My brain absolutely struggles to remember the name Turbo Overkill. It’s a combination of two words that are usually just appended to a game’s title to differentiate itself from previous games in the series, such as Street Fighter II Turbo and House of the Dead: Overkill. And then, with all the other retro-inspired shooters currently mixing things up, I can’t tell it apart from similarly titled games like Ultrakill.

In terms of standing apart with gameplay, the story’s a bit different. While many retro-inspired shooters attempt to gain success from excess, few are as successful at climbing over the top as Turbo Overkill, for better or worse.

[caption id="attachment_396189" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Turbo Overkill (PC)
Developer: Trigger Happy Interactive
Publisher: Apogee Entertainment
Released: August 11, 2023 (PC)
MSRP: $24.99

You play as Johnny Turbo, retired Turbografx-16 mascot, or maybe not. He’s sent by a shadowy corporate figure to the world of Paradise to take down a rogue AI that has infected most of the population with a meaty virus. It’s a simple enough premise, but over the course of three episodes, it builds and builds to a painful climax.

I’ve heard a lot of comparisons between Turbo Overkill and Doom Eternal, and sure, the similarities are there. Both games are fast-paced shooters where mobility is not just beneficial, but essential. However, I feel like Turbo Overkill fits more as a cross between Quake and Serious Sam. Doom Eternal has a great deal of combat emphasis on target prioritization, and Turbo Overkill subscribes more to the philosophy of “If it moves, kill it.”

You’re frequently swarmed with enemies who explode with gibs and particles when killed, and they die en masse. One of the most touted features of Turbo Overkill is Johnny’s chainsaw leg (or chegg) which turns you into a deadly projectile. Through upgrades, you can make the chegg useful against all enemies, but it’s at its best when you’re carving through all the low-level baddies. I got a lot of mileage out of the chegg, I’ll tell you.

https://youtu.be/Ry1TTG0xm48

Johnny Motherf*cking Turbo

Turbo Overkill’s combat is fun at the best of times, but it’s not very nuanced. A lot of the time, the screen gets filled with gore and neon. There isn’t often a tonne of difference between the heavier baddies, especially when it comes to visuals, so there’s not much incentive to pick out priorities and take them down quickly. Largely, you’re immersed in a cloud of foes, and you just choose the best way to disperse it in an expedient manner.

For that matter, once my chegg was in prime form, I didn’t really make much use of Johnny’s vast arsenal. Beyond just a buffet of different weapons, you’re gradually given upgrades, and it’s extremely difficult to keep track of them all. I got near the end of the game and realized that I had forgotten all about Johnny’s mini-rocket firing arm and the slow-motion Turbo Time. I was only cycling between a small assortment of weapons, with some of the leftovers being extremely situational.

There’s a great deal of bloat here. What’s the purpose of a chaingun when you have dual submachine guns that don’t need to be reloaded? How does the plasma rifle differ from a single-wielded sub-machine gun? Do I really need a telefrag sniper rifle when there’s already a grappling hook?

In a way, this might imply that Turbo Overkill has a high skill ceiling similar to Doom Eternal. But I rarely needed to play it smart. Doom Eternal heaped tonnes of abilities on you and rewarded you for being able to juggle them all effectively. Turbo Overkill seems to heap things on you just because it thinks they’re cool. I guess it’s better to have them and not need them.

[caption id="attachment_396186" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

The floor is lava

It was only once I stopped trying to approach Turbo Overkill as a critic and instead met it as a gamer that it finally clicked for me. I had to stop looking for a purpose in its design. It was only when I finally switched my brain off from wondering about the environments, about flow, about its legibility that I became able to immerse myself into it. I had to stop comparing it to its predecessors and its contemporaries.

Turbo Overkill is in an arms race only with itself.

There’s a constant, ceaseless feeling of escalation through Turbo Overkill. It doesn’t matter if a gun is useful, if it supersedes a similar weapon, or if it’s merely only useful as a mode of transportation. Stick it in there. If it doesn’t fit, force it. The philosophy here is to impress through excess.

The story reflects this, where things start off screwed and then keep getting more screwed. The main driving force holding things together is Johnny’s unstoppable badassery. I actually found myself growing a bit attached to the character. A mute protagonist, you can still see the turmoil within him between enjoying his rampage while trying to hold onto some semblance of humanity. You’re left to fill in the blanks of his personality, but what’s there speaks volumes.

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Tiring to kick this much ass

Unfortunately, Turbo Overkill irks me almost as often as it excites me. Even after it finally clicked at the beginning of the second episode, it lost me again in the latter half of the third. It kicks the climax off way too early and ends it far too late. The last few levels are the longest and most boring, all played under a driven and intense soundtrack. I’m realizing now that an overlong climax is a pet peeve of mine. It’s edging. Stop edging us, Turbo Overkill.

I was very exhausted by the time Turbo Overkill wrapped up. My dreams of immediately launching into another playthrough had dissipated.

I really don’t want to imply that Turbo Overkill is bad or even just average. There’s a lot of power in its variety, and the narrative punches above its weight class. The soundtrack is often outstanding and is a great compliment to the carnage. Likewise, when you are able to lose yourself in the red fog of its combat, it can make hours disappear. For that matter, there are lots of extra modifiers and secret levels to unlock to extend its running time beyond the 15-or-so that it already packs across its three episodes.

However, Turbo Overkill loses itself in its constant push for escalation. It’s often not as clever as it thinks it is, and there’s a real sense of quantity over quality. Packing in more mechanics is certainly a type of progress, but a better focus on fewer concepts probably would have elevated the game as a whole. As it is, it’s still a perfectly fun time, and I’d be completely willing to revisit it in a sequel, but it just doesn’t quite climb to the lofty top of the retro-inspired scrap heap.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Turbo Overkill appeared first on Destructoid.

Where we're going, we'll definitely need some chainsaw legs

Classically-styled shooters are about to dip into the neon future. Trigger Happy Interactive announced today that its high-speed shooter Turbo Overkill is sliding into Steam Early Access on April 22.

Inspired by Doom, Duke Nukem, and Quake, Turbo Overkill is part of what I'd call the retro-revival genre of first-person shooter. It's clearly imitating the classic circle-strafing arenas and high framerate firepower of older games, but with many modern adjustments. Yes, there are pixel-y chunks blasting everywhere, but also more modern tools like a grappling hook and chainsaw legs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ht0fbsgtw_4

Upgrade weapons over time, kill bosses for their augments, run on walls and fire mini-rockets from mid-air. Add on a cyberpunk neon sheen, and you've got Turbo Overkill.

I played the demo for Turbo Overkill during the recent Steam Next Fest, and can confirm that I was instantly reminded of classics like Quake. As good as the gunplay is, I had just as much fun running around its arenas, sliding through enemies with my chainsaw legs. It reminded me a bit of sliding and kicking enemies in Bulletstorm, in a very good way.

Turbo Overkill slides onto Steam Early Access with the first of its three planned episodes. That will have eight stages, with the number expected to triple on the way towards launch. As for the full 1.0 version, that's expected sometime later in 2022. When it does launch in full, Turbo Overkill will also be coming to the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox consoles.

You can wishlist Turbo Overkill ahead of its Early Access release on Steam here.

The post Turbo Overkill slides onto Steam Early Access with chainsaw legs on April 22 appeared first on Destructoid.

The most dangerous game of footsies

Retro-revival shooters have been having a good go of it lately, and Turbo Overkill looks to continue that trend. This new FPS looks like a cyberpunk dystopia meets the Doom and Quake era, and its targeting PC and consoles in 2022.

Turbo Overkill sees mercenary Johnny Turbo, who happens to have chainsaw legs, battling through a city possessed by a rogue AI for enough cash to outrun his past. Armed with both an arsenal of futuristic weaponry and his aforementioned chainsaws, Johnny will have to outpace rival bounty hunters and take the rogue AI running Paradise down. But seriously, the trailer can tell you what you need to know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkNu8j3EcXQ

It looks fast and full of carnage, which makes sense given its developer's history. This futuristic shooter is being developed by Trigger Happy Interactive, whose founder Sam Prebble developed the Doom II conversion mod Total Chaos. Apogee Entertainment will publish Turbo Overkill, and Apogee and 3D Realms co-founder Scott Miller is providing creative support.

"This is the game we’ve always wanted to play; making it is a dream project," said Prebble in a press release. "Relentless enemies, extremely deadly and fun weapons, speed and precision above all else—if you love Quake III Arena, modern and classic Doom, or Apogee’s legendary first-person shooters, you’ll feel right at home in Paradise."

Between new games like Dusk and remasters like the recent one Quake got, it's been a pretty good time for fans of this style of '90s FPS. Hopefully Turbo Overkill is another on the list of retro-revival FPS games that sear my retinas and make me consider picking up an old CRT monitor. It's just not the same on a flatscreen, you know?

Turbo Overkill is aiming to launch on PC via Steam, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch in 2022.

The post Turbo Overkill is a chainsaw leg-sliding FPS coming next year appeared first on Destructoid.