Heck yeah, the game was totally sick.
The violence may not be that bad by today's standards, but it was pushing the envelope in 1998 and the game also had themes that still haven't been replicated.
You can tell by the environments how dingey the game was. It was like a SAW movie before there were SAW movies. Many of the characters had heavy sexual elements, like the Tormentor being like an executioner S&M guy, Belladonna was a total dominatrix, and the IMP had his gay bar leather outfit and his devil horns.
Another cool thing was each figher had 4 totally different costumes that were really unique. For example, the character Oddball never had use of his arms. So in one outfit, they were tied behind his back, in another they were constrained in a strait jacket, in another both of his arms had been amputated. And conjoined twins connected at the waist with no legs but 2 torsos and 4 arms? Come on, man, that is totally sick and has still not been replicated.
When Thrill Kill was in development, it's codename was S+M which stood for Slaughter and Mutilation. They certainly went out of their way to be as sick as possible, but they amazingly also had a very polished game for the time. It would be so awesome to see a Thrill Kill 2 some day, but I'm sure EA will never admit their mistake and let it be developed. Paradox was eventually bought by Midway, and since WB only kept NRS, I'm sure they have faded away into oblivion. Most of the people who worked on it probably aren't even in the industry anymore.
BTW, while Paradox was part of Midway, they made MK Shaolin Monks. So you can see the talent that existed at this company.
What happened to Thrill Kill is probably the biggest travesty in the entire history of video games and the biggest injustice to players. I remember being shocked that the backlash against EA wasn't larger.