Turbo Overkill

While I may not be a huge fan of the phrase “boomer shooter,” I definitely love this throwback trend. After decades of first-person shooters inspired by Half-Life, Halo and, of course, Call of Duty, the fast-paced frag-fests are back, thanks in large part to the 2016 Doom reboot kicking the door in and reminding everybody how exciting the genre can be. If you’re a console gamer patiently waiting for Doom: The Dark Ages, then I recommend you sharpen your teeth on the just-released port of Turbo Overkill, a fast-paced action game that mixes and matches elements from sci-fi stories like Blade Runner, RoboCop and Cyberpunk 2077. See why this futuristic first-person shooter was worth the wait when I review Turbo Overkill from Apogee Entertainment.

If you’re a big fan of the emerging “boomer shooter” trend and recognize the name Turbo Overkill, then you might be wondering why I’m covering this game now. After all, it originally debuted on PC back in 2022. Now, three years later, this debut release from Trigger Happy Interactive is finally making its way to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Switch, and I’m happy to say that it was worth the wait.

You play Johnny Turbo, a half-man/half-metal action hero with a chainsaw for a leg. When he returns to his hometown of Paradise, Johnny makes a troubling discovery – everybody seems to be possessed by a rogue A.I. named Syn. Hoping to make some money, our hero takes on the insurmountable task of defeating the evil A.I. and its army of augmented soldiers. But watch out, because Johnny isn’t alone, as rival bounty hunters are looking to snatch the prize from under his robotic nose.

While not the most complicated story, it does a good job of setting up a bunch of exciting levels full of futuristic baddies to kill in all sorts of gory ways. This is a true return to the old school days of monster closets and labyrinthine level designs, complete with a copious amount of heath and shield objects to grab. It’s a speedy game where enemies are around every corner, rarely giving you a chance to relax and take a breath. Beyond the obvious science fiction influences, you’re going to see a lot of Doom, Quake and Duken Nukem in Turbo Overkill.

One thing this game does extremely well is embrace the futuristic world, making it a big part of the gameplay. Beyond the chainsaw leg, Johnny can also double jump and dash multiple times in the air. Right off the bat, this makes you feel like a superhero. You’ll zip through the air and run on the walls in order to gain the upper hand in nearly every fight, and all that is before you earn the ability to literally slow down time.

This is the kind of game that is constantly throwing new moves and techniques at the player. On top of dashing through the air and slowing down time, you’ll also be able to buy and equip different augments for our hero. These are upgrades and perks that can change the action in some dramatic ways, such as adding more parkour moves or explosive new attacks or becoming a magnet for both items and money. You can equip up to eleven of these augments on your arms, legs and cranium, but not all of them at once. This means that you’re going to need to make some tough decisions on how you want to upgrade Johnny.

It helps that the levels are designed to take full advantage of Johnny’s many abilities. There’s a nice mix of corridors and wide-open environments, giving you plenty of ways to incorporate the different weapons and special moves. I found that even when I hit a wall and died repeatedly, I was still having a lot of fun trying out different strategies, hoping that something would work. This isn’t the kind of game where you can use the same gun or ability in every situation, and I had a lot of fun using the different augments to give myself a surprising amount of options. And I feel like I barely scratched the surface of what is possible. It will be fun to watch speed runners tackle this game.

I also really like how varied the stage designs are. Some levels are incredibly straight-forward, while others are massive, requiring the player to complete side-quests just to get to the end. And just when you think the game has run out of tricks, you’ll get to fly around in your air car or fight a giant mech on top of a flying train. Between the story, the gameplay and the level designs, Turbo Overkill isn’t afraid to shake things up, something that will definitely keep players on their toes.

Although you’ve seen some of these ideas before, the game does an excellent job of world building. A lot of it is done visually, though there are audio logs, conversations and flashbacks that will help to fill in some of the gaps. I really like the look of Paradise, a futuristic city that feels like it was pulled straight out of Blade Runner. Sure, it starts out feeling a bit derivative, but when the story picks up in the second half, the developers do some really interesting things with the city and the level designs. The game ends up being a lot more cinematic than I was expecting, and I was there for every second of it.

Unfortunately, that brings us to the game’s biggest issue – it can sometimes feel like the developers bit off more than they could chew. This is a lengthy game that tries to do a lot of different things, but that ambition comes at the expense of the visuals. I’m sure that many will have no problem overlooking some rough and outdated graphics thanks to the speed and the fact that it is, by design, a throwback title. That said, there are times where I wish the game was a bit more polished. Don’t expect this to look as good as a modern first-person shooter, or even that Doom reboot from 2016. Turbo Overkill has a low-budget look that it can’t shake, no matter how impressive the scope is.

There are a few other issues that pop up, such as how there’s a little too much first-person platforming. This is frustrating because it’s not as precise as it should be and it’s almost always over some sort of bottomless pit. I also wish the gun selection was as futuristic as the rest of the game, though the various upgrades do help make the traditional shotguns and pistols a bit more interesting. And while I’m nitpicking, I would point out that switching between guns is a little finnicky when using a controller, an issue I run into a lot when reviewing first-person shooters on home consoles.

The good news is that once you master your super-human moves and find your favorite augments, you’ll forget all about the dated visuals and boring arsenal of weapons. No matter if you’re jumping on flying cars or using your chainsaw leg to take out Syn’s cyberpunk army, fans of over-the-top first-person shooters will find a lot to love about Turbo Overkill. And with a surprisingly long story full of twists and turns, this boomer shooter should keep even the most hardened fan satisfied right up to when that new Doom game comes out.