We played John Carpenter's Toxic Commando. Successor to L4D surprises with spectacular hordes of zombies from World War Z

John Carpenter's Toxic Commando is a game that practically doesn't surprise with anything, because everything that has become standard in online games in recent years has been crammed into it. We got... Zombies, cooperative mode, character classes you can develop with additional perks, a rich arsenal with an even larger assortment of weapon accessories, skins, stickers and keychains for decoration, a base camp and a shooting range for testing rifle builds... There seems to be nothing missing here and in no way is this a complaint or a flaw, because, despite a few nitpicks, it's quite enjoyable to play.

What slightly distinguishes Toxic Commando among other FPS games is the greater emphasis on the use of vehicles, and it must be admitted that this has been done very well. Not only are they useful in action, but the driving system itself could put many racing games to shame. I just couldn't see any of John Carpenter here. I love the 80s movies. I love this director, I love his music - I expected a similar atmosphere, references to cult works, but I couldn't find any of that in the provided beta.

Where is Snake Plissken's charisma?

I couldn't find any information anywhere about what exactly John Carpenter's contribution was to Toxic Commando, but the only things that could be associated with him are the music that sometimes poorly imitates the style of his soundtracks and the fact that the plot has B-class action movies quality. As a result of a failed experiment, a scientist named Leon awakens some mysterious creature inside the Earth and hell breaks loose - people start turning into zombies. Leon does have a plan on how to prevent the apocalypse, and four outcasts - the titular Toxic Commando - are supposed to help him carry out the task.

John Carpenter's Toxic Commando, Saber Interactive, 2025

It's hard to judge the plot after just three missions from the beta, but you can already feel that the main characters don't even come close to Snake Plissken in terms of charisma and expressiveness, and the dialogues are terrible. Only the cut-scenes make up for the quality of graphics and overall technical presentation. The tested beta lacked humor and Bon Jovi's music, which the game trailer featured - we'll see how the whole thing turns out.

Hordes instead of bullet sponges

Stopping the zombie plague will involve carrying out a series of field missions for Leon in the form of quick raids. The maps are semi-open and apart from the main, always multi-stage task, there are always some side challenges and places with loot, encouraging exploration before completing the stage. The developers decided on a zombie apocalypse variant with hordes of very fast undead, and it must be admitted that the sight of rushing or climbing crowds of literally hundreds of zombies, straight from World War Z, can look extremely spectacular. Maps set somewhere in the rocky mountains of the United States are reminiscent of Days Gone (I mentioned at the beginning that everything from this game has been seen somewhere before).

And hordes of zombies also mean that there are no health bars above the enemies, no damage numbers - all battles are based on the number of opponents defeated or possibly on time, not on the strength of the zombies. Of course, there are more powerful variants of monsters, but even in such cases, they are not bullet sponges, they just have one or several weak points on their body that need to be hit. The only case of an enemy with a longer health bar involved some kind of large, organic "blob," completely passive, which had to be shot at "incidentally," while fighting zombies.

John Carpenter's Toxic Commando, Saber Interactive, 2025

It's a pleasant solution because, combined with a pretty good shooting system, it makes the extermination of zombies very satisfying and providing a lot of fun. Even a regular pistol can wreak quite havoc here, taking down an ordinary zombie with one shot, let alone a submachine gun or a grenade launcher, which acts as area weapons. Although you can feel the power of each gun, even the weakest ones are not here just to increase the number of weapons, as they are pleasant to use.

In addition to this, there are flamethrowers, mortars, stationary guns, kamikaze zombies exploding with accurate shots, and mandatory exploding barrels scattered everywhere. In places where missions involve defending yourself for some time, you can also activate all kinds of decoys, electric nets, turrets, but such attractions involve the sacrifice of one of the valuable resources: spare parts, of which there are only a few on the map and you often have to make a difficult decision on what to use them for. In conclusion, shooting at hordes of zombies rushing at you from every direction is done very well in Toxic Commando!

Mud and winch like in SnowRunner

Vehicles are another nice addition to the gameplay. The maps may not be so big that cars would noticeably shorten the travel time. Instead, cars play a significant role during missions. There are even main tasks that involve transporting cargo or a vehicle to a designated place, without damaging it too much along the way. In most cases, the Humvee with a winch will prove to be very useful, unlocking passages through the map and stashes with loot. There are also vehicles equipped with a machine gun or a flamethrower, firing a powerful EMP charge will momentarily clear the area of zombies, while an ambulance has the function of healing the team and a renewable supply of first aid kits. Ordinary sedans provide protection against direct zombie attacks and the possibility of shooting through the windows - and there's always the option of running over a horde with the front bumper.

John Carpenter's Toxic Commando, Saber Interactive, 2025

Vehicles need to be taken care of because they consume fuel, ammunition and are quite easily destroyed, usually it will also be necessary to find them on the map. However, the most commendable feature is the very pleasant driving model, which gives the feeling of driving a car, not moving the camera. All the more so, as there are many sections with muddy terrain where cars slow down - then the game begins to resemble SnowRunner. Not only because of the fact that it's worth having a car with a winch at the front, which can be attached to anything, but also because of the very convincingly executed physics of tires getting stuck in the mud. Lastly, there is an option to customize available vehicles with various paint jobs and stickers.

Cooperation required

John Carpenter's Toxic Commando is a game focused on cooperation and many elements indeed make the coop make sense. There are, for example, various character classes with the so-called "super," a renewable special ability: the assault has a powerful area attack, the medic has a healing aura, the operator has a drone that shoots zombies from above and vehicles that are more resistant to damage when that character is driving them, and the defender is a typical tank, able to set up a protective bubble. Moreover, during missions you can encounter scripted actions during which you need to help each other - for example, I was locked in a container and my companion had to flip various levers to free me. Co-op is not just about quadruple firepower, and I hope there will be more opportunities for cooperation in other missions.

When there is not a full set of players on a mission, their place is taken by bots, which have quite efficient AI. They can not only shoot and pick us up if we get knocked down, but they will also run to switch some lever, and in the case of two real players, they split up and then one bot does not leave the player even for a moment.

So what about the fans of single-player gameplay? There is an easy difficulty level, which allows you to complete missions alone with bots. On a normal, the challenge is bigger and may require several attempts or leveling up the character with appropriate perks, as bots do not support us with their class's special abilities. Playing alone as an assault, you can't count on a protective or healing bubble - such things are only in co-op. Completing the mission on Hard will probably require co-op.

John Carpenter's Toxic Commando, Saber Interactive, 2025

What I really didn't like, however, was connecting weapon upgrades with the difficulty level - each of the difficulties has one of the three currencies obtained upon completing a mission. I have nothing against blocking some cosmetic items or even specific weapon models as a reward for completing missions on a specific difficult level - something like this was in Destiny and it did a good job to motivate players to create clans and have fun together. But Toxic Commando goes a step further and blocks the purchase of the simplest weapon sight with currency available in the normal difficulty level and above.

There is no sense in this, only some strange randomness, because we can already buy the barrel, stock, vertical grip and a whole range of other accessories for the currency from the easy mode. But for some reason - not sights and flashlights. Considering the fact that when shooting at a horde of zombies you don't really need to aim to hit someone, such a blockade is a somewhat malicious method by the developers to force players into co-op, because the sight is the first thing we want to change in our gun in every online shooter. I hope that this will change in the full version and the developers will come up with a better way to reward players for completing missions at higher difficulty levels.

Will a solid co-op be enough?

Changes are also necessary in terms of optimization and bugs, because the beta didn't work too well, but that's the sacred right of test versions, and in this one, you couldn't even change the graphics options, except for the resolution upscaling mode. After completing the prologue and three missions in the test build, I did not get the impression that the game has a co-op mode that was added somewhat forcibly, as in Redfall or the upcoming Painkiller. The team can support each other with their unique abilities, and tasks in missions can further enhance the need for cooperation.

The question is, is there room in the current gaming market for this type of AA production with zombies and focusing mainly on co-op? Left 4 Dead was popular in different times. That's why it seems to me that the developers should focus on making the single-player narrative experience as satisfying as cooperation. And it would be nice to have more of the atmosphere from John Carpenter's films - more scenes, more music, which the trailer promised. Especially since solid foundations for zombie extermination are already in place!

John Carpenter's Toxic Commando

Q1 2026

Want It!

• Overview

• zombie games
• co-op
• postapocalypse
• TPP shooters (TPS)