the same objectives and the levels never change. This in combination with the forced replays of each level and each modes, will make the game a dull grind after some time.
There are other things to do but these are best done in the free mode as these will require some time. You can collect ranks and search for hidden objects, which is part of the progress to unlock the next level. Once a level unlocks, you can find answers to your character’s questions and reveal unexpected mysteries.
As for the actual gameplay, you simply pick up items and throw them to where the fly is currently buzzing around in the hopes of hitting the fly with whatever object you’ve just thrown. Larger, heavier objects can’t be picked up but you can move them around if you wish to organize the chaos. Throwing out objects out the window is also an option since you can hear the screams of innocent pedestrians. In a way you could say that the game is a great stress-reliever, if you play it for short periods of time.
Conclusion
Expect a game that is fun for short periods of time between other titles you are currently playing. The concept is great but the game requires an absurd amount of points to unlock the next level which makes it a dull grind. This also makes the game far too lengthy to remain funny. The game is small with only three levels and a few modes that are almost the same, but it does has enough room to grow into something bigger.
Note: Giving the game an actual score is fairly hard since the game does what it is supposed to do but it is lacking content that could make the game greater. Much greater.
Fly in the House - Review,
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