Mostafa Salem
Head of Gaming Research
A B-Movie Bloodbath with Serious Pedigree
Here's the thing about John Carpenter's Toxic Commando: it announces itself without apology. Within minutes, you're waist-deep in undead hordes, synth music pulsing in the background, and your squad is already arguing over ammo. It feels like a love letter to a very specific era of action cinema, and that's entirely the point.
Saber Interactive has carved out a reputation for co-op horde shooters, and this one arrives carrying the name of a genuine genre legend. John Carpenter, the mind behind The Thing, Escape from New York, and They Live, contributed to the game's narrative and tone, and even co-produced the main title track alongside his son Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies. That's not just branding. You feel it.
Choose your Toxic Commando class
Shooting, Swarming, and Surviving
The core loop is immediately satisfying. You pick one of four character, Walter Irons, Ruby Pelicano, Cato Arman, or Astrid Xu, each voiced by and modeled after real actors, and then you select an operator class: Strike, Medic, Operator, or Defender. Each class brings distinct abilities and a dedicated skill tree, which means there's genuine reason to experiment across multiple runs.
The gunplay is smooth and punchy. Weapons feel weighty, and the dismemberment system adds visceral satisfaction to every encounter. What most players miss on their first run is how much the class synergies matter, a well-coordinated squad with a Medic and a Defender handles elite zombie variants far more efficiently than four Strike players going loud.
The horde technology is the real showpiece. Hundreds of enemies pour across environments simultaneously with impressive fluidity, and the game never seems to buckle under the pressure. Swarms cascade down hillsides, flood through doorways, and pile up in ways that feel genuinely threatening rather than purely cosmetic.
Vehicles and the MudRunner Surprise
One of Toxic Commando's most unexpected strengths is its vehicle system. Saber Interactive clearly drew from its SnowRunner and MudRunner catalog here, and the result is a set of driving segments that feel genuinely distinct from anything else in the co-op shooter space. Navigating a truck through swampy terrain, deploying a winch to pull it free from the mud, all while teammates fend off incoming hordes, it's chaotic in the best way.
Five vehicle types are available across the campaign, and each handles differently. These segments break up the mission pacing and prevent the experience from becoming a monotonous corridor-clear.
Mud traversal adds real tension
Progression and Its Problems
The progression system is a mixed bag. Weapon attachments and tier upgrades feel meaningful while you're building them out, but the prestige system asks you to wipe all of that progress to reset and repeat the process multiple times. For players who invest heavily in a particular loadout, this is a genuine friction point rather than a rewarding challenge.
The campaign itself runs roughly five to six hours on a first playthrough, which is short even by co-op shooter standards. Replayability exists through the class variety and skill trees, but the limited number of maps, and their structural similarities, makes repeated runs feel familiar faster than they should.
Graphics & Audio
Visuals That Serve the Chaos
Toxic Commando isn't chasing photorealism, and it doesn't need to. The art direction leans into its B-movie roots, environments are functional and atmospheric rather than technically stunning. Mountain forests, underground facilities, and swamp terrain are rendered with enough detail to feel distinct, even if the textures up close occasionally show their limitations.
What the game does exceptionally well visually is scale. Watching a few hundred zombies surge toward your position across an open field is a genuinely impressive sight, and the engine handles it without the kind of frame-rate punishment you might expect.
Performance is solid across platforms. PC players running mid-range hardware report consistent 60+ FPS without significant optimization headaches, and the console versions hold up well during the most intense horde sequences.
The Soundtrack Is the Star
The audio design is good, but the music is exceptional. John Carpenter's synth-heavy title track sets the tone immediately, and the in-game score maintains that atmospheric tension throughout. If you've spent any time with Carpenter's film soundtracks, the game's audio identity will feel immediately familiar, pulsing, slightly ominous, and dripping with 80s genre energy.
Weapon audio is satisfying, with each firearm carrying a distinct sonic personality. The voice acting leans into the campy dialogue with full commitment, which is exactly the right call for a game operating in this register.
Story & Characters
Leon Dorsey, CEO of tech company Obsidian, launches an experimental drilling project to harness the Earth's core. It goes catastrophically wrong, awakening an ancient entity called the Sludge God and triggering a global zombie catastrophe. Your squad of mercenaries — the Toxic Commandos — are dropped into the chaos to clean it up.
The narrative won't surprise anyone, and it isn't trying to. The writing is self-aware, the one-liners land with the right amount of cheese, and the characters have enough personality to carry the banter across a six-hour campaign. Carpenter's influence on the tone is palpable, the story feels like it belongs in the same universe as his film catalog, which is a genuine achievement for a licensed game.
Four operators, real actor likenesses
Verdict
John Carpenter's Toxic Commando earns its name. It's a focused, polished, and thoroughly entertaining co-op horde shooter that delivers on its B-movie promise with confidence. The horde tech is impressive, the vehicle segments are a genuine surprise, and the Carpenter-produced soundtrack gives the whole thing an atmosphere that most games in this genre simply don't have.
The key here is understanding what you're buying. This is a weekend game in the best sense, something you load up with three friends, blast through in an evening, and immediately want to replay with a different class setup. It is not, at launch, a deep live-service platform. The campaign is short, the prestige system is punishing, and solo players will find the experience considerably thinner.
You'll want to keep an eye on Saber's post-launch roadmap. If the developer follows through with meaningful content updates, as their track record suggests they will, Toxic Commando has a strong foundation to build on. Right now, it's a very good time that stops just short of being a great one.
John Carpenter's Toxic Commando Review
6.5/10
John Carpenter's Toxic Commando is the kind of game that knows its lane and drives through it at full speed, muddy tires and all. It won't redefine the co-op shooter genre, but it doesn't need to. What it offers is a tightly crafted, high-energy experience that shines brightest when played with a full squad of friends who appreciate a good B-movie sensibility. The Saber Interactive pedigree is evident in the horde tech and overall polish, and Carpenter's DNA is genuinely woven into the game's tone, not just slapped on the box. The key concern right now is longevity. A six-hour campaign and thin post-launch content make this feel like a foundation rather than a finished product. If Saber supports it with meaningful updates, as they did with World War Z and Space Marine 2, Toxic Commando could grow into something special. Right now, it's a very good weekend with friends, with the potential to become much more.
6.5
Pros
Massive, fluid zombie hordes create genuinely thrilling co-op moments
Unique mud-driving vehicle segments add unexpected depth to missions
Authentic John Carpenter tone with a killer synth soundtrack
Four distinct classes with skill trees reward experimentation
Well-optimized with strong cross-play across PC and consoles
Cons
Short campaign can be completed in under six hours
Prestige system strips all weapon progression on reset
Solo play suffers from weak AI teammates
Limited map variety makes replays feel repetitive quickly
Content depth feels thin for the full asking price
