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John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando May Be Your Next Fave Zombie Game
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Alyssa Mercante
The hour-long hands-on was almost too brief to fully encapsulate just how much is in Toxic Commando, which utilizes Saber’s proprietary Swarm Engine for its massive swarms of enemies (the engine was developed for WWZ, and recently used in Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2). Enemies move and behave like a flock, but individuals can break off and act independently of the group, making for delicious chaos.
During the playtest, we dropped in as a four-stack, each of us as one of the Toxic Commandos, a group representing a last-ditch effort to help save humanity after a science experiment goes wrong and blights the land, turning the majority of the population into zombies. The Commandos have all caught the virus, but the same scientist who caused this mess has managed to keep it from spreading, so they can utilize some wild powers out in the field, including ones that help them blow up nodes of zombie yuck. They’re not the best people for the job, but they’re kind of the only people for it. The humor, the incredible music, and the overall vibes are very John Carpenter.
I chose to play as the medic, whose ability allows her to heal players in her vicinity and even get herself up when downed. She proves to be invaluable, as my teammates and I quickly realize Toxic Commando throws a lot of enemies at you, and my ability to heal becomes the only thing keeping us afloat.
Toxic Commando’s other classes, which were not clearly named during our hands-on, included an engineer-type that could send out a drone to follow in our wake, firing at enemies in range, and a shield-type character who could throw down a drone to project projectiles and damage any enemies that walk inside. The last class appears to be a damage-focused one, as he can shoot fireballs and carry more grenades than the others.
There’s almost no time for us to take any of this information in, however, as our playtest throws us smack in the middle of a large map dotted with pockets of enemies, resources, and vehicles. This is one of eight missions that will launch with the game, and yes, you can drive vehicles in Toxic Commando. You’re going to need to. Vehicles have different abilities, including one that comes with a winch to help pry open caches of resources or tow incapacitated cars, and an ambulance that emits an AoE healing effect to help keep the team up while they get swarmed.
I quickly learn that Toxic Commando is somewhat stingy with its resources, preferring squads to work together rather than handing each player all the tools to lay waste to massive amounts of enemies. The game features a currency called spare parts, which allows you to purchase better weapons and upgrade or repair crucial crowd control items. Throughout the entirety of our gameplay, I only received one spare part, which I used in the latter stage of the map to unlock a stationary mortar while we were protecting a church from massive swarms of enemies.
Since it doesn’t seem to give you spare parts all that easily, Toxic Commando tasks you with cleverly managing your ammunition and ensuring you work together as a team. The massive open map is filled with hazards that can slow you down or eat away at your health, and there were multiple times during our session that a player wandered off just to plead for help moments later.
Our goal is to find and destroy several zombie “nodes” on this map, and the first one takes us to the furthest corner from where we spawned. There are no vehicles on our way to the first location, so we hoof it, fighting pockets of zombies along the way. My assault rifle and handgun both feel great to use, snappy and reactive, but still weighty. A spiked baseball bat can be used to melee enemies, and it’s as disgustingly enjoyable as you’d imagine.
We make good time getting to the first node, and I wonder if this will be easier than expected. But the node requires us to start up a generator to access it, and that generator needs gas. It’s a simple concept: find the gas container, fill up the generator, and crank it alive, but our activity alerts a rather large swarm, and it starts to get overwhelming. One player goes down as we fight to get to the node, but just when it seems like we’ll all suffer the same fate, I pop my healing ability and keep us up to finish the fight.
Node destroyed and teammate revived, we head to the next node, which is on a hill that requires you to switchback your way up to it. My teammates fall behind, a bit confused as to how to reach the node, and I impatiently press onward. Toxic Commando quickly reminds me that this is a bad idea, enveloping me with zombies as I struggle to walk through a mucky area. My healing ability keeps me alive, but barely, and I make my way back to my team, tail tucked between my legs.
We take out the next node together, as we should. Then, my teammate notices a truck icon on the map and heads out to snatch it. I hear him semi-panicking in his headset as he starts to get overwhelmed, but by sheer luck, he makes it to the truck and floors it out of there, picking us up along the way.
The church is our final stand, a lengthy encounter demanding we protect multiple entry points from an almost unbelievable amount of enemies, who climb over the walls and careen through open areas so quickly it’s scary. The mortar I unlocked only proves helpful for the first half of the encounter, as the second half moves them all out of range. My screen fills with the viscera of dead zombies, explosions, icons warning me of a big bad, and more. I’m overwhelmed, but I once again pop my healing ability at just the right time, giving the squad that extra push to get us through this barrage.
The mission timer runs out, and a massive EMP spreads across the area, taking the entire swarm out in one go. The four of us let out a collective sigh of relief.
John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando is for fans of chaotic shooters, horde modes, and zombie games like WWZ and Left 4 Dead. With four-person co-op crossplay spanning PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Steam, and the Epic Games Store, it encourages you to hop into the fray with your friends—and stay on their ass so you don’t become an undead appetizer. Toxic Commando is set to release early next year.
