Turbo Overkill (PC)

Coming out of previewing GTTOD, I felt myself hankering for boomer-shooter gameplay that excelled in mobility. I was wanting parkour, if you will. I wanted to wall jump while shooting waves of enemies. I wanted I had already played Doom Eternal, but I wanted more…and then Turbo Overkill released. All of my urges for momentum, gunplay, and ridiculous levels of gore were met by Trigger Happy Interactive’s first (of hopefully many more) boomer shooter.

At first glance, Turbo Overkill looks and feels like Doom Eternal with Duke Nukem vibes. Imagine if Quake and Duke Nukem were updated with present-day mechanics and visual quality – that’s Turbo Overkill. It should be no surprise to see Apogee’s tried-and true mechanics and thematics make their way here in a game that looks retro but feels anything but. Oh yeah, and the game’s protagonist — Johnny Turbo — has a chainsaw for a leg. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to slide down a ramp and rip enemies in half, Turbo Overkill should be a no-brainer.

Johnny Turbo is a silent protagonist – a man who shoots now and doesn’t bother asking questions because his target is most likely blown to smithereens in a fountain of blood and fleshy tidbits. Much of his personality oozes forth at the start or end of a level through minor cutscenes, my favorite involving Johnny shooting a massive rocket that says SUCK IT and then jumping off of its explosion to project himself up and away to the top of a building. Johnny’s ridiculousness is memorable, albeit gory. This form of character building may seem familiar for Doom players who’ve become accustomed to Doomguy’s silent-but-deadly approach to getting things done. From a player’s standpoint, character building is done in-game rather than at the expense of my time or interrupting the game’s momentum.

For a boomer shooter, momentum is incredibly important to maintain. With the sheer number of enemies rushing toward me and the need to continuously move forward, I don’t want to be constantly interrupted with meaningless cutscenes of filler dialogue and action sequences that end up blending together because of how repetitive the violence ends up being. Turbo Overkill hardly interrupted or even bored me with its over-the-top violence and high-octane gameplay. If I wanted to spend some time getting to know its world, I could seek out audiologs that were strategically hidden in each level to give me a taste of Johnny’s backstory and his prior relationships with the other characters of Paradise. I wasn’t penalized for skipping past them, but I also felt a smidge disappointed in how they ever-so-slightly contributed to the worldbuilding.

When I reviewed Doom Eternal’s DLC (The Ancient Gods I & II), I took the time to complete Doom Eternal in its entirety to get an idea of what to expect. At the time, I recognized that Doom Eternal was already centered in its own universe with pre-existing characters and boundaries, so it was up to me to familiarize myself with its lore nestled deep within the menus to figure out the game’s stakes. For Turbo Overkill, the same process occurred, but I left with more questions than answers simply because of the focus on gameplay rather than worldbuilding proper. Who is Johnny Turbo? Where did the chainsaw leg come from? Why the chainsaw, anyway? What’s his relationship with The Executive and SYN? These questions are ever-so-briefly answered in the game’s cutscenes and audiologs, but there’s room to explore these pre-existing (and new!) relationships further.

Turbo Overkill’s story is broken up into chapters, each focusing on specific gameplay facets. Right from the bat I was let off the leash by being encouraging to literally make it rain blood with dual pistols. Additional upgrades and mechanics were obtained to the player in a drip-by-drip fashion, but I was free to use Johnny’s arsenal as I saw fit. Chainsaw leg? Sure. Bullets to the head? That works, too. The sandbox was mine to desecrate as I saw fit so long as I kept moving. I appreciated how I could use the sandbox to my advantage without being denied the satisfaction of using whatever I had available to eliminate cyborgs and humanoids alike.

I learned quickly that succeeding in Turbo Overkill involved two simple concepts: moving and killing. This approach is the bread-and-butter of most boomer shooters. When I think of GTTOD (an apt comparison in terms of its movement and parkour), I consider how these simple mechanics are introduced and enforced. A good boomer shooter will reward players’ aggression and need for speed by letting them shoot in the general direction of enemies and most of the bullets will hit. Sure, some weapons are more forgiving than others, but the fact remains that Johnny Turbo’s entire arsenal could be used with moderate success.

This approach of killing first and thinking later kept the game fun. If my current weapon ran out of ammunition, I quickly swapped it out and kept shooting. Little interruptions. Ammo was plentiful in the levels and could be purchased if I ever needed more (which I rarely did, thankfully). Unlike Doom Eternal that required players to use specific weapons against specific enemies (thus artificially spiking the game’s difficulty), I could use just about any weapon I had to obliterate anything in front of me. I didn’t have to think, which meant I could enjoy Turbo Overkill that much more and attempt to go faster and faster.

The weapons themselves were quite creative. On top of the tried-and-true shoot to kill, each weapon had an alternate firing mode that boosted their utility. For instance, charging my shotgun would stun an enemy and increase their damage taken, encouraging me to quickly swap weapons to obliterate a large monster quicker than normal. My favorite weapon was a sniper rifle with a sole purpose in augmenting my movement; aiming down the sights let me teleport inside a weak enemy, instantly killing them and causing their body to erupt in a fountain of blood. In quick succession, I could span large distances in a matter of seconds.

Turbo Overkill’s levels are massive and let me achieve my dreams of furiously slipping, sliding, dashing, double jumping, wall running, and grappling-hooking through post-apocalyptic cityscapes and retro-inspired virtual environments. There were a select few levels that allowed me to interact with the floor and walls, which was cool, but I was left to my own devices with limitless traversal. Nearly all of the levels encouraged me to fully utilize Johnny’s chainsaw leg in sliding and grinding across ramps, ledges, and bridges. All it needed was a half loop and Turbo Overkill could have been a retro-inspired Tony Hawk Pro Skater title. Seriously, the traversal and movement is that similar and that fun. For those still waiting for Skate 4, consider Turbo Overkill as your quick fix while you wait.

In true cyberpunk fashion, I had multiple opportunities to modify and upgrade Johnny as I saw fit through the use of Augments. These augments spanned granting me bonus health and armor when killing an enemy with the chainsaw leg to decreasing the cooldown of abilities I unlocked in the campaign’s first two chapters. While I didn’t end up modifying my build that much during my playthrough, I appreciated the freedom I had in building however I want while still being able to succeed.

As a boomer shooter, Turbo Overkill excels in giving players agency to kill however they desire, play however they want, and move as fast as they’re able to move. Guardrails are taken off quickly, enemies lack gimmicks, and hazards are less insta-death and more minor speedbumps for Johnny Turbo. Gimmicks that place arbitrary requirements on players can increase a boomer shooter’s difficulty, sure, but it’s at the expense of maintaining that momentum propelling players forward and through levels. It’s clear that Trigger Happy Interactive wanted to bring all of the best aspects of retro boomer shooters into

By the third and final chapter, I encountered Turbo Overkill’s first misstep: its pacing. Up until chapter 3, the player and Johnny Turbo jettison through Paradise and its cyberpunk universe with incremental boosts in velocity. Chapter 3 pours gasoline on the fire, pushing players through a gauntlet of the game’s largest levels that are somehow packed full of enemies and a select few platforming tests despite being so big. Every level felt longer than its predecessor, culminating in back-to-back-to-back (yes, three backs!) gotcha moments that made me think I’d completed the campaign, only to discover that Johnny Turbo had one last loose end to tie up. It would make sense for some players to feel exhausted by this point, as there’s only so many final boss-esque sequences a player can endure before needing to take a break. But at that point, when you’re so close to finishing the game, pausing ain’t a viable option.

I completed the campaign, though, all seventeen hours of it. I occasionally repeated a level or two in an attempt to pick up a hidden cassette or chip, but I didn’t make repetition a habit. I didn’t want to, nor do I think most players will want to at first just to maintain Turbo Overkill’s momentum. It was so fun that I very quickly realized that I didn’t want to interrupt the game’s momentum just to pick up some optional objectives. I digress, reaching the end was satisfying yet mildly exhausting. Since the game ended on quite the cliffhanger, I’m curious to see where Trigger Happy Interactive take the game from here.

Is it worth criticizing Turbo Overkill for its finale? Definitely not enough to warrant a point deduction as I consider its final score. My critiques aside, it delivers an incredibly fun boomer shooter package that’s difficult to leave alone. The ride I was taken on was worth it in the end. I may not have wanted to repeat its levels yet, but I am confident in its ability to draw me back in later this year. Looking forward, though, I want to learn more about Johnny Turbo’s origins. I also want more optional opportunities to test my mettle through some platforming or time trials. This first entry has an excellent framework of gunplay, traversal, and minor worldbuilding that is worth exploring rather than iterating in the form of an “innovative” sequel.

Turbo Overkill features a level editor, though, and that should tide me over and get me through any urges to replay when (not if!) I return to the game in the future. One week in, the Steam Workshop features a handful of levels that are mainly small-form arenas with a handful of enemy waves. I hope that future weeks (and additional content) bring forth some awesome community-made levels. I know that UGC-supported games can be hit-or-miss, but there’s enough existing content in its sandbox for a creative community member to come up with something fun. Johnny Turbo’s chainsaw slide is pretty exhilarating to use, too.

Before concluding this review, it would behoove me to credit the game for its incredible soundtrack spanning synthwave, hard rock, and electronic music. It complements Turbo Overkill’s gameplay well by maintaining its momentum as Johnny Turbo is sliding through enemies with his leg and gunning down the half-human, half-machine enemies that stand in his way. The soundtrack is massive, with a unique song for each of its massive levels. I also loved how its signature riff reminded me of Mick Gordon’s Killer Instinct industrious-themed soundtrack.

By just about every single metric for evaluating a boomer shooter, Turbo Overkill excels and delivers in spades. I had a near limitless amount of agency to play as I want and still enjoy a boomer shooter experience without frills, gimmicks, and other artificial difficulty spikes. It oozes creativity while taking players on an exhilarating ride through a cyberpunk apocalypse. It’s the perfect blend of gore, seriousness, and silliness. Turbo Overkill is a literal spectacle of unfettered, high-octane boomer shooter gameplay. Call it a symphony of destruction, mayhem, gore, and violence. Call it bloody good fun. Call it whatever you want, really, so long as fun is somewhere in that mix. The world of Turbo Overkill is one worth exploring and desecrating with Johnny Turbo’s chainsaw leg.

A review copy of Turbo Overkill was provided to DigitalChumps by the publisher for the sole purpose of this review.