John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando review: a strange experiment that just about works
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Details
Publisher Focus Entertainment
Developer: Saber Interactive
Format PS5 (Reviewed), Xbox Series X/SP.C.
Platform Swarm Engine
Release date 12 March 2026
John Carpenter is a movie director who has been within the background of my life for many years, from childhood reminiscences of The Thing to annual dips again into Big Trouble in Little China and The Fog. So a sport, John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando, impressed by Carpenter, actually cannot be turned down. From Metal Gear Solid to Still Wakes The Deep, Carpenter continues to encourage devs, however this one has his title on the field, so it actually ought to be the total Carpenter expertise, proper?
Carpenter’s movies thrive on throwing unusual folks into unattainable conditions, an oppressive dread creeping by way of empty areas, and that low digital synth pulse promising one thing terrible just out of body. So when a co-op shooter arrives bearing Carpenter’s title and leaning into that identical synth-heavy fog-filled eerieness, I’m already midway satisfied.
Fortunately, John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando understands the project. Even when the sport erupts into full zombie-splattering chaos, the tone nonetheless carries Carpenter’s fingerprints. A pulsing synth soundtrack hums beneath the motion, the story facilities on reluctant anti-heroes slightly than troopers, and a neat Cinema Ambience graphics mode subtly shifts the colour into Carpenter-style palettes.
Thick on environment, skinny on element
Cinematics linking the horde taking pictures are an efficient homage to Carpenter. The digicam lingers just a little longer on empty roads, distant motion within the fog, or a hill slowly filling with shambling our bodies earlier than they attain you. It’s the form of visible language Carpenter used all through movies like Escape from New York and The Fog, providing quiet pressure earlier than the inevitable chaos.
The setup is pure Carpenter pulp. A gaggle of smugglers chasing their subsequent payday stumble into a supernatural disaster linked to an entity often known as the Sludge God. Nobody right here is heroic. They bicker, mock one another, and deal with the unfolding apocalypse like an inconvenience to the following huge rating. But that scrappy power provides the missions character. The dialogue has just sufficient chew that you really wish to hear what these characters say subsequent, and that’s not one thing most co-op shooters handle.
That mentioned, the story itself is pretty lean and performative. No matter how a lot I take pleasure in listening to this scrappy gang bicker and infight, the plot is right here to service the grind. It units up the following objective, the ferry quest, and swarm survival. There are a couple of moments the place I feel the story might be seen into pure Carpenter, with characters splintering and fractures teased, however it goes nowhere.
At its core, although, Toxic Commando sits in the identical blood swimming pools of co-op horde shooters like Left 4 Dead, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide and developer Saber Interactive’s personal World War Z. You’d assume a lot of Carpenter-isms get misplaced within the chaos, the stress and fairly paranoria, however Ghosts of Mars would really like a phrase, and certainly, the sport masterfully curates its huge moments, the large horde swarms are seen on the horizon and also you just want to take a seat, watch and wait.
Toxic Commando goes off-road
On prime of the acquainted co-op shooter format, Toxic Commando provides a curious mechanic impressed by MudRunner. Large elements of every mission contain navigating muddy terrain in off-road autos and hauling gear throughout hills, forests, and flooded farmland. Trucks lavatory down within the invading ‘Sludge’, engines battle on inclines, and typically the one choice is to interrupt out the winch and slowly drag your self free, zombies clinging to your truck, flung off and crunched below tires.
At first, the combo of MudRunner and World War Z feels awkward. Vehicles chew by way of petrol, take harm simply and often get caught in terrain that feels designed to swallow them complete (one second, a literal gap, it took me quarter-hour to flee from).
But when you totally perceive the way to use the winch, one thing clicks. Suddenly, new routes open up. You can haul vans by way of unattainable angles, pull autos out of ravines, or climb slopes that initially appeared impassable. It provides a real risk-reward layer to exploration, because the push to discover deeper into the map for higher loot comes with the chance that chances are you’ll not have the gas or automobile integrity to make it again.
Later within the story, the automobile choice expands with sooner vans fitted with flamethrowers or machine weapons, which lastly lets the driving aspect of the sport lower free a little. But even then, it stays a strange match. Sometimes intelligent, typically awkward, usually slowing the tempo to a literal crawl, and sometimes irritating, however undeniably completely different from most horde shooters.
The Space Marine 2 affect
But Saber at all times holds his trump card, the large zombie hordes that its spectacular Swarm Engine can push across the map with ease. Previously seen in World War Z and later even pushed additional in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2the Swarm Engine remains to be one of the crucial spectacular enemy programs round and by no means fails to boost a smile.
Hundreds of zombies pour throughout the display screen without delay, climbing fences, spilling down hills and piling onto targets in alarming numbers. What makes it work is not just scale however staging. The sport usually reveals the swarm forming at a distance, motion within the fog, our bodies gathering on the horizon, after which all of a sudden dashing in direction of you in a wave of clawing arms and nashing tooth.
Nearly each mission finally ends in a protection situation, defending some important gadget or goal from wave after wave of contaminated. It’s a acquainted mission construction, therefore the addition of the automobile mechanics and give attention to exploration that goals to make the journey to those choke factors extra concerned.
To an extent, it works. Ditch the NPCs to play with different people, and the missions develop a distinctive rhythm. Someone takes the wheel, others experience shotgun. There’s a real thrill to sitting within the passenger seat, watching zombies soar on the hood and crash the home windows, blasting into a wall of zombies clinging to the aspect of the truck because it roars by way of the mud. These bouncing, drifting shootouts are a pleasure and distinctive to Toxic Commando, and in these moments, the sport manages to tug me into feeling like I’m in a Carpenter film, preventing for my digital life.
A visible, poisonous, deal with
When the motion slows, there’s a second to understand the world Saber has made. Ash drifts by way of the air, and embers float throughout the display screen, fog curls by way of forests and ruined farmland, whereas mud churns below tires and boots alike. Visually, the sport is stronger than anticipated.
The palette avoids the same old grey-brown apocalypse. Burning reds and oranges glow throughout the panorama, whereas electrical blue fractures lower by way of corrupted floor and illuminate the mist and fog that tease a twist of ‘Sludge’ roots. Sparks illuminate deserted farms and crumbling army installations now overtaken by grotesque natural development, all demanding exploration. It’s a grim world, however a surprisingly vivid one.
Where the expertise begins to fail is in the long run. Once the marketing campaign ends, the endgame loop is pretty skinny. Progress primarily means replaying the identical 9 story missions on better difficulties whereas exploring maps to collect Sludgerite (the in-game leveling foreign money), earn kills and grind expertise for weapons and character talents.
And it truly is a grind. After the primary playthrough, which takes round 5 hours, you will barely have scratched the floor of the improve programs and weapon unlocks, so there’s lots left to find. But whether or not that’s interesting relies upon solely on how a lot you take pleasure in chasing perfection – repeating missions, refining builds and transferring down the identical large hordes repeatedly. For some gamers, that loop might be satisfying, however for others it’ll really feel like the sport runs out of recent concepts too rapidly.
Toxic Commando swarms however stalls
John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando seems to be a strange however usually entertaining hybrid. The Carpenter influences, comparable to the unique synth rating, cinematic framing, and rough-edged anti-heroes, give it character and lend the sport a taste most co-op shooters lack. The Swarm Engine nonetheless delivers spectacular zombie battles, and the world itself has an eerie visible richness.
The MudRunner-style automobile programs are the actual wildcard. Occasionally intelligent, but in addition usually awkward, and typically extremely irritating, it may possibly actually sluggish the motion to a crawl at occasions, which is not the regular pacing for a zombie horde co-op shooter. But it may possibly ship these confined shootouts from the entrance seat, which feels solely distinctive to Toxic Commando.
Underneath all of it, although, the acquainted horde-shooter loop stays intact. Missions stretch longer than anticipated, the endgame leans closely on repetition, and the grind will check anybody with out a robust style for completionism. Still, when the vans are sliding by way of mud, the synths are buzzing, and tons of of zombies are spilling over a hill in direction of your place, Toxic Commando finds its rhythm and its personal identification.
