Hey, everybody! We’re excited to lastly share a gameplay overview for Toxic Commando and announce that the sport launches on March 12. We’ve been working exhausting on this one, and we will’t look forward to you to get your palms on it.
For these simply catching up, Toxic Commando is our tackle the co-op shooter style, mixing intense horde fight with vehicle-based gameplay in open environments. We wished to offer you a deeper take a look at how this mission came collectively and what makes it tick.
From idea to chaos
The entire thing began with a pitch from Saber Interactive’s CEO, Matt Karch: World Struggle Z meets Mudrunner. Image huge hordes of enemies swarming gamers who want to use quite a lot of automobiles to survive. We thought it was a cool idea that performed to our strengths at Saber, so we dove into analysis and prototyping. What emerged was one thing we’re actually happy with—a novel mix of vehicle-based gameplay in open environments mixed with action-packed fights in opposition to large enemy hordes.
Placing the steadiness: Wheels vs. boots
One query we get so much is how we balanced the driving and FPS elements. The reply? We didn’t need to drive you into one playstyle or the opposite. Our sport design encourages exploration, and it’s up to you ways a lot you need to lean on automobiles to deal with missions. There are apparent advantages to driving—mobility, safety, mounted weapons—however we by no means need you to really feel locked behind the wheel.
Our objective was easy: make automobiles enjoyable and useful for gamers who need to use them, then allow you to resolve how a lot time you spend driving versus on foot. Each approaches ought to really feel viable and, most significantly, enjoyable to play.
Co-op that places technique in your palms
Most missions in Toxic Commando are nonlinear. You’ll have a number of subobjectives that may be accomplished in any order, which suggests you and your squad can select to stick collectively or break up up to deal with aims in parallel. The selection is yours.
Every playthrough additionally shakes issues up with totally different automobile spawns and sophistication/loadout picks, so that you’ll want to talk together with your crew and plan accordingly to create good synergy. We wished to encourage actual participant coordination and strategic pondering, including a recent layer to the traditional co-op shooter expertise.
Constructing a world that feels actual (and ridiculous)
When it came to crafting the lore and universe of Toxic Commando, we had a number of guiding rules. First, we wished a world that felt recognizable however was set within the close to future—simply superior sufficient to have some cool tech with out feeling like an enormous leap from our personal actuality.
Second, we wished our characters to concentrate on the tropes they’re residing by means of. They’re in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, coping with utterly over-the-top conditions which might be each terrifying and—let’s be trustworthy—a bit ridiculous. We lean into that with the dialogue and situations, which create some actually memorable interactions.
However right here’s the factor: whereas we embrace comedic parts and wish gamers to have a blast, we’re not concerned with making enjoyable of the video games and flicks that impressed us. We strategy this with earnestness as a result of we genuinely love these things.
Our love letter to ’80s motion horror
Talking of influences, we drew closely from ’80s movies and tv. The trail to John Carpenter was a pure one: which nice director or motion pictures match into that type of sphere? John Carpenter’s Escape from New York might be the obvious reference, however you’ll additionally discover DNA from Massive Bother in Little China, The Factor, They Dwell, and Prince of Darkness woven all through. John Carpenter’s involvement went past steerage, suggestions, and path on the story—he additionally composed Toxic Commando’s music. The crew additionally checked out Dan O’Bannon’s Return of the Residing Useless, Lamberto Bava’s Demons, Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator, and even a little bit of The A-Staff.
What we love about these properties is the large vitality and bombastic tone. It wasn’t about copying particular set items or scenes—it was about capturing that feeling. There’s a scarcity of self-consciousness in loads of late ’70s to early ’90s motion and action-horror cinema that we actually appreciated. These characters aren’t winking on the digicam; they’re in over their heads and rolling with it. Our characters know what zombies are, however when confronted with a horde, they’re not stopping to break the fourth wall or crack clever about clichés—they’re preventing for survival.
The previous fifty years of cinema have given us great examples of ragtag teams of underdog heroes—from Star Wars to Goonies to Guardians of the Galaxy—alongside true masterpieces of horror. We wished to mix these concepts: what occurs if you drop a bickering discovered household of action-adventure heroes right into a horror film? That’s the core of what we’re exploring with Toxic Commando.
John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando is scheduled to be launched on March 12. We are able to’t look forward to you to expertise this new co-op zombie shooter with a automobile twist. Thanks for studying, and we’ll see you out there!