Apart from creating many iconic cult motion pictures like Halloween, The Factor, and Escape From New York, you may additionally bear in mind that filmmaker John Carpenter is an ardent fan of video video games. Has he then lastly determined to make one? Nicely, sure and no. Toxic Commando could bear his title within the title, however the true credit score goes to developer and writer Saber Interactive. Nonetheless, after enjoying this apocalyptic co-op first-person shooter for the primary time at Gamescom 2025, I see the way it bears his affect. This is not only a cynical advertising stunt to place his title on the field.
“We wished to sort of faucet into these ’80s horror and over-the-top motion movies like Huge Bother in Little China, so we reached out to Carpenter, who was like, ‘Yeah, that is nice,'” mentioned Saber’s chief inventive officer, Tim Willits. “He is performed the sport with us, he is helped with some ideas, he is been good about saying, ‘Deal with a lot of these issues while you inform one of these story.'”
It might be extra correct to explain Carpenter as having extra of a consulting function slightly than being deeply concerned in improvement. However his function can also be extra hands-on at the very least in some areas: The director famously composed among the themes for his personal influential motion pictures, and has written music that shall be integrated into the sport.
Whereas indirectly referencing Carpenter’s again catalog, the story of Toxic Commando, a couple of company looking for a brand new limitless energy supply that unwittingly awakens an evil entity, is completely the sort of thought I can think about he may need conceived of within the peak of his filmmaking career–this evil is even named the Sludge God, which is as unapologetically B-movie because it will get.
Our four-player session was much less centered on the story than it was on simply diving into the gameplay itself. Willits recommends the easiest way to compensate for the backstory is thru the comedian ebook prequels Saber has produced in partnership with Darkish Horse Comics.
“The story could be very enjoyable and quirky, but it surely doesn’t get in the best way,” he mentioned, although those that do need to get immersed within the story can even decide to solo the sport with computer-controlled bots as teammates. That ought to present a greater technique to recognize the moment-to-moment chatter with the opposite titular commandos–the laid-back Walter, the nihilistic Ruby, the empathetic Cato, and the pure chief Astrid–each performed by small-screen actors whose likenesses have additionally been faithfully rendered in-game.
Though a session can’t have everybody choosing the identical character, they don’t seem to be sure to particular roles on the group like in, say, a hero shooter. Each participant will get to have their very own private journey by way of loadout and lessons. The latter largely refers back to the mutant talents you’ve geared up from a tool strapped to your chest that is protecting you from being corrupted by the Sludge God’s an infection. Often, this implies having the ability to drop area-of-effect fields that your buddies can keep in to enhance their protection or offense, the sort of increase you’d need when going through down hordes of undead. There’s additionally no restriction if everybody in your social gathering decides to play a assist class, for instance.
Clearly, when it is a co-op FPS that entails blasting zombies, ideas of Left 4 Lifeless aren’t far behind. Nonetheless, the shooter I ended up fascinated with as we took on our demo mission was really Halo, Saber having additionally had a hand in that recreation’s anniversary version remaster. Not solely was the map we roamed a fairly large sandbox, with loads of optionally available areas to discover and likewise mark with pins, we may additionally get round in autos. These are randomized in every session, so that you may come throughout a pick-up truck or an ambulance van, or discover an armored automobile the place somebody can get onto the gun turret whereas the digicam pulls again in third individual for the driving force. It has the identical pleasure as piling onto a Warthog along with your buddies.
There are some concerns to remember with the autos you drive, though–they want gasoline to run, so that you may want to search out gas to high up the tank. A turret additionally has restricted ammo, so you will not be capable of use it indefinitely. Some autos won’t have the tires to deal with going up some steep and muddy slopes, and it is spectacular how Toxic Commando basically makes use of the tech seen in Saber’s off-road driving sims like Mudrunner and Snowrunner to offer autos completely different capabilities in a wide range of conditions. Once more, the armored autos are probably the most succesful for getting round, and include a really useful winch that can be utilized for knocking down obstacles in the best way.
The true technical star of the present, nevertheless, is Saber’s proprietary Swarm Engine. Initially created for World Struggle Z’s large zombie hordes, and impressively utilized for the swarm of Tyranids in Warhammer 40K: Area Marine 2, Willits mentioned the engine has developed to even larger heights in Toxic Commando.
“The environments are a lot bigger than they had been in World Struggle Z, so the swarms are available in all types of various instructions,” he defined. “We have now extra tremendous creatures, particular monsters, however identical to our improve development system in World Struggle Z and Area Marine 2, you’ve completely different lessons and you may improve your talents, loadouts, even a few of your passives.”
That additionally ensures there’s by no means a uninteresting second. When following the target of destroying particular tendril nodes in order that we may attain a church, we encountered a swarm of undead. However even when exploring different factors of curiosity, the engine retains the map populated with enemies so that there is at all times one thing to shoot or cope with whereas looking for loot and refill on provides.
At instances, the continuous hordes can get overwhelming. Working example: Towards the top of the mission, we reached the church and needed to endure a siege of undead coming from all instructions. Willits mentioned Toxic Commando might be probably the most tough recreation the studio has made in years, given how a lot the motion can ramp up. However that issue is managed in real-time by the Swarm Engine’s AI director that is designed to additionally make you’re feeling like the percentages are towards you.
“It retains monitor of who you are preventing and balances the problem,” he defined. “Whenever you’re enjoying and really feel like, ‘My god, I am not going to outlive,’ and then you definitely simply pull by on the final second, plenty of that’s the AI director.”
John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando is coming quickly to PC, PS5, and Xbox Collection X|S.