John Carpenter's Toxic Commando review

John Carpenter is a name ubiquitous with horror movies. With some of the all-time greatest films to his credit (The Thing, Halloween), having his name associated with a zombie game feels like an apt move. Factoring in his beloved comedic action titles (Big Trouble in Little China, Escape from New York), the stage and tone for an irreverent, action-packed cooperative undead thriller feels perfect.

Four-player cooperative zombie games have been in and out of vogue since Valve's Left 4 Dead hit the scene in 2008, with a recent addition in 2021's favorably received Back 4 Blood. Now, John Carpenter's Toxic Commando is aiming to scratch that itch with an original story and updated gameplay mechanics. Does Toxic Commando have the staying power to be another cult classic pop culture offering?

Joe Morgan

It's been a few years since I got into the cooperative zombie-shooting mode. After my experience with the preview build of Toxic Commando, I knew I had to see what the team was bringing. What we ended up with was a game with some deep flaws that still manages to be a fun experience.

First, let's discuss the story. In the vein of other Carpenter works, it's kitschy and irreverent, which works well in a world where a sludge deity has infected some rough-and-tumble mercenaries. I found the story beats to be enjoyable enough, but each mission is built as a stand-alone experience, so there isn't really much narrative cohesion between missions (with the exception of the final missions being pretty evident). A rich, brilliant benefactor being the driving force feels like an easy setup, particularly when your main characters are mercenaries who just want to get rich, save themselves, and kill stuff along the way.

True to their name, your four main characters are, well, pretty toxic. It works as the characters chirp mid-mission, as they're excited to be barreling through more of the "homo mortis," but their narrative dialog is kind of grating (at one point, a couple of them discuss the sexual proclivities of the other team members, for example). Still, it fits the game's vibe.

From a gameplay perspective, I found Toxic Commando to be a lot of fun. You pick one of four classes to play as, and as you progress, you get access to new abilities or enhancements that make you more effective. As a medic main, it felt great to go from slowly healing my teammates at the beginning of the campaign to fully replenishing my squad while burning down zombies by the end of the game. It's meaningful, sustained progression that feels satisfying.

At the core of any shooter experience are the weapons and gunplay. Toxic Commando, to its credit, has great-feeling gunplay and, in what feels like a smart move, gives you the ability to upgrade and build-out your favorite weapons a la Call of Duty, complete with skins, weapon charms, and most importantly, attachments that affect how your weapons handle and deal damage. It's helped me feel a lot more personally invested in my time with a weapon, and I appreciate that.

I do want to speak to the game's traversal mechanics, too. Your team can find and use vehicles along the way. You'll need to be mindful of finding fuel to keep the tank filled (and yes, you CAN light those cans on fire and turn them into big molotov cocktails). The world here is full of thick, muddy zones. Different vehicles come equipped with different abilities and you'll need to be aware of this when you choose what to pick up. An ambulance, for example, can heal your party as it drives, where a pickup truck may have a winch with a grappling hook to help you get out of that thick mud. It adds a layer I initially found frustrating but, after several hours with the game, I've come to appreciate the effort that went into making it interesting to just get around.

While I don't personally know that I'll be going back to Toxic Commando too often now that I've finished all the story missions, it's a game I found myself enjoying despite its flaws. The story is kitschy and goofy, but it's a fun romp. The sustained progression gives players some ownership over their experience, too. I could see Toxic Commandos being a great option for a group willing to put some time into the game long-term. Without that support group, however, I just don't see it having much staying power.

James Davie

ZOMG!!! It's another 4 player co-operative zombie-eviscerating shooter with the kind of moxie and gusto that can fill a sewage network with guts, gore and entrails! It is time to obliterate the hordes in style and with a cocksure swagger befitting a band of gung-ho misfits who carry heavy artillery and dress like hard-bodied 80s action heroes. John Carpenter's Toxic Commando shares a lot of inspiration from 80s flicks and zombie fiction from the past and merges it all into an undead genocidal shooter you can blast away with friends. Toxic Commando aims to be all pop and no stop, and it certainly hits its mark, but you might be left with the lingering sense you've seen it all before.

There's nothing like mowing down hordes of the undead, and Toxic Commando will give you all you can handle in a similar style to 2019's World War Z. Thankfully, your arsenal, suite of special abilities, and trusty co-op crew are on hand to help you even those overwhelming odds. It's thrilling, gloriously intense and relentless in a deliciously moreish way, yet while this one is certainly loaded with unmistakable testosterone, you'll no doubt come to realize its brains are as puny as its braun is brazen.

Repelling hordes of undead with up to three players carries with it a ready-made charm, which is elevated by the class systems and the numerous special abilities you can get your grubby mitts on.

The Strike class prioritizes forward onslaughts and the wholesale ravaging of live corpses, a perfect option if you don't want to mess around and you want to drop a mighty blitzkrieg down onto unaware shamblers. The potential for all-encompassing obliteration is channeled through the unique Fireball ability, which can turn full-bodied undead into bloody goo in a flash as its bolts can jolt and cause devastating micro explosions.  

On the contrary, the Defender class can keep those flesh-hungry fiends at bay with protective dome shield deployments, damage resisting capabilities, and boosts to health and ammo to ensure the fight keeps raging onwards. The Defender class is vital to success, and the numerous perks and upgrades at your disposal enable you to be the backbone that ensures the grueling wars against the zombies are fought with an advantage rather than a detriment.  

Medic is an auxiliary class of sorts, as it bolsters the Defender class with perks and rejuvenating specialties, including the ability to revive if incapacitated, which is tremendously useful as an extra life boost without compromising your teammates' own health and safety. Health supplies are essential to survival in team-based multiplayer shooters of Toxic Commando's ilk, so the Medic class will certainly give you an empowering responsibility and provide your team with a sensation of protection when the chaotic situations call for it.

Rounding out the class types is an all-rounder in itself, the Operator class. This class provides technological enhancements to the crew. For instance, you can utilize a plucky support drone with multi-purpose functionality. Bulked out with incendiary, mechanical, and medicinal properties and efficiencies, the drone can perform multiple tasks to support your band of mercs. Being an Operator essentially combines aspects of the other classes with a technological twist, and should be a favourite amongst your clan.

While the class system and aggressively busy, hectic, and gorily gratifying gameplay are all well and good, there's always a lingering sense that Toxic Commando is an obedient genre follower, one that refuses to truly stand out and do things differently. Of course, Toxic Commando thrives on familiar ideals that are immensely popular, though once all the 80s style showboating and pec-popping adrenaline wears off, it's yet another class-based multiplay shooter passing through the conveyor belt of class-based multiplayer shooters.

On top of the formulaic approach, the characters and voice acting are as generic as they come. You got the bearded veteran who sticks to the rules, a science type person who details the severity of the situation at hand, a young woman with a silly haircut spouting nonsense like "shitburger" in a cringe-inducing attempt to remind us how terrible the original trailer for Concord was. Thankfully and mercifully, the characters and the voice acting are in the background mostly, but if Toxic Commando kept up with its incessant babble, then may the great Almighty help us.

If you want a team-based multiplayer shooter where you shoot up hordes of infected undead, then Toxic Commando may be the adrenaline-fuelled zombie splatter you've been waiting for. Veterans of the genre will definitely appreciate the similarities Toxic Commando shares with World War Z and Left 4 Dead, and will be reassured that chaos and calamity are woven neatly into this multiplayer experience. However, the toxicity of this commando has leeched most of their brain cells, and the dialogue is definitely a testament to that, as is the lack of any new ideas. Much like a shambling corpse, it moves along with its contemporaries without changing the game at all, which may not matter to those who just want a fun and explosive co-op game to play, but everyone else will be left wondering how Toxic Commando stands apart from its competition.  

Raven Winters

Toxic Commando is a tough one for me to review because I let myself have such high hopes. I love four-player games, and I have even taken the time to review such games as Left 4 Dead, Back 4 Blood, and I am working on one for World War Z. I have played Earthfall and even poured hours into FBC Firebreak. I want to give these games a chance, but at each turn, they keep making the same mistakes.

Before you dive into my section, be aware that I went through this game solo because of some scheduling issues. I'm glad I did, though, because what the game offers for solo players is just as important as what it offers co-op players.

Before diving into the game in more detail, I need to talk about how the game looks. Toxic Comandos would want you to believe that this game is a feast for the eyes; the graphics are even called on the game's Steam page, and in a lot of ways, the game is simply breathtaking. Saber's Swarm Engine brings this game to life in an amazing way; it is so easy to get lost in thought as you pour through hordes of infected. However, somewhere in the mess of blood and guts, the infected's design is lost, which is a shame because it looks so cool. The lack of visual clarity is further pushed because the maps are so dark; proper splashes of color and highlights would do a lot to make this game pop further.

Even when you apply a weapon skin, the color of said skin seems to disappear a bit. I think that this was done to match the overall vibe of the game, but it seriously hurts the visibility of the game's details. The details, which are, by the way, one of my favorite parts of this game.

Everything looks so good if you set aside the colors. The weapons have scuffs on them, and the environments feel relatively believable. The physics for mud, water, and sludge are also top-tier. I love how messy everything gets, and I also love that you can clean your car by driving through a large puddle.

There are four classes for you to choose from, and they go as follows: The Strike, The Medic, The Operator, and The Defender. Each class also has its own skill tree, which I adore. I get a lot of enjoyment out of leveling up a class. You can see what an incomplete tree looks like in the image below.

The Strike is what I used for most of my solo play, and this class has abilities such as Unyielding, which makes it so you can’t be grabbed by hordes of roamers, and Fireball, which has you shooting explosive fireballs out of your palm. There are a few different changes to your primary skill for each class. For example, as you level up The Strike, you’ll be able to change how your Fireball functions. XP gain is pretty generous; you shouldn’t have too much trouble leveling up as long as you complete the objectives and kill plenty of the undead. In general, the design of each of the four classes is well defined. Each class has a clear theme, and they manage to stick to it throughout each of the class's levels. 

Before going into a match, you can adjust your loadout, and that loadout will be what you use for the mission. I love this because I am sick of finding random weapons to use, and it allows me to get a better feel for my weapon of choice. The armory consists of assault rifles, handguns, SMGs, shotguns, sniper rifles, special weapons, and melee weapons. There is also space for you to select the consumables that you want to use. I am partial to assault rifles, and there are seven of them to choose from. Weapons can be leveled up and customized, and you can even increase the weapon tier once you meet specific requirements. Customization includes sights, barrels, underbarrels, stocks, muzzles, ammunition types, grips, and rail accessories. You can also add a weapon skin and charm to your weapon. 

You use Sludgite to upgrade your weapons, and you can get it from kills, mission victories, and collecting it during the mission. I adore the weapon customization in this game, and it’s not just because of the wear and tear that appears on some of the attachments. I love this kind of weapon customization because there are consequences to your upgrades. For example, adding the short barrel to my HAMR-17 reduces its range, damage, and handling. But it increases the fire rate, accuracy, and mobility. I am all about consequences in-game, and these ones are pretty fair. 

Weapon customization is also where we run into my first issue with Toxic Commandos: the three different currencies. Sludgite is fine because you can earn it through playing, and there is a whole gameplay element included in collecting it. The second currency is called Residium, and it is collected the same way as Sludgite, with a few differences. You only get it on victories for Normal difficulty and above, and on every fifth profile level up. You spend Residium on cosmetic items such as skins for your character, car, and weapon, to name a few. The last currency is Mortite, and that is collected on Hard difficulty and above, and on every tenth profile level-up. It is also spent on cosmetic items.  Mortite is how you customize the finer details of your vehicle and get weapon charms. My issue is that Sludgite and Residium could’ve been rolled into one currency. There is no reason to have the player tracking three different currencies. 

Playing through Toxic Commandos solo is a drag for a few reasons. The first being that the characters and story itself are not very engaging to me. The atmosphere is nailed, but the characters are all bland, aside from their attitudes, which I do enjoy. But there was nothing about the character banter that drew me into the setting and made me want to root for these characters to complete their jobs. The mission settings are also a different variety of bland, which is a shame. I was never going into this game expecting award-winning storytelling, but I at least wanted something capable of holding my attention. 

Another major issue is how the bots function. You’re supposed to be able to direct them to an objective by using the d-pad, but the button press rarely ever worked for me on the first try, no matter how much I honed in on the objective at hand. They also use their abilities at random times and often get stuck on random objects. For whatever reason, they also get distracted easily. Having to use scrap to fix things or open boxes doesn’t help this issue either. When requesting scrap, sometimes the bots just stand there and look at you like you’re nuts. It frequently takes multiple button presses to get them to respond properly. On harder difficulties, they fall apart completely and can’t keep up with the pace of the game. It’s here that they remind me the most of Back 4 Blood bots. 

If you’re looking to play this game by yourself or don’t have a constant group, you’re in for a real hard time. That is alleviated a little when you pick a class and get it to at least level 5.