John Carpenter's Toxic Commando - Review
Toxic Commando is a solid amalgamation of Saber's Greatest Hits.
Previously, I took a look at John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando’s demo. In short, I was pleased with what I played. I’m a sucker for a good zombie game and Toxic Commando seemed to fit the bill. I’m happy to report that after having spent time with every level at the full release, Toxic Commando is a worthy addition to the pre-existing swarms of shooters, even from Saber Interactive’s very own. While it may not revolutionize the genre, it plays to its strengths and does so quite well. That is if you aren’t at the mercy of your CPU teammates.
I don’t want to fully repeat myself based on what I’ve already talked about, but the long and short of it is this. Toxic Commando offers gratifying zombie combat with some welcome non-linearity in its level design. Truth be told, my biggest fear of this game going in was how long before it would start to feel stale. With the demo restrictions lifted, the full game offers such varying locations, a Call of Duty style gunsmith system, and four full classes to build. It makes spicing things up relatively easy to do, all with some caveats that I’ll get into as they come.
Toxic Commando doesn’t set out to be the quintessential zombie shooter. However, it’s done its homework and offers a tailored experience based on what came before it. Even if some of that homework is copied and pasted from its siblings, those being Saber’s previous titles: World War Z and Mudrunner.
There’s the omnipresent hordes that can swarm at a moment’s notice ala World War Z or Space Marine II. Hell, every firearm in the full game apart from the special weapons are pulled from the former. While I haven’t played Mudrunner I have killed a lot of nasty things that tried to kill me. Despite having very similar experiences prior, Toxic Commando still manages to feel fresh.
For starters, this being a full on first person shooter means it can easily cater to that COD Zombies or the Left 4 Dead crowd. The shooting feels great; guns have manageable recoil to learn and in conjunction with the gibbing effects means killing is always cathartic in Toxic Commando. When bullets land in zombies with excessive splatters and hitmarkers it makes killing even basic infected gratifying. With these enemies emerging from the sludge, sending them back where they came from bit by bit simply feels good.
The weapons on offer I found to be a mixed bag. As previously mentioned, all the firearms are pulled out of World War Z. However in Toxic Commando these guns can be upgraded one by one over usage and eventually Sludgite, a plentiful material you’ll come across in the levels. Then you’ll be able to purchase different attachments for your weapons every time your weapon levels up. Not a new system by any means, but it does incentivize trying out new guns to see which one you wanna stick with long-term.
I tried to use as many different weapons as I could. I found every shotgun apart from the Taiga-12 (Drum Shotgun) to be damn near worthless against hordes. That and every automatic apart from cosmetically speaking functions the same. It really does make the weapon crafting more or less boil down to just personal preference. But then there’s the process of actually leveling the weapons up, which has the Saber staple of every system seen previously.
Any XP or materials picked up during missions will not be counted for until the mission is over. However, at this point there is no way to check how much XP your weapon has earned in game. A feature that was available in World War Z. The problem then becomes that these missions will take you about 20-30 minutes on average to complete. The higher your difficulty the more XP you earn, unless you die in which case you’re penalized by a 75% reduction based on what you did get. But I suppose now it’s time to get into what makes Toxic Commando itself, that being the presentation.
Playing through the acts in order does actually tell a story. In short, you are one of four self-proclaimed Toxic Commandos. Guiding them is a man named Leon, the man responsible for the zombies as your scientist in an experiment gone wrong. He tries to be extra as hell calling them “homo-morti”, which even the characters agree is stupid. On the topic, he hires these four to deliver a bomb which they preemptively blew up. Now they gotta work with Leon to fix this little zombie problem and maybe get paid.
The game is going for that campy B-movie tone where the characters are an exaggerated single dimension of a set personality. It tries to be funny but truth be told I didn’t really find anyone apart from Cato likeable. And even so, I’m heavily biased in that because Cato is played by Omari Hardwick who played Ghost in the hit Starz series Power. Listen, I laugh at the video of the waffle falling, you know the one. I am easily enthused but sadly the writing and performances really didn’t do it for me.
Luckily you aren’t really playing this for the story anyhow, and even so getting from start to finish will take you about 10-12 hours. What is nice though is each of the levels does offer some nice variation and progressing through the levels themselves showcases where Toxic Commando shines the most. Even if the writing may not be up to snuff, the art direction and level design are simply excellent.
Every level has its own distinct look to it as well as its own mechanics. I won’t be explaining the differences of all of them here, but I’m happy to report that going from one level to the next feels distinct complete with a Stranger Themes-esque title card. Not to mention the similar looking sludge to the Upside Down…
Levels, aside from the tutorial, as previously mentioned will take up about 20-30 minutes. In that time you and your team are dropped into an open area where you can explore it at your own pace. You are not on any time limit, there is no threat of some magical death smoke that’ll kill you for taking too long. You have plenty of points of interest on the map that will be uncovered as you approach. On repeat playthroughs not everything will spawn in the same place, which makes it fun to constantly uncover the map on subsequent sessions.
As you explore you’ll come across drivable vehicles in the field, all of which possess different abilities. Maybe you find a pickup truck with a winch and a mounted flamethrower, or an ambulance with the ability to regenerate health to everyone inside. These vehicles are the best way to get around the map, and this is where that Mudrunner influence starts to creep in.
As you’ll be traveling alongside dirt roads as well as driving through the sludge itself, the material you’re driving on all has an impact on the weight and handling of your vehicle. The driving all has serious heft to it and it’s satisfying to drive around. Using the winch in a truck to pull yourself out of some gunk is never not cool to see. The effects look fantastic, the trails you leave in the dirt always look deep and splattering zombies feels like the boba that pops in your mouth. However, the only thing about traveling that can get tiresome is the lack of a mini map. It constantly disrupts the flow having to stop and make sure you’re going the right way.
Run over too many zombies or take too many hits and you’ll have to fix up your vehicle. To do so you’ll need to use spare parts found through the aforementioned POIs. These spare parts also act as skeleton keys to open up special weapon cases, equipment cases, or fixing planted artillery such as mortars and turrets. As you collect spare parts, you’ll also be constantly collecting Sludgite on the way, the glowing rocks that contribute to your weapon attachments.
You can see it all come together now. Every move you make in these levels you’re collecting spare parts to the main objectives (most of which end in a standoff situation), collecting Sludgite to spend on attachments for the gun you’re also leveling up, and earning XP for your selected skill tree. Rinse and repeat and have your buddies along for the ride and you have a solid zombie shooter to add to the rotation.
I say to have some friends because the AI, which unfortunately I was at the mercy of for most of my playtime, and lemme tell ya they have the worst sense of urgency. If I was low on health and I would request it in Left 4 Dead the AI would either hand me pills or they would heal me. Here, they watch and eat popcorn as the Charger-like creature slams me up and down like the I in Pixar.
As with most games of this nature online co-op is where it truly shines and having real people that can deploy their skills and also shoot priority targets on command truly is a game-changer. Now admittedly, I haven’t had the time to mess around with much of the skills beyond The Operator, which utilizes a combat drone which I built to spread some nasty fire damage around me at the push of a button.
There are four in total which are all rather self explanatory. The Strike, your DPS class with a shooting fireball. The Medic, do I really have to say it? And The Defender, who specializes in deploying a shield which honestly works wonders for those standoffs. Now while there is potential for some fun builds, it does require you to replay these levels over and over and it will all start to get repetitive after a point as while the levels look varied, they do mostly play out the same way after some time. Those 30 minute mission grinds for a handful of levels will start to feel daunting.
All in all, you’re getting a lot of game for your buck here, and honestly, Toxic Commando is a bloody good time. If the game looks like something you would have fun with, chances are you will. As I said, it plays to its strengths and just is a simply fun shooter. Toxic Commando simply needs you to enjoy shooting loads of zombies on top of plowing through the mud. If that fits your criteria, then I hope to see you out there, please, I can’t rely on my CPU teammate- and great, they died.
John Carpenter's Toxic Commando
While not revolutionary, Toxic Commando is a solid zombie shooter with some fun, albeit repetitive, level design.
