Last Updated on Mar 11, 2026 @ 19:10:04 PM.
Recently, I had the opportunity to try out the upcoming game John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando as I fought my way through hordes of zombies, and experienced a rather unique story filled with Slapstick humour and chaos-fueled moments.
During my time with the game, I ventured through the various missions as much as I possibly could while trying out the different characters, skills, and weapons that were available to me, while also enjoying the various difficulty challenges that were laid before me.
John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando’s Story and Voice Acting Were Fun to Experience, Albeit Intentionally Cringey in Some Moments
Throughout my time with John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando, I was able to explore the various different missions and experience the game’s story through and through, and even though the game’s story is relatively short only spanning a few missions, it was quite fun to see the story told in the way that it was, however, there were a few moments that did turn me away slightly.
As I have said above, the story itself isn’t overly long which isn’t a negative for a game like this as an overly complicated story that spans 50+ hours just doesn’t work for the gameplay on hand, but instead the game’s story can take around 8-10 hours if you explore each map for loot as you go through, but for those looking to just rush the story it can be considerably smaller.
This, for me, is something that pulled me away slightly, as I am the type of person to explore all that I can, so I often found myself exploring each map to find currency to upgrade my weapons once the mission was over, and unique weapons to help me in the mission I was already in.
Although this is how the game works, there isn’t a whole lot going on once you actually push forward with the objectives. If you choose to simply go in and complete the mission objectives, some missions will likely take the player maybe 10 minutes, allowing them to experience the story in a smooth manner, but for those who play like me and search every nook and cranny, you often slowly forget what you are even in the mission to do.
For me, this led to me often finding the story a little boring, the longer I explored, making it seem like the devs focused more on gameplay than the actual story. To add to this, one of the main things that really dragged me away from the game’s story was also some of the dialogue that was included.
Throughout the game, players will meet and hear from a few different characters who each play their role in the game. Now, the actual voice acting itself was very well done, and the overall dialogue wasn’t bad, but there were moments in which I couldn’t help but cringe at the dialogue.
What made this a mixed point for me was that it was clear even the devs knew this dialogue was cringey and even had the characters react in a way a realistic person would with rolled eyes, looks of shock or confusion, and just overall ending the scene there to get the player back into the zombie madness, but there were moments in which it wasn’t solely just one character, but instead all of them acting this way in an attempt to lighten the game’s dark tone.
Now, when it comes to humor, I always love a game that has funny jokes, sarcastic characters, and an overall jokey demeanor. John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando does have these characteristics; however, instead of just sticking to funny one-liners from all the characters, it feels as though one character was designated the cringey jokester that all the other characters tolerate throughout the game, but with other characters making small, cringey comments here and there to lighten the mood in a sense.
Overall, I wouldn’t say this is a deal breaker for me, though, as again, it does have its moments that made me giggle and did break the tension from being swarmed by zombies, but there are moments in which it just felt overly used in an effort to bring humor to a humorless situation for the sake of it rather than having the right comedic timing to actually generate natural laughter rather than a semi-forced chuckle at a weird comment.
The Gameplay in John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando is Very Fun and Chaotic but Rather Repetetive
When it comes to an FPS Zombie shooter game like John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando, you would expect every round to be zombie swarms and the primary objective to be survival at any cost, and that is exactly what players will be getting themselves into, but with a few extra caveats thrown in.
Unlike most FPS zombie shooters, John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando throws in a few different gameplay mechanics that keep the gameplay loop fresh for those looking for something a little different from the usual zombie shooters out there.
Firstly, a car is introduced that will allow you to traverse the locations slightly more easily. Now, yes, I know what you are thinking: cars have also been present in other zombie shooter games, but they haven’t been introduced like this. Saber Interactive, the developer behind John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando, has also leaned into their experience with games like RoadCraft, Docked, and their other sim games like these to incorporate the driving mechanics within John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando.
Granted, John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando doesn’t go as far as games like RoadCraft in regards to have different gears, different terrain modes, and using different cars for different jobs, but it does utilize similar game mechanics in the form of using a winch on specific vehicles to climb slippery terrain. This, for me, as someone who has played RoadCraft, felt like second nature as I was able to grasp this mechanic quite quickly while also seeing how it was able to limit my exploration.
Although the winch could be used to help move around the terrain due to its ability to attach to any location, pulling the player from mud and other tough terrain, it was also a vital tool in searching the game’s various maps for hidden loot that was locked behind closed doors or hidden caches buried in the ground. With this being such a simple mechanic, it wasn’t overly problematic to come to terms with, and it did allow for different path options when moving around the map and fighting certain enemies, but if you didn’t take care of your cars, this could be devastating in certain missions.
If you are someone like me who doesn’t pay attention to the road in games until it is too late, you will likely drive the car into places you likely can’t get out of, which is something I did in my very first mission. Luckily, I didn’t need this car to complete the mission, and I was able to simply walk around the map till I found a car without a winch, but because I essentially locked this car between a rock and a hard place (literally), I locked myself out of a lot of loot and exploration options.
Now, this isn’t a bad thing on the developers’ part; on the contrary, this was just down to me not paying attention to the road ahead of me, but that is what made it a lot of fun, as the risk for reward was much greater than simply walking around fighting waves of zombies until I either died or finished the mission.
Speaking of the missions, as I have mentioned above, there aren’t a whole lot of missions to take part in within John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando, in fact there are very few, with only 9 missions for the player to go through with each location being relatively small especially once you have access to a vehicle, and only a few points of interest to explore.
Although these maps were good to look at and fun to explore at the beginning, I did notice that after awhile, each mission and location began to feel a little samey, not in the form of each map being too similar, in fact each map was very unique and felt as new as the last, but this was more down to the overall gameplay loop for each map and theirs points of interest.
Whenever I entered a mission, I often found myself simply moving between different small objectives before finally ending up at one final stand-off objective against hordes of zombies. For the first few missions, this was quite fun and had a lot of chaotic moments, but after a while, it began to get too similar as there were only a few mission objectives that could take place, whether it be to defend the point, move some from A to B, and a few more.
For me, this was something that just often began to get very boring very fast as there wasn’t a whole lot to do other than that, even the points of interest weren’t very interesting as they were often small locations that were just as simple as open a container for ammo, search a small building for ammo or medkits, or the occassional sludgite deposit for a vast amount of currency.
As I have said earlier, it is hard for a zombie shooter game to have a varied selection of objectives and gameplay mechanics to keep things fresh as you go through the missions, but for me, there was just enough to keep things interesting, but not enough to repeat the missions on the harder difficulties, as these difficulties did spike drastically.
The Weapons and Abilities are Fun to Use With Interesting Perks and Combinations
A big part of a zombie shooter game is obviously the weapons you use within the game and the abilities you can unlock throughout the game’s skill trees and various classes. Within John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando, there are 4 different classes you can choose from, each having its own unique playstyle that helps the team in various ways.
When you play through the game, you will have the choice of these 4 different classes and be able to upgrade their skill trees to aid you in your fight. This is a very simple mechanic that works out well and has a lot of choices for the player to choose from.
During my playthrough I chose The Strike as I was only able to play by myself with a group of AI characters so I chose the class that I would have a lot of fun with in terms of killing zombies, and this was the perfect choice as I was granted a fireball ability that could devastate groups of enemies fast with very minimal damage to myself and my allies.
Throughout my time with the game I tried to upgrade the skill tree as much as I could, but this did require a bit of grinding as levelling up especially at the later levels did require playing the harder levels and doing more exploration to earn the amount of XP needed to level up, but in the end the grind was worth it as the upgrades to both my character in the form of increased reload speed, more grenades, and more were very useful.
However, the biggest upgrades were the ones that boosted my fireball ability, as each upgrade made it even more deadly than the last. Granted, some of these ability upgrades weren’t always a big upgrade depending on the situation, but as the game went on, I often found myself getting so much stronger and holding my own even more with my abilities.
The guns themselves in John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando were as normal as normal can be. They did exactly what you expected of a gun; they were able to shoot the heads off zombies very effectively while also having a few different customization options as you leveled up the guns.
My only complaint with modifying my weapon was that I was burning a lot of my resources on weapon modifications to the extent of spending nearly all the sludgite I had earned in a game on a simple scope for my weapon, leading me to earn an entire guns worth of modifications over the game’s entire story, for me to ultimately not like the gun and want to change it by the end.
However, the overall gunplay felt very good and responsive without me feeling like the weapons were too underpowered or overpowered, especially during the normal game modes. In terms of the abilities, I was very impressed by how they reacted with the enemies and balanced the playing field a little bit, but there were a few occasions in which these abilities caused some unforeseen circumstances in which random enemies, rather than despawning, would begin to float in the sky, frozen as they slowly flew off into space.
Although this was funny and likely a glitch, I do wish the devs would keep this in the game as some form of random chance feature, as it was so comical that it almost felt real.
John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando
Summary
During my time with John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando, I often found myself having a really great time as I explored the various maps that were laid out before me, but over time, this did become rather tedious, with very few points of interest that weren’t very interesting.
In terms of gunplay, it was very fun and responsive, allowing for fast kills of zombies, while also benefiting from a variety of abilities at my disposal that helped me when I was in a tough spot.
One of the more unique gameplay mechanics for me was using the vehicles, as they allowed me to explore a lot more easily while also using the winch to access new locations and even find loot throughout the game, which made the adventures easier.
Overall, the gameplay was a lot of fun, but the story and voice acting were quite underwhelming as I was rather bored when it came to cutscenes and often found myself trying to remember why I was doing a mission in the first place.
HOURS PLAYED: 14
PLAYED ON: PS5
- The various vehicles and the winchs made traversal a breeze when I didn't crash.
- The gunplay and abilities were a lot of fun and helped with the challenging levels.
- there were genuine moments that made me laugh both in the story and in the gameplay.
- The game's dialogue was rather cringey throughout making me block out what was being said a lot.
- The maps were relatively small with very few locations of interest to explore that were actually interesting.
- Objectives were very rinse and repeat and felt boring after a while.
For more Thumb Wars Gaming coverage, check out our interview with Saber Interactive’s CCO regarding John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando, or check out our hands-on preview of Tides of Tomorrow.
Liam is a Senior Editor, Writer, and Critic for Thumb Wars and has been working with the team since day one. Liam is a big fan of all things gaming, as you will catch him playing all of the new releases from every genre you can imagine. Whether you find Liam gaming just for fun or spending his free time streaming, you will always find a smile on his face when it comes to all things gaming.
