Turbo Overkill Review (PS5) – Johnny’s Quest
In the distant future, humanity is overrun with a plague. Gamers had finally moved on from the Doom clones, healed by the homogenised brown-ness and cover-based shooting renaissance. Then came the pestilence of everything being cyberpunk, because of… well, Cyberpunk 2077. We thought we were done, and then came Turbo Overkill: a cyberpunk-inspired Doom clone to add to the pile.
Yes, Turbo Overkill is one of those fast-paced shooters, modelled on the Build Engine that 3D Realms made popular, with bassy synthwave tunes and lots of violence. As the cyborg Johnny Turbo, you’ll clean up the city of Paradise against an AI gone rogue. Ooh, foreboding.
Whilst it may sound as cynical an intro as one would expect from me, Turbo Overkill isn’t a rubbish game. But is it one I’d recommend for fans of the ol’ circle-strafe, spray-and-pray games of yesteryear? Lets cyber-find out, or something.
It’s A Syn
The future is grim, the future is bleak and humanity seems lost adrift the cock-sparring machinations of narcissistic heads of state. Fortunately, Turbo Overkill is a release from the real world’s state of affairs and instead focuses on… oh, bleak cyberpunk-ian dystopia government by an AI gone mad. Well, can’t win them all.
Yes, in that typical neon cityscape style of cyberpunk now doing the rounds, the AI Syn has gone a bit batty and needs taking out. You know what I mean, the type of hard reboot where the emphasis is on hard with lots of explosions.
Along the way, our protagonist with the chainsaw leg (it’s in his leg, it’s not replacing a foot) has to contend with more than rogue intelligences. There’s gangs of punks, Syn’s twisted creations and pretty much every palette swap of a Duke Nukem 3D enemy.
I wish there were more to expand on, but there really isn’t. Not that that’s a bad thing, given the inspiration for this. Trigger Happy Interactive have clearly gone for the 90’s FPS theme: minimal reason, just go and shoot of all of the things.
Future Imperfect
If you thought that Duke Nukem 3D reference was a bit of a throwaway, there’s more to it. For one, Turbo Overkill has visuals and its overall theme is very reminiscent of that age of PC gaming. Or if you haven’t played Duke’s offensive turn to FPS, think System Shock, or Deus Ex… anything with bright lights and skyscrapers.
Yet Turbo Overkill doesn’t go for the Build Engine nostalgia look that, say, Ion Fury does. Instead it looks like an improvement on it, yet still retains that same nostalgic angle. So more a progression/evolution of that engine, but at a much slower pace.
On the whole, it’s very vibrant and colourful. Whizzing about over neon buildings, sewers and Syn’s weird little labs, it’s all great fun. Again, banging the retro drum, it absolutely evokes the old school shooters of old. But how does it play?
Guns For Show, Knee Chainsaws For A Pro
As we all know (well, the “we” being the ones that know the older games), it’s the weaponry that makes or breaks a game. Wacky guns to strafe-jump around with? Absolutely. Giving us mostly melee weapons in cover-based combat like Hunted: The Demon’s Forge? Absolutely not. Fortunately, “cover-based” is a bad word in Turbo Overkill. This is hop, skip and dropshot way before the likes of Brink tried modernising it.
Yes, the firepower on display here is pretty meaty, if a little samey to… well, you get the gist. Ranging from double handguns, to machine pistols, shotguns and their stubby counterpart, rocket launchers, it’s all here. What Turbo Overkill does offer, that’s of a more modern bent, is a secondary fire option. I say option, you have to unlock it first through purchase. The handguns get a little homing shot, the machine pistols will have Johnny discard one and wield the other two-handed for better accuracy.
And then there’s Johnny’s chainsaw-leg-thing. Unlike Doom 2016’s chainsaw, this one isn’t a contextual or situational-based weapon, more one for whenever. That “whenever” being at a button press to slide, chainsaw-knee first at an enemy. Or away from an enemy, or perhaps even sideways. Yeah, physics kind of go out of the window with this one, but it’s great in a pinch.
For the more varied connoisseur, there’s even mini-homing missiles to unlock a short ways in. But that’s not all, there’s even player upgrades to dabble with. Think RPG buffs: armour replenishment on slides, explosions on landing, that kind of thing. As with most things of this nature, the best thing to do is play around and find a style you like.
Killing Time
So, I’ve covered the story, and I’ve covered the guns. You’re probably thinking; “Right, standard boomer shooter fare. What else is there?”. So, with great confidence, I can clearly state that… there’s not really much else. But far from being the damning indictment it sounds like, It sounds a bit backwards, but sometimes we don’t need a lot of guff to pad out a game.
Besides the story, Turbo Overkill boasts an arcade mode. What this means is that instead of having to put up with story, players will just whizz through levels unimpeded. Why, you might ask? Well, some people don’t care for story in these kind of games. Duke Nukem wouldn’t have benefited from a ten minute cutscene explaining how the pigs found fitting cop uniforms, would it? No, some people just want to watch things go boom without the hand-holding, which is what this delivers.
And if that’s not enough, there’s an Endless Mode too. Now, you shouldn’t need me to tell what one of these does, should you? In essence: keep Johnny alive and keep racking up the kills. There’s certainly a challenge in there too, alongside the five different difficulty levels the main game offers. Not to mention that it has co-op play too, to share the burden.
If you want bang for your buck in the literal sense, Turbo Overkill provides. There’s a photo mode too, for the artists, but don’t expect all the unnecessary filler that we’re used to seeing pad out remasters. It’s all about the Overkill.
Johnny Be Performin’ Good
I don’t actually have any criticisms for Turbo Overkill in regards to performance. I didn’t experience any technical issues, bar a wee bit of background pop-in once or twice. Nothing that broke my immersion, I just mental filed under a nod to older generations and draw distance. Not as a defence, I just wasn’t that bothered by it.
Performance-wise, it ran at a pretty constant 60fps for me. On the rare occasion that it had too much going on on-screen, it dipped ever so slightly, but nothing screeched to a halt. From what I understand the Nintendo Switch version is only 30fps, but then that’s more of a hardware issue. Which is weird, for a console that runs The Witcher 3 surprisingly well, but I digress.
On the whole, Turbo Overkill was smooth and blast-tastic enough for me to keep going, Sometimes an audio track would get drowned out by what’s going on, or a contextually button prompt would get fussy. But yeah, as far as throwback boomer shooters go, Trigger Happy have polished this enough. Well, in regards to the recent console versions, I can’t speak for how it was on PC two years ago.
Slip And Slay
To conclude, because this review’s an appropriate length for a game like this: Turbo Overkill is a blast. If you’re after something of a throwback with some modern tweaks, here you are. Johnny’s story doesn’t reinvent the wheel, nor does it detract from the homage it’s paying tribute to.
The story is entertaining enough, in a pulp-y kind of way. The soundtrack is that bombastic synthwave that I personally enjoy, to pair with a fun and simple combat system. It’s visceral, it’s versatile and the verticality is there for players to bounce all over the shop on. Alright, it may play like edgy System Shock with the fat trimmed off, but that’s alright. Sometimes we prefer snacks over full-course meals.
The extra content is enough to keep players… erm, content. Trigger Happy have said they’re looking at multiplayer options (at present only Endless has co-op), but it’s not a deal-breaker. There’s a nice slice of retro shooter action here to keep players happy, as well as difficulty-based trophies/achievements.
Anyway, you don’t need me to waffle on. You’ve got giblets to clean out of your knee chainsaw.
Turbo Overkill is available now on PlayStation 4 & 5 (reviewed on latter), Xbox One and Series S|X, Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam.
Developer: Trigger Happy Interactive
Publisher: Apogee Studios
Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.
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