"Turbo Overkill stars Johnny Turbo. It is a FPS where you gib enemies with your chainsaw leg, torch foes with the alt fire of your two cylinder chaingun, have a orbital space laser at your disposal that turns everything to ash, can shoot flaming buzzsaws that saw anything in half, explode bad guys with your grenade launcher alt fire with your double barrel boomstick, and a sniper rifle that allows you to telefrag into a enemy on command." And I only made one of those things up.
Let me just say right off the bat: despite this being a fast paced retro-style FPS with the word "Kill" in its title, this is nothing like UltraKill. This is Doom Eternal instead. A Doom Eternal that's, somehow, even faster then ever but doesn't have the same level of enemy complexity and resource management. This mostly has to do with ammo management, which is far more lenient then in Eternal. It'd be tempting to say that's a flaw, but it's simply less demanding in what is most optimal for every combat encounter. While I don't agree personally, some criticized Doom Eternal for having "right" choices when it comes to what weapon to use against which enemy. Something like casting ice magic against a fire enemy, very simple problem that solves itself with little room for deviation. I feel Doom Eternal is more of a dial of "Good" and "Bad" choices, but I do understand where people are coming from when they say they feel limited in what the game asks from them, especially when they keep running out of ammo. Turbo Overkill has nine weapons with a alt-fire for each, and apart from a few, ammo is generally fairly plentiful. Alt-fires do cost more ammo in exchange for higher rewards, but this leads to combat feeling more free-flowing that asks you "How do you want go about making the walls red tonight?"
That isn't to imply this game is overly simple, the base combat certainly is more complex then the original Doom by a wide margin. To partially spoil the guessing game I had at the beginning of this review, the chainsaw leg is your primary ammo-less weapon at your disposal. A lightning fast dash that instant-kills any small humanoids. This game has purchasable and unlockable augments that allows you customize your own Johnny, one of the most important being the augments that grant health and armor upon killing with the chainsaw leg. This gives similar experience to utilizing lesser demons from Eternal that were glorified resource piñatas. It has the same scramble feeling when you're near death and start desperately searching for these lesser foes, while dodging the far more threatening monsters shooting lasers and a hail of bullets. You also have a arm missile that you can lock-on to many enemies at once for a rain of homing missiles, or lock to only one enemy for a much stronger single missile. It's on a relatively long timer, but it deals a ridiculous amount of damage which makes it ideal to remove/weaken the more troublesome monsters off the board. And do you like weapon swapping to bypass gun recoil animations from Doom Eternal? Well you'll feel right at home with how freeing swapping weapons feel, not needing to go through any animation you don't want to sit through (except flipping off foes after a missile launch, which is kind of hilarious how that's the only animation you can't skip). One particular augment takes the weapon swapping a step further then even Eternal, but I'll leave that one a secret.
Enemies hit really hard to compensate the versatility of Johnny Turbo. Checkpoints can be very generous, but there are times where I went 100% to 20% health in a blink of an eye (I played on Hard, there are two higher difficulties above that. One of which just says "Don't" in its description if you try to pick it). Hell, sometimes I'd be dead in that split second. You have two dashes and two jumps by default, plus the aforementioned chainsaw slide, and the game expects you to be moving always. I feel the difficulty curve is generally pretty good, though the Episode 2 bosses was where it starts expecting a lot more from the player. Some parts can be a huge endurance round where you'll be on the edge of life and death at all times. The final few levels especially throw everything and the kitchen sink at you.
Levels can go on for a long time with hundreds of enemies in each one. Sometimes it feels like a joke the devs are in on: "Hey this seems like a lot of enemies... add more." You can even get a cheat to multiply enemy spawns by threefold, which is honestly hilarious by that point. Oh right, each level has three chips and three cassette tapes that unlock cheats and hidden levels respectfully. Because of your insane mobility and the length of these stages, a lot of these collectables can be borderline too well hidden. It wasn't uncommon to spend close to 30 minutes in a single level, only to miss half of the collectables despite my best efforts. Thankfully they aren't required by any means, they're just for fun and extra content. And you don't need to find them on one clean run, the game saves every collectible you pick-up.
The story here, while nothing new or thought-provoking, knows what it is the whole way through. It knows when to ramp up its silliness to the logical extreme, but also knows when to throw a curve ball that forces the heroes in a difficult situation. Its got style and attitude a plenty, maybe a little juvenile with the amount middle fingers and f-bombs thrown left and right, but it never feels artificial nor boring. And this probably has one of the only walk-and-talk sections in any game you can skip, holy shit why is this not standard? The amount humor thrown in this game is the cherry on top. I like the enemy descriptions in the bestiary that were written by a guy who clearly has a grudge against several enemies. I like some of the silly graffiti on the way in most levels of this cyberpunk dystopian that can feel like it was drawn by bored teenagers. And I especially love how bizarre and ludicrous these weapons can get. The dual uzis you get early on allows you to turn one of the uzis into a more accurate two-handed rifle, but instead of putting the other gun away Johnny will just toss the extra onto the floor where it becomes a game object with physics. Little details like that makes the personality of a game shine.
It feels this game has been going under the radar, and that's a crying shame since this game goes really freakin hard. Far harder then it has any right to. The set pieces are some of the best of any in its genre, and the gameplay is top tier in its execution and systems. Even if it can get frustrating with some endgame sections, I'm willing to look past it because of how much more this game gets right.
And you can gib enemies with your chainsaw leg.
I rest my case.
Let me just say right off the bat: despite this being a fast paced retro-style FPS with the word "Kill" in its title, this is nothing like UltraKill. This is Doom Eternal instead. A Doom Eternal that's, somehow, even faster then ever but doesn't have the same level of enemy complexity and resource management. This mostly has to do with ammo management, which is far more lenient then in Eternal. It'd be tempting to say that's a flaw, but it's simply less demanding in what is most optimal for every combat encounter. While I don't agree personally, some criticized Doom Eternal for having "right" choices when it comes to what weapon to use against which enemy. Something like casting ice magic against a fire enemy, very simple problem that solves itself with little room for deviation. I feel Doom Eternal is more of a dial of "Good" and "Bad" choices, but I do understand where people are coming from when they say they feel limited in what the game asks from them, especially when they keep running out of ammo. Turbo Overkill has nine weapons with a alt-fire for each, and apart from a few, ammo is generally fairly plentiful. Alt-fires do cost more ammo in exchange for higher rewards, but this leads to combat feeling more free-flowing that asks you "How do you want go about making the walls red tonight?"
That isn't to imply this game is overly simple, the base combat certainly is more complex then the original Doom by a wide margin. To partially spoil the guessing game I had at the beginning of this review, the chainsaw leg is your primary ammo-less weapon at your disposal. A lightning fast dash that instant-kills any small humanoids. This game has purchasable and unlockable augments that allows you customize your own Johnny, one of the most important being the augments that grant health and armor upon killing with the chainsaw leg. This gives similar experience to utilizing lesser demons from Eternal that were glorified resource piñatas. It has the same scramble feeling when you're near death and start desperately searching for these lesser foes, while dodging the far more threatening monsters shooting lasers and a hail of bullets. You also have a arm missile that you can lock-on to many enemies at once for a rain of homing missiles, or lock to only one enemy for a much stronger single missile. It's on a relatively long timer, but it deals a ridiculous amount of damage which makes it ideal to remove/weaken the more troublesome monsters off the board. And do you like weapon swapping to bypass gun recoil animations from Doom Eternal? Well you'll feel right at home with how freeing swapping weapons feel, not needing to go through any animation you don't want to sit through (except flipping off foes after a missile launch, which is kind of hilarious how that's the only animation you can't skip). One particular augment takes the weapon swapping a step further then even Eternal, but I'll leave that one a secret.
Enemies hit really hard to compensate the versatility of Johnny Turbo. Checkpoints can be very generous, but there are times where I went 100% to 20% health in a blink of an eye (I played on Hard, there are two higher difficulties above that. One of which just says "Don't" in its description if you try to pick it). Hell, sometimes I'd be dead in that split second. You have two dashes and two jumps by default, plus the aforementioned chainsaw slide, and the game expects you to be moving always. I feel the difficulty curve is generally pretty good, though the Episode 2 bosses was where it starts expecting a lot more from the player. Some parts can be a huge endurance round where you'll be on the edge of life and death at all times. The final few levels especially throw everything and the kitchen sink at you.
Levels can go on for a long time with hundreds of enemies in each one. Sometimes it feels like a joke the devs are in on: "Hey this seems like a lot of enemies... add more." You can even get a cheat to multiply enemy spawns by threefold, which is honestly hilarious by that point. Oh right, each level has three chips and three cassette tapes that unlock cheats and hidden levels respectfully. Because of your insane mobility and the length of these stages, a lot of these collectables can be borderline too well hidden. It wasn't uncommon to spend close to 30 minutes in a single level, only to miss half of the collectables despite my best efforts. Thankfully they aren't required by any means, they're just for fun and extra content. And you don't need to find them on one clean run, the game saves every collectible you pick-up.
The story here, while nothing new or thought-provoking, knows what it is the whole way through. It knows when to ramp up its silliness to the logical extreme, but also knows when to throw a curve ball that forces the heroes in a difficult situation. Its got style and attitude a plenty, maybe a little juvenile with the amount middle fingers and f-bombs thrown left and right, but it never feels artificial nor boring. And this probably has one of the only walk-and-talk sections in any game you can skip, holy shit why is this not standard? The amount humor thrown in this game is the cherry on top. I like the enemy descriptions in the bestiary that were written by a guy who clearly has a grudge against several enemies. I like some of the silly graffiti on the way in most levels of this cyberpunk dystopian that can feel like it was drawn by bored teenagers. And I especially love how bizarre and ludicrous these weapons can get. The dual uzis you get early on allows you to turn one of the uzis into a more accurate two-handed rifle, but instead of putting the other gun away Johnny will just toss the extra onto the floor where it becomes a game object with physics. Little details like that makes the personality of a game shine.
It feels this game has been going under the radar, and that's a crying shame since this game goes really freakin hard. Far harder then it has any right to. The set pieces are some of the best of any in its genre, and the gameplay is top tier in its execution and systems. Even if it can get frustrating with some endgame sections, I'm willing to look past it because of how much more this game gets right.
And you can gib enemies with your chainsaw leg.
I rest my case.
The headline is this: Turbo Overkill is SO FRICKIN FUN. This is an indie (I think) take on a Doom 2016/Eternal -- old school shootin' with HD graphics, big guns and platforming -- but the twist is you have a chainsaw leg that absolutely RIPS through enemies.
Because this is an episodic game with three distinct campaigns taking about 15 hours total to run through, the pacing almost feels like you're playing a trilogy of small games rather than one large one. You can tell the developers learned where they wanted to take their vision for Turbo Overkill as they developed it through the early access process, and in many ways you see improvements in episodes 2/3 over the first.
It packs so much in here. Bosses, platforming segments, vehicular sections, labyrinthian levels with keys, arena style encounters, wave-based encounters, and an enormous breadth of environmental/art design that betrays the cookie cutter cyberpunk story you begin the game with.
While this is impressive, this massive scope is also what holds Turbo Overkill back from being one of the greatest shooters of all time. There's too much of it! Most levels are 30 minutes long and feel like they should be 15-20, and nearly all of the gimmicky sections like boss fights and vehicle sections get overindulgent. At a certain point it just keeps throwing waves of the same enemy types, and while the gunplay feels great, it can get exhausting.
But if you like nu-Doom and want a boomer shooter that feels more like that game than a shooter from 1999, I can't recommend TO enough. The weapons feel great, the alt-fires rock, and ripping through enemies sliding around on a chainsaw leg like a fricked up Tony Hawk feels ethereal. And the story, for as clunky as it can get at times, is a pretty funny take on a grim sci-fi narrative.
So while you have to put up with a bit, I ultimately think doing so is worth it because on the other side of that friction is some of the most fun first person shooting I've probably ever played.
P.S. It works great on Steam Deck now! Set it to 40 fps in your device-level settings and go nuts! But turn off auto-aim. You probably don't need it and I think it's way too aggressive.
Because this is an episodic game with three distinct campaigns taking about 15 hours total to run through, the pacing almost feels like you're playing a trilogy of small games rather than one large one. You can tell the developers learned where they wanted to take their vision for Turbo Overkill as they developed it through the early access process, and in many ways you see improvements in episodes 2/3 over the first.
It packs so much in here. Bosses, platforming segments, vehicular sections, labyrinthian levels with keys, arena style encounters, wave-based encounters, and an enormous breadth of environmental/art design that betrays the cookie cutter cyberpunk story you begin the game with.
While this is impressive, this massive scope is also what holds Turbo Overkill back from being one of the greatest shooters of all time. There's too much of it! Most levels are 30 minutes long and feel like they should be 15-20, and nearly all of the gimmicky sections like boss fights and vehicle sections get overindulgent. At a certain point it just keeps throwing waves of the same enemy types, and while the gunplay feels great, it can get exhausting.
But if you like nu-Doom and want a boomer shooter that feels more like that game than a shooter from 1999, I can't recommend TO enough. The weapons feel great, the alt-fires rock, and ripping through enemies sliding around on a chainsaw leg like a fricked up Tony Hawk feels ethereal. And the story, for as clunky as it can get at times, is a pretty funny take on a grim sci-fi narrative.
So while you have to put up with a bit, I ultimately think doing so is worth it because on the other side of that friction is some of the most fun first person shooting I've probably ever played.
P.S. It works great on Steam Deck now! Set it to 40 fps in your device-level settings and go nuts! But turn off auto-aim. You probably don't need it and I think it's way too aggressive.
"Man-made-bitch" power fantasy is my favorite type of boomer-shooter
Johnny Turbo could take Arasaka Tower in under 3 minutes
a blindingly fast thrill ride that got better as it went on. nonstop action, obliterating weapons, a power fantasy akin to doom eternal with combo-swapping and speeding around the arena. most of what i initially said when the game was in early access still stands, but the enemies feel better to fight. the biggest issue with this game is excess. more often than not 30+ min levels, an arsenal bigger than it should be, and a gigantic enemy roster with just as much superfluity as the weapons. its overwhelming at times in that you have to fight battle after battle against countless hordes of enemies. in one of the end-game levels, there were like 900 enemies to kill! the combat is buttery smooth, but there can still be too much of a good thing. im not trying to contract carpal tunnel. there are also weapons that fill out similar roles to each other which leads to some guns not having as concise of a role in the sandbox as they should. i mostly think of the minigun vs dual uzis in this instance. i cant tell the difference between them besides one shoots faster and the other may be worse at longer ranges? why not just make the uzi the automatic hitscan weapon and just keep the minigun as a flamethrower? theres more like the microwave beam just kinda not being that useful or the accurate alt fire of the uzi kinda just being better than the normal uzi or- yea the weapons could've been tweaked a bit. theyre all good fun to use, but it's more than what's needed or even used. the augments are similar, i got all of them and didnt even use half of them i think. some augments are just clearly better choices like the chainsaw slide kills giving health and armor, extremely necessary on high difficulties since only enemies drop health on some of those difficulties.
overall though the game's pretty great, chainsaw sliding through groups of flesh and steel is beyond fun. a good boom shoot, couldve been amazing but it seriously is hard to go wrong with a breakneck FPS that has a protagonist with chainsaws for limbs.
overall though the game's pretty great, chainsaw sliding through groups of flesh and steel is beyond fun. a good boom shoot, couldve been amazing but it seriously is hard to go wrong with a breakneck FPS that has a protagonist with chainsaws for limbs.
a gem of a movement shooter. really excels in weapon variety and fun. my only critique would be:
- last two levels are kinda not good
- the fact that the majority of levels are locking u in certain areas, not allowing u to go back and search for missed secrets so you have to restart the whole level. its a design choice obviously, just a design choice i dont really like.
- the difficulties dont feel balanced enough. getting killed because of attacks from far away with no way to see them doesnt feel good.
- last two levels are kinda not good
- the fact that the majority of levels are locking u in certain areas, not allowing u to go back and search for missed secrets so you have to restart the whole level. its a design choice obviously, just a design choice i dont really like.
- the difficulties dont feel balanced enough. getting killed because of attacks from far away with no way to see them doesnt feel good.
To say I love this game is an understatement, this is one of the best games I have ever played and definitely of the top shooters. This game is fantastic from top to bottom and has given me nothing but pure adrenaline on the difficulty I played it in (Serve Me Pain/Very Hard). The levels were long, but they felt justified as every single battle kept me on edge and required me to use pure skill to overcome. The bosses were all great, constantly giving a new approach to fight them. The game constantly improves, and it doesn't settle down at all. Each episode is wildly improved from the previous, and the third episode amazes me with how great it was. The guns were all satisfying to use, allowing me to strategize accordingly with them and many of which brought a new idea to FPS games as a whole. Words cannot express how much I enjoyed this game, and it is arguably the best modern boomer shooter to date. This game is easily a must play, especially if you love FPS games.
I'm glad to see how much this game has improved as it's gone on, from the solid chapter 1, to occasionally frustrating chapter 2, to a great finale in chapter 3. And it seems like the previous chapters have been tweaked and nudged to be even better. The scope here is extremely impressive, with levels brimming with detail and a barrage of insane setpieces and levels. You've got a huge arsenal that feels pretty good to use, fun movement, good music and art direction, all in all a very solid boomer-shooter with some very memorable moments and huge scale. It can still be frustrating, with sparse checkpoints at times. Also, it can be a bit TOO big sometimes, with levels that are a pain to navigate or boss fights that have one or two unneeded phases. I appreciate the ambition, but it wouldn't hurt to tone it back just a touch.
Game's good, big recommendation for boomer-shooter enjoyers. Anyone who was unimpressed with the previous builds should absolutely revisit it now. It's been pretty substantially improved.
Game's good, big recommendation for boomer-shooter enjoyers. Anyone who was unimpressed with the previous builds should absolutely revisit it now. It's been pretty substantially improved.
Joguei a demo desse jogo em acesso antecipado e só consegui pensar que fazendo um grande repaginada dava pra fazer um jogo do Shadow exatamente nesse estilo, e daria muito bom.
Vou ficar de olho nele, pois no mar de boomer shooters retrô, esse se destaca bastante pelas armas e velocidade.
Vou ficar de olho nele, pois no mar de boomer shooters retrô, esse se destaca bastante pelas armas e velocidade.
This was just an blast to play. At start I was little apprehensive about the movement as it's really fast and kinda slippery but the more I played the more it just clicked, this fast and manic playing style of sliding everywhere a shooting pretty much anything that moves.
Special mention for the level design and the soundtrack, they really nailed these aspects. This is one of the rare ones where the levels never felt confusing even though they can be vast horizontally and vertically. Also the music is great! There are so many different vibes in different levels. I especially enjoyed the Sunset Synthetica one with its spy movie and rock blend.
Only real gripe I have with the game is that the sliding might be little too overpowered and the guns feel secondary to these chainsaw legs of yours. Also some of the guns are not balanced that well. Especially the upgraded ones as I kinda stuck with my favorites in the latter half of the game instead of using the whole arsenal.
Special mention for the level design and the soundtrack, they really nailed these aspects. This is one of the rare ones where the levels never felt confusing even though they can be vast horizontally and vertically. Also the music is great! There are so many different vibes in different levels. I especially enjoyed the Sunset Synthetica one with its spy movie and rock blend.
Only real gripe I have with the game is that the sliding might be little too overpowered and the guns feel secondary to these chainsaw legs of yours. Also some of the guns are not balanced that well. Especially the upgraded ones as I kinda stuck with my favorites in the latter half of the game instead of using the whole arsenal.
One of the best Boom Shooties on the market right now.
I have no clue why this game didn't get a pat at TGA at all. Put aside being nominated, it even deserves a solid GOTY in indies. It'll be your new favourite boomer shooter. Lots of player agency, excels at every metrics of a classic FPS shooter. Creative af and incredibly fast. While I agree that there were some pacing issues (some of the levels could have been certainly shorter) I rarely got bored at all during my +10hrs playthrough. It always found a way to innovate itself. Solid gunplay, solid level design, tons of fun and superb references. Sad to see it's still underrated.
And yeah, it's the ultimate chainsaw game. The review would have not been completed without mentioning it.
And yeah, it's the ultimate chainsaw game. The review would have not been completed without mentioning it.
quake+chainsaws is an idea that still sells, just make it dmc aggressive
Insanely fun, episode 1 starts off a bit tame in enemy encounters but episode 2 and 3 just go off the rails in a good way. I definitely think this is the best retro shooter to come out of the last ten years, it feels like Ultrakill but with actual good level design. I would rate it closer to a 4.25/5.
Turbo Overkill è un fps fortemente ispirato a Doom, in tutta onestà riprende da Doom praticamente ogni elemento di gameplay quindi abbiamo fasi di shooting iperfrenetiche condite da nemici di ogni tipo e una ruota delle armi corposa con strumenti variegati dotati anche di attacchi secondari.
Il cruentissimo corpo a corpo di Doom è stato invece sostituito da una motosega posta nella gamba del protagonista che permette di fare dei balzi potentissimi e maciullare i nemici.
Pur non essendo il gameplay per nulla originale posso dire che la formula è così ben collaudata, studiata e relativamente poco diffusa che funziona alla perfezione ed il tutto si unisce da una componente estetica che è il vero fiore all'occhiello.
Le texture sono in pixel art, il tema del gioco è cyberpunk vaporwave, abbiamo livelli splendidi e sempre vari ed un livello generale che a me ha colpito anche più di Doom stesso pur essendo il titolo tecnicamente limitato.
Ci sono fasi di platforming molto divertenti nei livelli i quali presentano, per metà gioco circa, un design tendenzialmente semplice: si arriva alla fine per prendere un oggetto che ci fa tornare all'inizio e prendere un'altra via. Dopo metà gioco invece il level design esplode e si arriva al trionfo puro del platforming con tante idee geniali tra cui un livello a bordo della nostra auto volante stile Blade Runner.
Se vi piace Doom allora con Turbo Overkill andate a colpo sicuro ed avrete in compenso un gioco sublime dal punto di vista estetico.
Il cruentissimo corpo a corpo di Doom è stato invece sostituito da una motosega posta nella gamba del protagonista che permette di fare dei balzi potentissimi e maciullare i nemici.
Pur non essendo il gameplay per nulla originale posso dire che la formula è così ben collaudata, studiata e relativamente poco diffusa che funziona alla perfezione ed il tutto si unisce da una componente estetica che è il vero fiore all'occhiello.
Le texture sono in pixel art, il tema del gioco è cyberpunk vaporwave, abbiamo livelli splendidi e sempre vari ed un livello generale che a me ha colpito anche più di Doom stesso pur essendo il titolo tecnicamente limitato.
Ci sono fasi di platforming molto divertenti nei livelli i quali presentano, per metà gioco circa, un design tendenzialmente semplice: si arriva alla fine per prendere un oggetto che ci fa tornare all'inizio e prendere un'altra via. Dopo metà gioco invece il level design esplode e si arriva al trionfo puro del platforming con tante idee geniali tra cui un livello a bordo della nostra auto volante stile Blade Runner.
Se vi piace Doom allora con Turbo Overkill andate a colpo sicuro ed avrete in compenso un gioco sublime dal punto di vista estetico.
Now with the game fully out and having beaten it I can definitely say with full confidence that this is a great game. Turbo Overkill isn’t really a traditional throwback boomer shooter and feels more like a cross between Doom Eternal and Vanquish. The game controls real smooth with a whole bunch of movement options such as your chainsaw leg slide, dashes, wall-running, and grapple-hooking. Like Doom Eternal the platforming is a nice break away from shooting loads of goons. The weapons are all quite nice and I tend to use most of them. A major facet of your weapons is that you can upgrade them with unique alt-fires, i.e. the mini-gun can turn into a flamethrower, the plasma gun can become a microwave gun that hits up to three enemies simultaneously, etc. There’s even upgrades later in the game to keep the early game weapons like the shotgun and uzis very viable. Because the protag, Johnny Turbo, is a cyborg there’s also an augment system where you can get upgrades for Johnny himself, which gives you a whole range of buffs such as getting health and armor back after each chainsaw slide kill, invincible dashes or hefty discounts from the vending machines.
The level design is quite good though in a different way as its more linear than throwback shooters such as Cultic or Zortch, but that’s not a bad thing as it keeps the momentum going and the game is always throwing new obstacles your way. There’s also some vehicles levels that are a nice of change of pace too.
The narrative is serviceable for an FPS like this and the cyberpunk atmosphere of the game is neat. The aesthetic of the main villain, SYN, is also cool where she tends to be associated with TVs broadcasting laughing mouths shrouded in static. Some of the levels in Episode 3 really stood out to me aesthetically as well.
Turbo Overkill is a really fun shooter and it’s definitely one of the stronger ones of the last several years.
The level design is quite good though in a different way as its more linear than throwback shooters such as Cultic or Zortch, but that’s not a bad thing as it keeps the momentum going and the game is always throwing new obstacles your way. There’s also some vehicles levels that are a nice of change of pace too.
The narrative is serviceable for an FPS like this and the cyberpunk atmosphere of the game is neat. The aesthetic of the main villain, SYN, is also cool where she tends to be associated with TVs broadcasting laughing mouths shrouded in static. Some of the levels in Episode 3 really stood out to me aesthetically as well.
Turbo Overkill is a really fun shooter and it’s definitely one of the stronger ones of the last several years.
Turbo Overkill: Really committing to its title and letting you put the pedal to the metal as Johnny Turbo is quite the speedy killing machine. “Johnny will return...”, but should he? I've seen worse and I've seen better, so I'd say "No" if it's just more of the same.
I've more cons than pros with Turbo Overkill, and while the pros are pretty strong, I just don't think they're quite enough.
This game doesn't run very well which I don't understand. As I type this, it's stuck loading the main menu from the credits since I've just beaten it. I had long loading screens on an SSD (why is dying four times faster than reloading a checkpoint?), bullets freezing in midair, enemies dying but their bodies remain upright and running, FPS drops with seemingly no source, some cutscenes seem to be missing audio cues (which is either a glitch or bad design), terrible checkpoints, and I'd frequently slide into corners/under objects where I'd get stuck. Doesn't feel very “turbo” to get wedged under a rock. I just Alt-F4'd the game to get out of that aforementioned freeze.
The visuals kinda gave me a headache given time. I was reminded of the System Shock remake, only I think I grew accustomed to the blaring lights there and just never quite did here. Maybe this is boomer-brain creeping in as I age, but it was a bit much. When you pick up the DOOM-like upgrades of power fists and what-have-you, it puts a color filter on the screen that made it even harder to see and stand.
Environmental dangers insta-kill you at times which obviously grinds the pacing to a halt for those rooms. Again, not very turbo.
The entire thing is reminiscent of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon but lacks its charm. I don't mind aping off of something else as long as you separate yourself somehow or at least do a damn good job. I don't think they did either of those, here. I don't think it was ever “cringy” but even calling it “serviceable” may be a stretch.
I found myself almost dying instantly, losing all armor and nearly all health, from mid-to-low tier enemies when they used certain attacks like explosives or fire. This was wildly frustrating and didn't make sense to me. I found some of the earlier enemies harder than later ones because of this potential. I played on Street Cleaner (Hard) and there are two difficulties above that, I cannot even imagine how annoying those are.
But the pros I mentioned: Gotta go fast. Johnny Turbo and his chainsaw leg (called a “chegg”, what a gross word) go fast. Some upgrades are just a waste of time and some are obvious necessities, like the one that turns all enemies into health packs if you cut right through the crowds with your chegg. With the right upgrades and the grapple hook, you can basically fly, which felt great.
The weapon upgrades are all pretty good and turn previously useless weapons into powerhouses, like the pistol getting an upgrade to do tons of damage as long as you build up a streak and don't miss. Everything was already pretty tense, but now you feel like every shot needs to count, which can be thrilling.
Some levels have very good arenas and accompanying soundtracks, such as “The Wastes”. I made note of that level because it really nailed both of those, though it did have a lotta green going on and again, potential headaches. Not every level will hit the highs of this one, either, some just suck.
The vehicle segments are all pretty good. Fortunately there are only a few, but I think they were handled well.
You can “cancel” animations and reloads by switching weapons, which Dusk didn't have and drove me insane. Here, it keeps things fluid and fast with the player having the option to do more and get more out of it.
I think Turbo Overkill has shown me that these games need to be short and sweet. Both this and Dusk were too long.
Despite liking some things here, I think I don't really recommend Turbo Overkill. I got it on sale but this was one I could have just missed, easily. It was fun becoming a living chainsaw with guns, but I had to put up with a lot of problems to get there. If you love boomer shooters, you'll enjoy this, but for me? The price of admission felt too high.
I've more cons than pros with Turbo Overkill, and while the pros are pretty strong, I just don't think they're quite enough.
This game doesn't run very well which I don't understand. As I type this, it's stuck loading the main menu from the credits since I've just beaten it. I had long loading screens on an SSD (why is dying four times faster than reloading a checkpoint?), bullets freezing in midair, enemies dying but their bodies remain upright and running, FPS drops with seemingly no source, some cutscenes seem to be missing audio cues (which is either a glitch or bad design), terrible checkpoints, and I'd frequently slide into corners/under objects where I'd get stuck. Doesn't feel very “turbo” to get wedged under a rock. I just Alt-F4'd the game to get out of that aforementioned freeze.
The visuals kinda gave me a headache given time. I was reminded of the System Shock remake, only I think I grew accustomed to the blaring lights there and just never quite did here. Maybe this is boomer-brain creeping in as I age, but it was a bit much. When you pick up the DOOM-like upgrades of power fists and what-have-you, it puts a color filter on the screen that made it even harder to see and stand.
Environmental dangers insta-kill you at times which obviously grinds the pacing to a halt for those rooms. Again, not very turbo.
The entire thing is reminiscent of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon but lacks its charm. I don't mind aping off of something else as long as you separate yourself somehow or at least do a damn good job. I don't think they did either of those, here. I don't think it was ever “cringy” but even calling it “serviceable” may be a stretch.
I found myself almost dying instantly, losing all armor and nearly all health, from mid-to-low tier enemies when they used certain attacks like explosives or fire. This was wildly frustrating and didn't make sense to me. I found some of the earlier enemies harder than later ones because of this potential. I played on Street Cleaner (Hard) and there are two difficulties above that, I cannot even imagine how annoying those are.
But the pros I mentioned: Gotta go fast. Johnny Turbo and his chainsaw leg (called a “chegg”, what a gross word) go fast. Some upgrades are just a waste of time and some are obvious necessities, like the one that turns all enemies into health packs if you cut right through the crowds with your chegg. With the right upgrades and the grapple hook, you can basically fly, which felt great.
The weapon upgrades are all pretty good and turn previously useless weapons into powerhouses, like the pistol getting an upgrade to do tons of damage as long as you build up a streak and don't miss. Everything was already pretty tense, but now you feel like every shot needs to count, which can be thrilling.
Some levels have very good arenas and accompanying soundtracks, such as “The Wastes”. I made note of that level because it really nailed both of those, though it did have a lotta green going on and again, potential headaches. Not every level will hit the highs of this one, either, some just suck.
The vehicle segments are all pretty good. Fortunately there are only a few, but I think they were handled well.
You can “cancel” animations and reloads by switching weapons, which Dusk didn't have and drove me insane. Here, it keeps things fluid and fast with the player having the option to do more and get more out of it.
I think Turbo Overkill has shown me that these games need to be short and sweet. Both this and Dusk were too long.
Despite liking some things here, I think I don't really recommend Turbo Overkill. I got it on sale but this was one I could have just missed, easily. It was fun becoming a living chainsaw with guns, but I had to put up with a lot of problems to get there. If you love boomer shooters, you'll enjoy this, but for me? The price of admission felt too high.
almost as authentic and retrõ and FunnY as Kung Fury, definitely captures the super turbo brutal megakill buttmetal ironic&insincere "aesthetic" that Doom and its descendants have been denigrated into within the public hivemind during the past decade+. prepare2frag like no tomorrow in this aimtrainer almost as good as Titanfall 2 (but not quite....) that's so freakin insane&intense that you and your fellow kids might even be up to the task of beating the first half of Quake 3's bot match campaign on nightmare afterwards (dont be afraid to ask for help from daddy tho!...). your guns in this are literal pewpew blasters that are about as limp as the "absolute banger metal that simply slaps" OST and the dicks of the geriatrics in charge of Apogee these days, nuff said.
Пробовал Turbo Overkill еще в раннем доступе, и все очень нравилось. Но, то ли 3 акт плохо сделан, то ли игра просто затянута, но последние уровни проходил через силу. В целом же, добротный ретро-шутер с кучей разнообразного оружия (которое при улучшении превращается в еще один вид) и ногой бензопилой. Если нравится такой жанр, то это чуть ли не лучший представителей из тех, что пока играл.
First the major negative for me, character writing is pretty cringe. A little too much "badass-humor" and tropey cliches for me. And the main antagonist AI is basically a much weaker written Shodan.
Thankfully this is a movement shooter so the writing isn't the important part, the movement and shooting is. The game passes these categories with flying colors.
For movement options, you've got double jumping, dashing, grapple hand, wall-running, and the crown jewel; chainsaw slide. The slide easily being the biggest innovation despite how simple the idea of a damaging slide attack is. But if you spec your traits around it, it becomes both one of the strongest weapons in your arsenal and an ammo replenishing/healing maneuver.
For shooting, the entire arsenal of weapons is both satisfying to use and comes with a series of upgrades. From my own personal play experience, I found myself cycling through each of the weapons throughout the entire duration of the game. Many are given specific advantages over some enemies, a great design choice for making everything feel like it has a use. And even though weapons are paired up and share ammo types, I still found the balance between using them both well thought out too.
The story, while I have my gripes with the dialogue, still leads the player into some great set pieces and successfully amps up the scale with each episode.
Overall, game proved to be an enjoyable movement shooter, and an impressive feat for such a small development team.
Thankfully this is a movement shooter so the writing isn't the important part, the movement and shooting is. The game passes these categories with flying colors.
For movement options, you've got double jumping, dashing, grapple hand, wall-running, and the crown jewel; chainsaw slide. The slide easily being the biggest innovation despite how simple the idea of a damaging slide attack is. But if you spec your traits around it, it becomes both one of the strongest weapons in your arsenal and an ammo replenishing/healing maneuver.
For shooting, the entire arsenal of weapons is both satisfying to use and comes with a series of upgrades. From my own personal play experience, I found myself cycling through each of the weapons throughout the entire duration of the game. Many are given specific advantages over some enemies, a great design choice for making everything feel like it has a use. And even though weapons are paired up and share ammo types, I still found the balance between using them both well thought out too.
The story, while I have my gripes with the dialogue, still leads the player into some great set pieces and successfully amps up the scale with each episode.
Overall, game proved to be an enjoyable movement shooter, and an impressive feat for such a small development team.
Sam sounds like Douglas from IT Crowd
This game was incredibly fun to play. Shooting, exploring, and even just moving around felt so satisfying and fun. This was the first shooter that made me actually want to replay levels to get what I missed, as just flying through levels was awesome. My only gripe was that some of the levels were too long, but that honestly wasn't that big of an issue. I can't wait to see what future updates come out, as I'll definitely be itching to come back to the world of Paradise.
Bu yıl tam sürümü ile çıkışını yapan Turbo Overkill bomba gibi bir Arcade FPS oyunu, öyle ki Doom Eternal'dan bile daha hızlı ve saykodeli bir oynanışı mevcut. O ekolden harika bir şekilde giden, indie tarafta bu türün bayrak sallayacak kadar kaliteli yapımlarından biri belki de en iyisi olmuş. Süresi biraz fazla uzun olsa da her türlü doyurdu.
Turbo Overkill is one of the best First Person Shooters ever produced. Go play this game right now.
Amazing combat sandbox combined with very good encounter design and movement makes it one of the best FPS games of recent years.
If you love combat of Doom Eternal or/and movement of Titanfall 2- play it.
If you love combat of Doom Eternal or/and movement of Titanfall 2- play it.
Turbo Overkill has become one of my favourite FPS games. It's a blast from start to finish, full of incredible music, epic setpieces, great levels and a ton of fun weapons. I had so much fun, and in the end, that's what gaming is all about. The only reason why it isn't 5 stars is because some of the weapons didn't really get used much, but other than that, very fun.
Your leg is a chainsaw. 5/5 already.
This game's title is not a lie, it really does some insane shit. Almost every level comes with a new surprise, some new thing that is crazier than anything before it. The movement feels nice (as expected from a movement shooter) and being able to slide mid-air is a nice touch. Turbo Overkill's soundtrack did not disappoint (Sunset Synthetica my beloved).
Some complaints I have: Some boss fights were confusing, some parts feel stretched out for no reason, checkpoints are awkwardly placed in some areas and quicksaves are disabled in some parts which is annoying.
I haven't 100%'ed the game yet, this review will most likely be updated when I have. Also don't start your playthrough on Murder Machine, you will regret it.
This game's title is not a lie, it really does some insane shit. Almost every level comes with a new surprise, some new thing that is crazier than anything before it. The movement feels nice (as expected from a movement shooter) and being able to slide mid-air is a nice touch. Turbo Overkill's soundtrack did not disappoint (Sunset Synthetica my beloved).
Some complaints I have: Some boss fights were confusing, some parts feel stretched out for no reason, checkpoints are awkwardly placed in some areas and quicksaves are disabled in some parts which is annoying.
I haven't 100%'ed the game yet, this review will most likely be updated when I have. Also don't start your playthrough on Murder Machine, you will regret it.
you see retro shooters pop up everyday in this market, theyre a dime a dozen. but this one introduces you to its chainsaw slide killing in a skate park so you already know that this one is baller as hell. the level design is creative and engaging, the movement is smooth as cream, combat is as cathartic as smashing shit with a sledgehammer.
balance is almost perfect as it is. most enemies are 1 shot-able with the chainsaw leg but theyre the fodder, horde, masses of meat and steel that distract you from the real deal enemies that will obliterate you in a millisecond. i feel that some of the lesser enemies shouldnt be one shotted by the chainsaw though, it's a bit cheesy with the slide at times. also, even though youre supposed to be a fast glass cannon i felt a couple of the deaths were too quick.
anyways, with its ridiculous name, turbo overkill seems to be a contender for a great retro fps with how pristine its movement and weapons are made.
balance is almost perfect as it is. most enemies are 1 shot-able with the chainsaw leg but theyre the fodder, horde, masses of meat and steel that distract you from the real deal enemies that will obliterate you in a millisecond. i feel that some of the lesser enemies shouldnt be one shotted by the chainsaw though, it's a bit cheesy with the slide at times. also, even though youre supposed to be a fast glass cannon i felt a couple of the deaths were too quick.
anyways, with its ridiculous name, turbo overkill seems to be a contender for a great retro fps with how pristine its movement and weapons are made.
In order to talk about Turbo Overkill, or really any indie developed first person shooter released in recent years, we need to address the Boomer Shooter elephant in the room. These types of games are practically ubiquitous now, certainly past a saturation point, ironically akin to the “Doom Clone” moniker pinned on those prehistoric FPS games released under that shadow and crawling out of the floppy disk install primordial soup. I think we can do away with this little memetic sub-sub-genre and just go back to calling these games shooters. Well… I would say that except Turbo Overkill is, uh… it’s a little bit of a Doom Eternal clone.
If you’re going to borrow from anything, why not borrow from a modern classic of the FPS genre? Doom Eternal kind of stands alone, even to this day, as a high budget, highly demanding, fast paced shooter with a hefty single player campaign, and it’s not like Turbo Overkill is stealing whole cloth or anything. Rather, TO is cribbing notes on gamefeel, movement, a few points about overall structure, and okay, yes it also has a grappling hook and surprisingly fun platforming challenges.
Broadly speaking, Turbo Overkill is a 3 episode shooter that slowly expands the player’s arsenal while guiding them from one skatepark arena to another with widely spaced navigational challenges tying it all together. It has a charmingly low poly look to it. Chunky enemy models and low res textures make for much needed legibility during high intensity action, but also allows for some truly huge levels, granting an enormous sense of scale that characterizes the experience really well. Cyberpunk fiction tends to emphasize the smallness of the individual as they drown in seas of megacity neon, and though TO casts the player as a galactic savior the humongous levels go a long way in selling that smallness. The interstitial segments between big arena battles also innovate on Doom Eternal by frequently chaining small scale encounters as a means of fleshing out the level design and keeping up a steady flow state as you progress.
Those big skatepark battles are really where TO feels the most like Doom Eternal, where it spawns in wave after wave of meticulously chosen enemy units to craft unique feeling combat challenges. The enemies all feel like the finely carved chess pieces that DE’s director Hugo Martin describes in that game’s dev diaries. There are slow but steady projectile turrets, fast and agile harassers, bishop-like laser emitters, and so on, and they’re all deployed in interesting configurations to really push the player to perform. Unlike DE though, these enemies all tend to lack “hard counters”, specific means of dealing with them that I always felt turned many of DE’s combat sequences into rote games of Simon Says. TO instead provides the player with an ever increasing number of ways to dole out high DPS, refocusing the challenge on threat identification and granting players the freedom to pick out targets to selectively burn down on sight.
Damage dealing is of course a function of the arsenal, and TO’s arsenal is not necessarily the star of the show, but it is one of the main reasons I came to really love it. In terms of form and function, the weapons are actually pretty standard, pistol, shotgun, SMG, rocket launcher, etc. But the game is constantly doling out upgrades and enhancements that give each weapon new utility and refreshing their roles in your constant battles. Once an upgrade is unlocked it’s a lot of fun to start integrating it into normal rotation, finding the gaps in your approaches that can be filled and slowly building a robust offense. It’s in this slow escalation of player expression and power that is the actual star here, the way nearly every level, even into the final levels, will add some new gameplay element, a new weapon, a new upgrade, a new movement option, ever expanding the way you fight and move through the world. And they all feel great!
The chainsaw leg is a great example of how the devil really is in the details, especially because it’s basically the first weapon you get. It totally replaces the typical FPS melee attack, but its use in movement has to truly be felt, especially given the speed at which the game operates. It goes faster on slopes, can be activated in mid-air with a slight boost to speed, and it can be customized to sap health and armor from enemies when killed. But I think the real key is that it just doesn’t do all that much damage. Sure, it can be customized to do a bit MORE damage, but there’s a learned skill to it in gauging the right time to finish off meatier enemies by sawing through them for maximum payoff. In short, it’s a quick and easy action with plenty of utility and high potential for mastery, and it really exemplifies how all the weapons feel good because they are simultaneously cool and useful.
Speaking of cool, the aesthetic of Turbo Overkill was not really a draw to me initially. It deals in a gritty cyberpunk world set to a characteristically synthy soundtrack. Its writing initially strikes a tone echoing older Duke Nukem forays, pulpy and irreverent, and featuring Duke’s original VA Jon St. John as a quippy AI companion. The BGM was the first to win me over. Though it can sometimes sound generic, it’s the quickest aspect to find its own unique footing, bolstered by some intelligently designed reactive sound design that punches up the intensity at just the right moments. Admittedly, only a few levels have tracks that truly stand out, my favorite being a late game casino level with heavy James Bond vibes, but they all do the job and accentuate the action.
I won’t say too much about the story because it rarely ever hit for me in a meaningful way, the protagonist is mute and much of it is told in audio diaries that I usually just wanted to stop, but it certainly hits a major stride in its third episode, which is actually more like half the game. The scale of the story balloons massively at this point, taking you from dirty slums and back alleys to outer space, witnessing gigantic interstellar warfare and vast structures to swing and dash in and around. There’s a real sense that no punches were pulled, there’s nothing saved for the sequel, or teased and left unfulfilled. Turbo Overkill does nothing if not deliver on its premise and take all of its concepts to their natural conclusions. I also can’t call out the talents of Jon St. John as I did earlier without highlighting the amazing work by Gianni Matragrano as one of the major villains, given a major spotlight in the back half and really chewing on the scenery to deliver a memorable performance that’s full of unhinged menace and a touch of whimsy.
When it comes to criticisms, I have only a few for TO, the early to mid game bosses being perhaps the biggest. They range from forgettable to frustrating in that they are going for what I think is supposed to feel like 1v1 PvP matches in games like Quake or Unreal Tournament. Quicksaves are usually disabled during these fights and their rarity made for one-off encounters with nothing to really grasp onto and deliver on. Thankfully, like just about everything else in the game, they get better as you progress, with later bosses actually being kind of a highlight, especially the aforementioned Gianni voiced character, Maw.
My other (exceedingly minor) complaint is that the levels eventually balloon to a size and intensity where I could only comfortably play one per session. The levels are great at packing in a lot of dense details and secrets that are usually fun to hunt for, but I would start to forgo them when even a straightforward playthrough of a level began to take more than 30 minutes. Unfortunately this also means I likely won’t be revisiting these amazingly cool levels anytime soon, despite all the fun bonuses and unlocks that slowly accrue over a playthrough.
I think it’s something of a disservice to label Turbo Overkill as a Boomer Shooter, and I frankly think it’s about time we retire the term entirely. It made sense as a meme to pull people back to a genre that had stagnated in a generation of overserious, brown and yellow tinted, slow paced military style drek, but we’ve had several years now of stellar FPS games running the gamut of styles and attitudes. Turbo Overkill finds its strengths not as some kind of nostalgia baiting throwback but in its slick modernity and carefully plotted escalation, a kind of curation that’s a far cry from old-school titles that would rather throw you straight into the deep end or ask that you RTFM.
I’m simply tired of masquerading as a creaky geriatric, pining for the good old days of DOS and slow internet. We’ve seen more and better shooters in the last few years than at any point in human history and there’s no point in pretending to be jaded about the state of the genre, even as an irony laden unfunny joke. If you want a good First Person Shooter video game, one that’s fast and intense and runs well on modern systems, there’s an absolute buffet of outstanding titles out there, and I’d say Turbo Overkill stands pretty tall amongst them.
If you’re going to borrow from anything, why not borrow from a modern classic of the FPS genre? Doom Eternal kind of stands alone, even to this day, as a high budget, highly demanding, fast paced shooter with a hefty single player campaign, and it’s not like Turbo Overkill is stealing whole cloth or anything. Rather, TO is cribbing notes on gamefeel, movement, a few points about overall structure, and okay, yes it also has a grappling hook and surprisingly fun platforming challenges.
Broadly speaking, Turbo Overkill is a 3 episode shooter that slowly expands the player’s arsenal while guiding them from one skatepark arena to another with widely spaced navigational challenges tying it all together. It has a charmingly low poly look to it. Chunky enemy models and low res textures make for much needed legibility during high intensity action, but also allows for some truly huge levels, granting an enormous sense of scale that characterizes the experience really well. Cyberpunk fiction tends to emphasize the smallness of the individual as they drown in seas of megacity neon, and though TO casts the player as a galactic savior the humongous levels go a long way in selling that smallness. The interstitial segments between big arena battles also innovate on Doom Eternal by frequently chaining small scale encounters as a means of fleshing out the level design and keeping up a steady flow state as you progress.
Those big skatepark battles are really where TO feels the most like Doom Eternal, where it spawns in wave after wave of meticulously chosen enemy units to craft unique feeling combat challenges. The enemies all feel like the finely carved chess pieces that DE’s director Hugo Martin describes in that game’s dev diaries. There are slow but steady projectile turrets, fast and agile harassers, bishop-like laser emitters, and so on, and they’re all deployed in interesting configurations to really push the player to perform. Unlike DE though, these enemies all tend to lack “hard counters”, specific means of dealing with them that I always felt turned many of DE’s combat sequences into rote games of Simon Says. TO instead provides the player with an ever increasing number of ways to dole out high DPS, refocusing the challenge on threat identification and granting players the freedom to pick out targets to selectively burn down on sight.
Damage dealing is of course a function of the arsenal, and TO’s arsenal is not necessarily the star of the show, but it is one of the main reasons I came to really love it. In terms of form and function, the weapons are actually pretty standard, pistol, shotgun, SMG, rocket launcher, etc. But the game is constantly doling out upgrades and enhancements that give each weapon new utility and refreshing their roles in your constant battles. Once an upgrade is unlocked it’s a lot of fun to start integrating it into normal rotation, finding the gaps in your approaches that can be filled and slowly building a robust offense. It’s in this slow escalation of player expression and power that is the actual star here, the way nearly every level, even into the final levels, will add some new gameplay element, a new weapon, a new upgrade, a new movement option, ever expanding the way you fight and move through the world. And they all feel great!
The chainsaw leg is a great example of how the devil really is in the details, especially because it’s basically the first weapon you get. It totally replaces the typical FPS melee attack, but its use in movement has to truly be felt, especially given the speed at which the game operates. It goes faster on slopes, can be activated in mid-air with a slight boost to speed, and it can be customized to sap health and armor from enemies when killed. But I think the real key is that it just doesn’t do all that much damage. Sure, it can be customized to do a bit MORE damage, but there’s a learned skill to it in gauging the right time to finish off meatier enemies by sawing through them for maximum payoff. In short, it’s a quick and easy action with plenty of utility and high potential for mastery, and it really exemplifies how all the weapons feel good because they are simultaneously cool and useful.
Speaking of cool, the aesthetic of Turbo Overkill was not really a draw to me initially. It deals in a gritty cyberpunk world set to a characteristically synthy soundtrack. Its writing initially strikes a tone echoing older Duke Nukem forays, pulpy and irreverent, and featuring Duke’s original VA Jon St. John as a quippy AI companion. The BGM was the first to win me over. Though it can sometimes sound generic, it’s the quickest aspect to find its own unique footing, bolstered by some intelligently designed reactive sound design that punches up the intensity at just the right moments. Admittedly, only a few levels have tracks that truly stand out, my favorite being a late game casino level with heavy James Bond vibes, but they all do the job and accentuate the action.
I won’t say too much about the story because it rarely ever hit for me in a meaningful way, the protagonist is mute and much of it is told in audio diaries that I usually just wanted to stop, but it certainly hits a major stride in its third episode, which is actually more like half the game. The scale of the story balloons massively at this point, taking you from dirty slums and back alleys to outer space, witnessing gigantic interstellar warfare and vast structures to swing and dash in and around. There’s a real sense that no punches were pulled, there’s nothing saved for the sequel, or teased and left unfulfilled. Turbo Overkill does nothing if not deliver on its premise and take all of its concepts to their natural conclusions. I also can’t call out the talents of Jon St. John as I did earlier without highlighting the amazing work by Gianni Matragrano as one of the major villains, given a major spotlight in the back half and really chewing on the scenery to deliver a memorable performance that’s full of unhinged menace and a touch of whimsy.
When it comes to criticisms, I have only a few for TO, the early to mid game bosses being perhaps the biggest. They range from forgettable to frustrating in that they are going for what I think is supposed to feel like 1v1 PvP matches in games like Quake or Unreal Tournament. Quicksaves are usually disabled during these fights and their rarity made for one-off encounters with nothing to really grasp onto and deliver on. Thankfully, like just about everything else in the game, they get better as you progress, with later bosses actually being kind of a highlight, especially the aforementioned Gianni voiced character, Maw.
My other (exceedingly minor) complaint is that the levels eventually balloon to a size and intensity where I could only comfortably play one per session. The levels are great at packing in a lot of dense details and secrets that are usually fun to hunt for, but I would start to forgo them when even a straightforward playthrough of a level began to take more than 30 minutes. Unfortunately this also means I likely won’t be revisiting these amazingly cool levels anytime soon, despite all the fun bonuses and unlocks that slowly accrue over a playthrough.
I think it’s something of a disservice to label Turbo Overkill as a Boomer Shooter, and I frankly think it’s about time we retire the term entirely. It made sense as a meme to pull people back to a genre that had stagnated in a generation of overserious, brown and yellow tinted, slow paced military style drek, but we’ve had several years now of stellar FPS games running the gamut of styles and attitudes. Turbo Overkill finds its strengths not as some kind of nostalgia baiting throwback but in its slick modernity and carefully plotted escalation, a kind of curation that’s a far cry from old-school titles that would rather throw you straight into the deep end or ask that you RTFM.
I’m simply tired of masquerading as a creaky geriatric, pining for the good old days of DOS and slow internet. We’ve seen more and better shooters in the last few years than at any point in human history and there’s no point in pretending to be jaded about the state of the genre, even as an irony laden unfunny joke. If you want a good First Person Shooter video game, one that’s fast and intense and runs well on modern systems, there’s an absolute buffet of outstanding titles out there, and I’d say Turbo Overkill stands pretty tall amongst them.
leshoid approved