First announced two years ago, John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando is finally approaching the finish line after being delayed out of 2024. Promising ‘buddy-movie’ vibes as you slay countless zombies together with your pals, I got to go hands-on with this squad-based first person shooter at Gamescom, which is now set to release early next year. Let’s slay together in the XboxEra Hands-on Preview for John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando.
Let’s Save The World
Toxic Commando is set in a world where an experimental attempt to harness the power of the Earth’s core has resulted in an unmitigated disaster. The experiment has released the…ah…’Sludge God’. Sure, it’s not the most imposing of titles, but this eldritch beastie has dug its tentacles all over the place, terraforming the land and creating waves of undead monsters.
You play as (you guessed it!) ‘Toxic Commandos’, a team of mercenaries-for-hire tasked with taking on a frankly shocking number of zombies and other beasties with a very 80’s themed vibe (despite being set in the near future). You’ll be able to team up with up to three pals (cross-platform play is confirmed) and roam up to eight- nine if you include the tutorial – enormous and wholly different locales. Your mission? Loot up on guns, resources and complete objectives to save the world.
If you look at it as a more modern, more action oriented Left 4 Dead, you’d probably be somewhere in the ball park. I got to sit down with the developers and a couple of gaming journalists to jump in and take on the horde, and I have to say, it was an absolute blast.
Build-a-Commando
The general premise is very tongue-in-cheek, and everything is as over the top as it sounds. The mission I played was based on getting to a Church to retrieve much needed military supplies. The only problem was the whole area seemed to be overrun, with the Sludge God’s gooey tendrils blocking the way in. So, additional objectives appeared, tasking us with taking out ‘Plasmordial’ nodes in several locations on the map, to weaken the Sludge God and brute force our way inside.
The map I played was one of nine featured in the full game, and getting around on foot in this large, expansive environment was a lot of fun. There were plenty of optional areas to explore, with the promise of some decent rewards, from supplies, spare parts and even special weapons to be found dotted around, from LMG’s to Rail Guns. Thankfully, we didn’t have to walk for long, as there are all sorts of vehicles to be found, rescued and then utilised against the hordes of the undead.
While I didn’t get to play around with the levelling or player build systems on this occasion, the developers advised that there’ll be plenty of character customisation, from your weapons which can have different scopes and other attachments, to your vehicles, which can range from ambulances to pick-up trucks and military jeeps. Hanging out the side of one of these head-shotting zombies or just blasting your gun straight through the windshield as the driver tore through the crowd was very entertaining.
Lootin’ and Shootin’
The game is built on Saber’s Swarm engine, which most recently powered the massive on-screen numbers of Warhammer: Space Marine 2, and it looks and plays fantastically. The developer, who played as the fourth member of our squad guided us through different objectives to help ease us in. At one point, we stepped off the beaten path to scour for some additional loot and ammo, and soon found ourselves swarmed by the undead.
Here she showed off the various abilities each squad member could take into the fight with them. One member of the squad put up what felt like an area effect shield that boosted our health. Mine enabled me to throw incredibly powerful fireballs at the oncoming masses, while another member of the team had a drone that would reign fire from the sky at the undead horde.
As we made our way to the first objective, we were attacked again, but this time is wasn’t just the undead. Unique beasties, and arguably the biggest riff on Left 4 Dead thus far were now in the mix. One ran towards you screaming, triggering an explosion as it got close. Another acted like the Charger from Left 4 Dead, running straight into the crowd and yanking me away from the action, and crucially, away from my team mates. Another had what was effectively a ranged weapon, peppering me with red energy from a decent distance away. It’s all hilarious, tense stuff, and being separated from your squad is definitely not on the to-do list. I asked if encounters were dictated to by a ‘Director’ of sorts, and was advised no, but that they were randomised, promising a fair bit of replayability.
We finally cleared the objectives, and opened the way up to our main target – the church, but not without cost. Our team was scattered, and I’d been downed by a particularly large beastie. As I lay on the ground, desperate to be revived, pistol in hand, our developer team mate came to the rescue, with a powerful Humvee equipped with a machine gun. They got me up, and we all barrelled in as the horde came down on us like a wave. Our guns blazed, the engine roared, and all of us were firing out the side of the car as zombies clung on to slow us down. Escape!
Last Stand
As per any good shooter, it’s not really fun unless there’s a crazy, carnage-filled last stand to contend with. Having opened the way to the church, we made our way inside, and had a short amount of time to plan our defences while supplies were secured and the defensive Tesla coil was repaired and recharged. Positions were taken, and I found a rather large LMG to man, and then an utterly insane number of zombies crashed down upon us, with a mixture of ‘specials’ in there for good measure.
What followed was intense, wave based rounds of absolute madness, with team mates calling out specials as they approached, and unleashing various abilities to try and even the odds. Eventually, the giant Tesla coil was ready, and everything was obliterated, gore and viscera falling like heavy rain. The Toxic Commandos had succeeded in their mission, and I’d quite like to play this again, thank you very much.
Toxic Commando is coming to PC, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 at some point early in 2026.
