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.