John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando is a first-person cooperative shooter built around battles with hordes of zombies. The project is being developed by Saber Interactive and is perceived as a logical development of the ideas of World War Z, with the addition of a more open level structure and expanded auxiliary mechanics.
The plot revolves around a failed scientific experiment. The owner of a large corporation is trying to find a new source of energy by excavating in the Earth's core. The result is a catastrophe: an ancient creature breaks to the surface, turning people into zombies. The only surviving participant of the project, who is also the head of the corporation, is trying to fix the consequences and hires a squad of mercenaries to deliver a special cargo. But he did not suspect that he had hired slightly crazy personalities who might disregard the rules. As a result, they lose the cargo, catch the infection from the main monster, and they only have a week to defeat the deity and recover.
The plot performs an exclusively functional role and does not pretend to be of independent value. The story is presented through short videos and dialogues during missions. The main emphasis is on ironic remarks and mutual digs between the characters. Sometimes the humor seems strained, but the basic chemistry within the squad is noticeable.
The main complaint about the plot can be expressed in one question: what does John Carpenter have to do with it? The developers emphasize that this is a tribute to the author and an attempt to repeat his vision: a straightforward narrative, a setting of science fiction, and the grotesqueness of what is happening. However, in practice, the references look superficial. The tone of the narrative often goes into parody and toilet humor, which is weakly correlated with the atmosphere of the director's classic works, and is perceived more as an attempt to simplify the presentation than as a meaningful stylization.
«Classic» cooperative
Players control one of the four fighters of the Commando squad. You cannot choose the same character in the team, but classes can be repeated. There are four in total: assault trooper, medic, engineer, and defender. Each class has a unique active ability associated with infection and its own skill tree of 30 skills. Some skills enhance abilities, others affect general parameters — reload speed, ammunition supply, or the number of grenades.
A separate development tree is assigned to weapons. The arsenal is standard for the genre: assault rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, SMGs, and pistols. Leveling up allows you to unlock attachments and increase the rarity of weapons from common to legendary. Additionally, a prestige system is provided, which gives cosmetic rewards.
Auxiliary equipment includes melee weapons, grenades, mines, and turrets. These elements are not upgraded, and their use is accompanied by long animations. Given the abundance of ammunition on the maps, the need for them rarely arises.
In addition to the basic arsenal, heavy weapons are found in missions: grenade launchers, large-caliber sniper rifles, and railguns. It is effective against crowds and special opponents, but is only available in limited quantities and without the possibility of replenishing ammunition. It will not be possible to use such weapons constantly.
The gameplay structure is typical for session cooperative shooters. The player chooses one of nine missions, the level of difficulty, and completes it alone with bots or in a team. At the same time, the level design is closer to Helldivers 2: a significant part of the time is spent in open locations with many points of interest. They allow you to replenish resources, find heavy weapons, perform side tasks, and extract materials for leveling and cosmetics.
The location of the starting point, goals, and interesting places changes from session to session. It is pointless to memorize routes, so the optimal strategy is to quickly move around the map with clearing key points. You can explore locations on foot or by transport. The vehicle fleet is small, but the cars differ in functionality: the ambulance heals the crew, the sports car is equipped with acceleration, and the military SUV works as a mobile fortress with a turret and a protective field.
The action is built according to two main scenarios. In standard segments, players face small groups of zombies, diluted with enhanced types of opponents. In addition to the classic brutes and suicide bombers, there are armed zombies and hostile plants with various attacks.
During defensive stages, the engine reveals itself more strongly. Full-fledged hordes fall on objects, completely ignoring the players and focused on the goal. In such situations, the battle boils down to clearing the crowd from a distance with the support of turrets and traps. In some missions, the emphasis shifts to the destruction of a large target, and then the horde switches directly to the squad.
Endgame content is limited to replaying missions on maximum difficulty. Opponents become more dangerous, the number of points of interest is reduced, and the reward is increased. This game does not offer significant new mechanics.
Saber Mechanics Collection
The technical basis of Toxic Commando is the Swarm Engine. It allows you to simultaneously display thousands of opponents on the screen without critical load on the system. This technology has already been used in previous studio projects and is used here in a similar form.
Another nice feature of the engine is when driving vehicles. In recent years, Swarm has been actively upgraded for off-road driving simulators. The Expeditions and SnowRunner series of games were made on this engine. And all the driving mechanics were transferred to the zombie shooter: cars get stuck in the mud, it is very difficult to climb hills, and most cars have a winch installed. Thanks to it, you can drive through rough terrain and break down doors behind which valuable loot is hidden. But, for obvious reasons, they abandoned the realistic control model: without a steering wheel, gearbox and excessive physics of transport.
And such a rich set of mechanics does not affect the graphics and lighting in any way. The game has a pleasant picture. There are no frills in it: buildings and structures are well designed, and the models of characters and zombies do not cause irritation. The developers also worked well with the light. This applies both to the light sources themselves and to the skills of the characters, which stand out with their color and visuals. This allows the team to better navigate in battle and not get lost in the crowd.
Diagnosis
John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando is a strong cooperative shooter and a logical development of the World War Z formula. But with its advantages, the amount of content is, so far, very limited. Nine missions are completed in one or two evenings, and further retention of the player is based solely on increasing the difficulty and achievements.
The game is perceived as a complete session entertainment, and not as a live service. It has a clear audience and a solid technical base, but the further fate of the project directly depends on the direction Saber Interactive decides to develop it after the release.