Turbo Overkill (Early Access) review

Remember the time when protagonists would launch a barrage of missiles at foes before giving them the middle finger? Turbo Overkill does, offering an old-school first-person shooter where the carnage is creative, and every hallway is destined to be painted with viscera.

Players of a certain age might remember Apogee. Across the 1990s, the publisher released pioneering first-person shooters like Wolfenstein 3D, Rise of the Triad, Duke Nukem 3D, and Shadow Warrior. Chances are, if you owned an i486 or a Pentium-powered PC during that era, then you probably tried one of their titles. At the time, the three-dimensional firefights felt astonishingly visceral, forming memories for a generation of players.

Subsequently, Apogee would endure a succession of layoffs, legal entanglements, a restructuring, and a corporate buyout. But with the release of Turbo Overkill, it almost feels like the publisher didn’t endure two decades’ worth of difficulties. Developer Trigger Happy Interactive might lean on timeworn mechanics like collectible health packs and foes who burst into gooey giblets. But with a bit of parkour, “turbo time”, a grappling hook, and the ability to slide into enemies with a chainsaw leg, there’s enough innovation to ensure that Overkill doesn’t feel like a substandard rehash.

Like the shooters of yesteryear, there’s no long-winded storytelling to slow Overkill’s breakneck pace. You play as Johnny Turbo, a bounty hunter tasked with scrubbing the chaos that a rogue AI has spread throughout the cyberpunk dystopia of the paradoxically named Paradise. Occasionally, NPCs will communicate as you’re speeding through the labyrinthine levels. But beyond the occasional voice-over, Turbo Overkill won’t slow things down with superfluous dialog.

Instead, cyber Johnny lets the bullets do the talking. Instead of starting with the typical anemic weapon, Turbo Overkill rewards you from the start with a pair of magnum pistols. With a brisk firing rate and plenty of stopping power, they’re able to take down foes with a shot or two. But like all of the game’s guns, they also have an alternate firing capability. The magnums let you charge up an explosive round that locks onto multiple hostiles. Sure, you’re vulnerable during the subsequent cooldown, but the risk is usually well worth it.

Often, there are several duds in most first-person shooter arsenals. But nearly all of Overkill’s reload-free weapons are astonishingly fun to use. The Twincendiary can switch from a Gatling gun to a flamethrower, while the Launcher’s room-clearing rockets can be denoted on the way to their target. Most developers might have shoehorned in puzzles built around weapon functionality, but Trigger Happy Interactive lives up to its moniker, letting you kill as you like. The sole blemish is with the game’s Uzis. Alt-fire tosses one of the guns, letting you stagger a foe, but you’ll halve your firing rate for a few seconds. I haven’t found a situation where the sacrifice was worth it.

Joyfully, Turbo Overkill doesn’t make you wait more than a few minutes to see the star of the show: a chainsaw mounted to your leg. Early on, you’ll find yourself in a ramp-filled chamber that looks suspiciously like the indoor skate park showcased in the first Tony Hawk game. A button tap sends Johnny sliding with his chainsaw leg gnashing through processions of doomed enemies. The “cheg” or chainsaw leg is probably the most visceral act of wanton carnage I’ve enjoyed in gaming all year.

Cleverly, the Cheg, as well as your cortex, and other limbs of Johnny’s cybernetic body can all be augmented. Scattered across Paradise’s neon-hued battlegrounds are Splice machines that offer upgrades in exchange for the coins dropped by defeated adversaries. Although there are plenty of add-ons, the ability to restore health every time you pulverize an opponent is one of the more seductive selections. Normally, I feverishly devour FPS campaigns like a bucket of movie popcorn as I race toward the credits. But Johnny’s variety of power-ups goaded me into returning to previously played levels. Further motivation is found by collecting cassette tapes and chips hidden across each level, which open short but imaginatively designed challenge stages.

Opt to add the spider upgrade to your leg, and you’ll cling to the wall-pads typically used for parkouring through the environment, giving you time to devise your assault tactic. When coupled with the “A Good ‘ol Thumping” enhancement, I could position myself to drop on enemies, triggering a flesh-tearing explosion. What’s especially cool is that you aren’t locked into any kind of tech tree. Instead, you can slot in and experiment with upgrades anytime you find a machine. Maybe you’ll want to turn Johnny into an aspiring mech, with micro-missiles that fire from his wrist. There’s a lot of flexibility to be found. I won’t spoil other treats like the weaponized flying car or bike. But know that the game keeps finding new ways to keep the body count escalating.

When it comes to visual style, Turbo Overkill is adept, with Unreal Engine 5 showcasing some Blade Runner-esque milieus. Sure, environments and enemies are built with a restrained number of polygons. But the decision makes the game resemble a high-definition version of Quake and keeps the framerate blistering fast even on mid-range rigs and hardware like the Steam Deck (just be aware that Overkill is a battery drainer). The title punishes players who aren’t constantly moving and operates at an Unreal Tournament-like speed. As such, it’s difficult to fault find in the game’s graphical ambitions.

Level design is certainly skilled, providing circuitous stages that employ colored key-gating to keep players from becoming hopelessly lost. With the ability to double jump and double dash, Johnny is remarkably agile. Environmental design rarely prohibits you from exploiting your navigational abilities. It’s often possible to take shortcuts and if you fall from a ledge, quick reactions can help boost you back up. There’s a fair amount of elevated platforms in Overkill and I especially enjoyed that falling or landing in water doesn’t automatically deduct health.

At present, Turbo Overkill offers two episodes, with a third installment slated for Early 2023. Although the first episode is thoroughly polished, a few blemishes still need to be excised from the recently released second chapter. From boss battles that need a bit more balancing, a grappling hook that lacks reliability, and at least one enemy type who is a bit too overpowered, you’ll find some annoyances across the sixteen-stage voyage of violence. But these are largely minor grievances that only blemish Overkill’s spirited splatterfest. Hopefully, Johnny Turbo can give them the middle finger, too, since the rest of the game offers one of the best FPS campaigns in recent memory.

Turbo Overkill was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.