The cult classic returns, re-imagined
By Paul Hunter
John Carpenter's Toxic Commando is a four-player co-op horde shooter from Saber Interactive, the studio that already proved with World War Z and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 that it knows exactly how to build a great horde shooter.
Carpenter isn't just on the branding, he produced the main title track with his son Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies, and the DNA of his 80s classics, The Fog, The Thing, and Big Trouble in Little China, runs through every corner of the game, whether that's the camp, the one-liners, the buddy movie attitude, or the sheer over-the-top action.
Powering all that undead chaos is Saber's Swarm Engine, the same tech that flooded Space Marine 2's battlefields with thousands of Tyranids at once. Is John Carpenter's Toxic Commando the zombie-infested co-op experience worth suiting up for? Let's find out!
Walter Irons (Clive Standen), Ruby Pelicano (Lucy Martin), Cato Arman (Omari Hardwick), and Astrid Xu (Charlet Chung) arrive to get supplies to an insider working to slow the spread. The job goes wrong and all four wind up infected. Leon saves them using abilities drawn directly from the Sludge God and sends them out on a three-act, 10-mission campaign to drive the creature back underground for good.
I loved how story goes heavy on 80s camp from the first cutscene. The crew trade one-liners constantly, and the voice cast give each commando a compelling personality. A Lovecraftian body-horror influence on the Sludge God and the infected world keeps the stakes feeling huge.
All in all, the story is a focused three-act setup with a crew that delivers continuous funny moments alongside the carnage.
Your class choices are fairly routine for the genre and will shape how you play. The four options are Strike (damage dealer), Medic (healer), Operator (support/engineer), and Defender (tank), each with its own active ability and more than 30 perks to unlock using Sludge Seed, the upgrade currency you collect in the field. The Strike hurls fireballs at enemy clusters, the Medic generates a healing aura that restores HP to nearby teammates, the Operator deploys a companion drone for extra firepower, and the Defender raises a shield that blocks incoming projectiles for the squad. I appreciated being able to swap classes between missions, since trying different builds across the campaign kept the action fresh.
Spare parts, scattered across every map, unlock special weapon crates and fund the defensive fortifications you build at the last stand area, including electric fences, mountable turrets, mortars, and supply crates packed with grenades and gear. I learned fast that rushing the final objective without stocking up is a reliable way to get your whole team wiped.
Vehicles are one of my favourite parts of this game. Six are available, each built for a specific tactical role. The Ambulance keeps the team topped up on health while moving, and the Banshee uses a siren to pull in a horde before detonating. Driving around has its challenges, mostly in the form of MudRunner-style terrain physics where muddy ground and rough terrain can bog your vehicle down fast, and you'll need to use the winch system to get free. The winch can also be used to pry open the trunks of vehicles, which often hold valuable loot to help you mow down the zombie hordes.
Loadouts cover a primary, secondary, melee weapon, and throwable. Every gun supports attachment upgrades including sights, stocks, and grips, and tier upgrades bought with sludge increase damage output noticeably higher. Salvage weapons, powerful temporary firearms like the Railgun found scattered across the map, can completely turn a failing last stand around when the squad rallies behind whoever is carrying one.
The game features a Down But Not Out system, but it's a bit different from other games. When you take too much damage you can no longer fight, you'll get cocooned in a sludge pod, and your teammates can come pull you out.
Four difficulty settings are available, and higher options reward your team with more XP and resources.
All in all, the gameplay is easy to get into, and rewards squads that explore and prepare before the last stand hits.
Environments are dark, and consistently oppressive on purpose. Poisoned landscapes and corrupted terrain fill every map with a thich atmosphere that reinforces the Sludge God's influence from the moment you arrive. Cinema Mode, available through the settings adds a vintage film-grain filter across the entire game as a direct tribute to Carpenter's filmmaking style. I found it added a surprising amount of personality to the presentation and kept it on for most of the campaign.
Turning our attention to audio, the soundtrack carries the 80s horror energy from the opening screen through every combat encounter. The music shifts in intensity during large horde fights and settles into a quieter tone during exploration, which I appreciated. Weapon sound effects are satisfying and specific, with every gun type delivering clear feedback with each shot. DualSense adaptive triggers on PS5 add physical resistance to every weapon, making each one feel meaningfully different to fire.
Performance on PS5 mostly stayed smooth, but there were brief frame rate dips occur during the most intense horde encounters. Fortunately, they are minor and resolve quickly.
All in all, I found the presentation to be a big highlight of John Carpenter's Toxic Commando from visuals right through to the performance on PS5.
Final Score: 8/10 - Great
Developer: Saber Interactive
Publisher: Focus Entertainment
Genre: First-Person Shooter
Modes: Single-player, Multiplayer
A key was provided by the publisher.
By Paul Hunter
John Carpenter's Toxic Commando is a four-player co-op horde shooter from Saber Interactive, the studio that already proved with World War Z and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 that it knows exactly how to build a great horde shooter.
Carpenter isn't just on the branding, he produced the main title track with his son Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies, and the DNA of his 80s classics, The Fog, The Thing, and Big Trouble in Little China, runs through every corner of the game, whether that's the camp, the one-liners, the buddy movie attitude, or the sheer over-the-top action.
Powering all that undead chaos is Saber's Swarm Engine, the same tech that flooded Space Marine 2's battlefields with thousands of Tyranids at once. Is John Carpenter's Toxic Commando the zombie-infested co-op experience worth suiting up for? Let's find out!
Story and Narrative
As the story goes, in the near future, Obsidian, a tech company led by CEO Leon Dorsey, starts drilling into the Earth's core to tap its energy reserves. Workers and civilians begin converging on the drill site, each pulled there by visions of something ancient and demonic. On October 29, 2033, that something finally reveals itself as the Sludge God, a massive subterranean entity that converts anyone it infects into an undead, mind-controlled husk. The land around the site gets poisoned, and the population is soon overrun. Leon, who knows he caused this, recruits four mercenaries to fix it.Walter Irons (Clive Standen), Ruby Pelicano (Lucy Martin), Cato Arman (Omari Hardwick), and Astrid Xu (Charlet Chung) arrive to get supplies to an insider working to slow the spread. The job goes wrong and all four wind up infected. Leon saves them using abilities drawn directly from the Sludge God and sends them out on a three-act, 10-mission campaign to drive the creature back underground for good.
I loved how story goes heavy on 80s camp from the first cutscene. The crew trade one-liners constantly, and the voice cast give each commando a compelling personality. A Lovecraftian body-horror influence on the Sludge God and the infected world keeps the stakes feeling huge.
All in all, the story is a focused three-act setup with a crew that delivers continuous funny moments alongside the carnage.
Gameplay and Mechanics
Each mission in John Carpenter's Toxic Commando follows a similar structure where you explore a semi-open map and fight through roaming undead hordes, and then dig in for a climactic last stand at the final objective. I loved how satisfying this rhythm stays across the entire campaign without losing its momentum.Your class choices are fairly routine for the genre and will shape how you play. The four options are Strike (damage dealer), Medic (healer), Operator (support/engineer), and Defender (tank), each with its own active ability and more than 30 perks to unlock using Sludge Seed, the upgrade currency you collect in the field. The Strike hurls fireballs at enemy clusters, the Medic generates a healing aura that restores HP to nearby teammates, the Operator deploys a companion drone for extra firepower, and the Defender raises a shield that blocks incoming projectiles for the squad. I appreciated being able to swap classes between missions, since trying different builds across the campaign kept the action fresh.
Spare parts, scattered across every map, unlock special weapon crates and fund the defensive fortifications you build at the last stand area, including electric fences, mountable turrets, mortars, and supply crates packed with grenades and gear. I learned fast that rushing the final objective without stocking up is a reliable way to get your whole team wiped.
Vehicles are one of my favourite parts of this game. Six are available, each built for a specific tactical role. The Ambulance keeps the team topped up on health while moving, and the Banshee uses a siren to pull in a horde before detonating. Driving around has its challenges, mostly in the form of MudRunner-style terrain physics where muddy ground and rough terrain can bog your vehicle down fast, and you'll need to use the winch system to get free. The winch can also be used to pry open the trunks of vehicles, which often hold valuable loot to help you mow down the zombie hordes.
Loadouts cover a primary, secondary, melee weapon, and throwable. Every gun supports attachment upgrades including sights, stocks, and grips, and tier upgrades bought with sludge increase damage output noticeably higher. Salvage weapons, powerful temporary firearms like the Railgun found scattered across the map, can completely turn a failing last stand around when the squad rallies behind whoever is carrying one.
The game features a Down But Not Out system, but it's a bit different from other games. When you take too much damage you can no longer fight, you'll get cocooned in a sludge pod, and your teammates can come pull you out.
Four difficulty settings are available, and higher options reward your team with more XP and resources.
All in all, the gameplay is easy to get into, and rewards squads that explore and prepare before the last stand hits.
Presentation and Audio
John Carpenter's Toxic Commando nails the visual tone of Carpenter's aesthetic, which is awesome since I love movies like The Fog and Escape From LA. The undead hordes that surge across maps are massive in size and detailed, with the Special infected designs being the most grotesque and distinct. Whether it's the gigantic Goon chaser infected or the Slob undead tank, I loved how detailed each elite enemy type is, letting you easily spot them in the middle of a full-scale horde encounter.Environments are dark, and consistently oppressive on purpose. Poisoned landscapes and corrupted terrain fill every map with a thich atmosphere that reinforces the Sludge God's influence from the moment you arrive. Cinema Mode, available through the settings adds a vintage film-grain filter across the entire game as a direct tribute to Carpenter's filmmaking style. I found it added a surprising amount of personality to the presentation and kept it on for most of the campaign.
Turning our attention to audio, the soundtrack carries the 80s horror energy from the opening screen through every combat encounter. The music shifts in intensity during large horde fights and settles into a quieter tone during exploration, which I appreciated. Weapon sound effects are satisfying and specific, with every gun type delivering clear feedback with each shot. DualSense adaptive triggers on PS5 add physical resistance to every weapon, making each one feel meaningfully different to fire.
Performance on PS5 mostly stayed smooth, but there were brief frame rate dips occur during the most intense horde encounters. Fortunately, they are minor and resolve quickly.
All in all, I found the presentation to be a big highlight of John Carpenter's Toxic Commando from visuals right through to the performance on PS5.
The Verdict
John Carpenter's Toxic Commando is honestly just a really good time, espeically with 4-player co-op as it was designed. Saber Interactive built something with genuine soul here, and leaning hard into Carpenter's 80s horror vibe was a smart choice. Get a squad together and go send the Sludge God back where it came from. You'll have a blast, trust me.Final Score: 8/10 - Great
John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando details
Platform: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PCDeveloper: Saber Interactive
Publisher: Focus Entertainment
Genre: First-Person Shooter
Modes: Single-player, Multiplayer
A key was provided by the publisher.