John Carpenter's Toxic Commando review: "A great horde shooter for the first run through the story, but the grind gives diminishing returns"

As I look at the seemingly endless torrent of zombies that Toxic Commando sends hurtling towards me, trying to stem the flow with an assault rifle like Wile E. Coyote trying to protect himself from a falling anvil with a tiny umbrella, I think: this is a good time. This is a very good time. Poke into the murky recesses of my mind a dozen hours after finishing the story for the first time, however, and you might find me distractedly wondering what I'm going to have for dinner.

Let's get one of the main questions out of the way first. It's called John Carpenter's Toxic Commando, but is it actually his? The legendary director has had a hand in the music, and his name is all over the marketing like police tape covering the entrance to a crime scene, but his involvement beyond this is unclear. Let's just say that if he had taken charge of the writing and cutscene direction, and was providing regular feedback from playtests, I'm pretty sure we would have heard about it.

That might sound like I'm being snide, but I'm really not. To be honest, his mostly hands-off approach is probably a good thing; he knows how to make a good movie, and he's famously a fan of videogames, but that doesn't mean that he knows what it takes to make one. This is Saber Interactive's Toxic Commando, and it has good reason to be proud of that.

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Carpenter Diem

The immediate comparison is Left 4 Dead or, indeed, Saber's own World War Z. A team of four set out to survive and complete missions in a world swarming with the undead, which come in a variety of flavors. While the enemies are arguably overfamiliar – the standard grunt, The One Who Grabs You, The One Who Runs At You And Explodes, The One Who Runs At You And Explodes But In A Different Color, etc – there are a few fundamentals that help carve out a unique identity.

First mission aside, which is essentially an extended tutorial, the action takes place in large, open maps. As a result, there are vehicles scattered around for you to use; sometimes compulsory for objectives, often not. Each has a unique ability too, such as the military trucks armed with a machine gun or a flamethrower, and the police car which can be set as self-destructing bait. Working in a squad of four, using vehicles to drive across huge maps, gives things a slight Battlefield feel.

Distinctly unBattlefield-like are the four character classes (you may not get to play as your preferred character when joining a game, but there is no limit on classes). Thanks to a story-dictated mishap, each finds themselves with a special ability. The Strike can launch explosive projectiles, the Defender can put up a temporary forcefield that damages enemies who enter, the Operator has a drone accompanying them, and please don't tell me that you need me to explain what the Medic can do.

This element is something of a misfire though, in that when it comes to these special abilities, cooldowns are long and durations are brief. This certainly makes sense for the Medic; but it means that you only get a few seconds of fun at a time flinging balls of energy around as the Strike, the Defender's forcefield only makes cameo appearances, and the Operator's drone only makes itself useful in battle for brief stints while the ability is active.

Commando & Conquer

Toxic Commando is, however, brilliantly designed when it comes to making everybody feel useful. Wandering off on your own is often to invite death, so you're incentivized not to do that. All vehicles (apart from one plot-specific one) can carry the whole squad for example, and it's never just the driver that has something to do. If there's a turret, of course, somebody can jump on that and let loose; while all passengers can shoot from the windows. This is especially useful when enemies are chasing after you, and when zombies jump onto the vehicle – likely when your car's speed plummets while stuck in mud. With plenty of tyre-hating goop, and even a winch, vehicle physics take a surprising leaf out of Saber's own MudRunner, leading to sticky situations – things can go from "See you later, losers!" to "Oh, erm, hello again" quite quickly.

Saber's Swarm engine, as seen in World War Z and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, allows for absolutely huge waves of enemies to come thundering towards you during siege sequences. For this reason, you're encouraged to explore the map to dig out Spare Parts, which can be used to repair defenses such as turrets and barbed wire. Resource gathering can easily double the length of a mission, but building these defenses can and will make these sections much more manageable, so it's worth the time and effort.

If you don't bulk up your defenses, a good squad can still emerge victorious, but things can get pretty stressful. I'm reminded of one occasion where I was the last member of my squad left standing, and I was surrounded by zombies in every direction, with no way of getting to my teammates to revive them. There were just ten seconds left on the clock, but ten seconds is a long time when you're stranded in the middle of a sea of zombies, let me tell you. Still, I managed to survive (because I am awesome) and the mission was a success. Toxic Commando can be something of an anecdote generator in this way.

Despite the sometimes panic-inducing number of enemies on screen at once, all of the weapons are viable. In part, this is because Saber understands that it's important for a basic zombie to collapse like blancmange when hit, and for basic zombies to make up the majority of foes. It is also, however, in part due to the weapons packing a decent punch and being fun to wield. I've put my favorite pistol through the Call of Duty-style prestige system twice so far, and it's yet to feel like a grind.

Zombie or not Zombie

Regarding solo and offline options – for which there is an undeniable appetite here, as I've seen through some chatter on Steam – yes, you can play this alone. Well, sort of. Toxic Commando is an always-online game, so if you lose connection during a match you'll be booted back to the hub even if playing on your own. As for the bots, they are – on lower difficulties at least – admirably competent in combat. However, I found that I had to kick the difficulty down to Story for the last two missions when playing alone, simply because bots are completely unable to interact with objects or follow instructions. If you mark a switch for them to pull, an objective for them to defend, or an object for them to carry, they'll just stand around and stare at you blankly like cats watching you trying to teach them to play fetch.

Played with others, Toxic Commando is good fun, but there's a big ol' question mark over longevity. There are only nine missions (including that introductory one) and, despite a small amount of randomization (your squad's initial spawn point can change, and the location of some items and objectives might shift) the vast majority of tasks and important locations are the same every time. If you have three buddies keen to make this a regular hang, I can see it lasting you hundreds of hours. Otherwise? I'm not sure.

Each character class has a skill tree and individually earned skill points to play around with (pleasingly, you can redistribute them as much as you like), but the grind is primarily concerned with the weapons. All are available immediately – just as well, there's not a huge amount of them – but attachments and skins are not. These are paid for (once unlocked) via the 'Sludgite' that can be harvested from the maps in between decorating the ground with the undead. If you find weapons you're particularly enamored with, you can go through the previously mentioned prestige to unlock fancy animated skins, at the cost of losing all attachments (no, your Sludgite is not refunded).

Despite the supernatural tint to your enemies and your intrinsic powers, the weapons are an unambitious and disappointingly grounded selection of assault rifles, shotguns, and so on. If there were some more futuristic or inventive weapons to chase after once the story had been completed for the first time – or perhaps upgrades that, say, made your powers more regularly accessible while limiting your ammo reserves – I'd find that more exciting to grind for in this zombie-filled world than a new gun barrel. As it is, it's mainly things for controlling the recoil on your guns and pretty colors for your cars.

Make no mistake, Toxic Commando is a lot of fun. Making terrifyingly huge waves of enemies manageable is a hell of a challenge, but Saber has nailed it. You're gently nudged to stick together and help one another, everybody feels like a useful part of the team, and taking down the undead is consistently satisfying. How long you might keep coming back for all of this, however, is unclear.

Looking for more to play with a pal? Check out our best co-op games ranking for more!