'John Carpenter's Toxic Commando' Review: Bring Your Friends

When I think of John Carpenter, the legendary film director, I think of old-school horror (like Halloween) or quirky films with an otherworldly slant (The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China), and, of course, I think of Kurt Russell. Carpenter has stepped outside that comfort zone at times, but his best films have featured memorable characters and/or villains. Unfortunately, if you think his name being attached to John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando means we’re getting that style of storytelling or endearing humor, you’re in for a disappointment.

The plot, such as it is, has a team of mercenaries getting dispatched to a region that has been infected by an entity known as The Sludge God, the result of a scientific experiment gone awry, as such endeavors are wont to do. While it’s fine as a setup, the characters drag things down with each cheesy line or repetitive in-game quips. To be clear, this game doesn’t need to be (nor should it be) serious, but if you’re going to go for this kind of tongue-in-cheek humor, it cannot be done so badly that it becomes detrimental to players’ enjoyment of the game.

Thankfully, the game delivers enough in other areas to make the character element something you can try your best to ignore. The first-person shooter is built in the same mold as Left 4 Dead and Back 4 Blood. It sadly lacks a numeric name—in fact, I still can’t sort out how a game built on four-player co-op is called Toxic Commando, singular; shouldn’t it at the very least be “Commandos”? Anyway, it leans into the frenzied, zombie-killing gameplay loop.

What Toxic Commando does best is generating a feeling of chaos by filling the screen with foes, a trick developer Saber Interactive has used in the past to great effect in games like World War Z and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. It’s every bit as impressive here, and the Xbox Series X handled it well with no noticeable dips in frame rate.

It’s not wall-to-wall zombies from start to finish, though, as you’ll be dropped into good-sized open areas and given objectives to accomplish. Whether to head straight to those areas or explore various points of interest scattered across the map is up to you. On lower difficulties you might be able to use brute force to advance, but traveling around to pick up better weapons and the incredibly important spare parts—which are used to unlock cases for more powerful guns or erect defenses like a mortar, machine gun, or electrified fence—is generally worth the effort.

Driving is also an important element. You and your teammates will pile into vehicles and assume various roles (driver, gunner, navigator), keeping an eye out for gas or ammo for your turret as you drive around the map. Some vehicles also feature a winch that can be used to attach to points to pull your way up slick hillsides or crack open loot-filled storage containers. This is more involved than you might think, and it leans into Saber’s history of developing MudRunner and other similar titles. It even manages to conjure up some classic Halo Warthog vibes.

When on foot, gunplay is serviceable, but there’s some wonkiness to it that just feels a little off. It’s almost like there’s a bit of a hitch when you aim. It’s hard to describe, but it’s there. I noticed it the first time I played, and others that I played with noticed it as well. It’s not going to prevent you from being accurate enough to lay waste to the undead. It just feels a notch below other FPS games I’ve sunk time into recently, like Marathon, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, and Battlefield 6 in terms of polish. Your default walking speed is also ponderous, even outside of the sludge.

Each of the four available characters fills a specific role: Strike (damage dealer), Medic, Operator (support and vehicle specialist), and Defender (tank). While they will all share from the same relatively modest pool of available weapons, each one has a special skill that can be used—for example, Strike shoots a fireball, and Medic has a healing barrier. It all works fine, though the countdown timers to use the abilities feel a little too lengthy. A skill tree allows you to improve each class as you level up with a standard selection of nodes like the ability to carry more ammo, generate additional energy, higher area-of-effect damage, and so on.

Although there isn’t anything I’d consider a true standout element, everything pulls its own weight, putting the pieces in place to have fun with the game. How much fun you’ll actually have will likely depend entirely on who you team up with. I’ve played alone (with three AI bots), with a single partner (and two bots), and with groups of randoms, and the experience varies wildly.

If you’re someone who prefers single-player games, I can’t recommend Toxic Commando. While the AI is at least competent, it’s limited, being unable to assist with objectives that require real teamwork. If you have at least one buddy to come along for the ride, things get exponentially better as you can coordinate and help offset the AI’s limitations. Randoms, as you’d suspect, is hit or miss. If you get people who want to work together and interact, it can be fun. If you’re in a party of lone wolves or paired with someone listening to music on their headset, things can go south in a hurry.

Final Score (7/10)

John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando is a solid FPS that offers an open world teeming with sludge zombies to mow down. If you have a few friends you can team up with, there’s enough here for some fun gaming sessions. If, however, you’re planning to play solo or rely strictly on being paired with other people randomly, it becomes a much harder sell.