John Carpenter's Toxic Commando is everything that I wanted from a new game by World War Z developer Saber Interactive. It has all the moreish zombie shooting that you would expect from that team, though now noticeably enhanced by thoroughly modernized gunplay that not only looks and feels great, but actually lets you aim down your weapon's sights properly for the first time.

The charming ‘80s action movie script and a shift to more open levels also lend Toxic Commando a suitably distinct identity compared to its strictly linear spiritual predecessor. The same is true of the addition of vehicles, which benefits from some surprisingly meaty driving mechanics clearly inspired by the success of the studio’s MudRunner and SnowRunner games. Throw in seamless cross-play with up to three friends, and you have the recipe for an incredible time.

The campaign could certainly be a bit longer, and the progression system is definitely slightly too grindy for my taste (even when accounting for multiple playthroughs at each difficulty), but it’s hard to grumble when this modestly-priced release otherwise delivers such strong foundations.

With the promise of post-launch downloadable content (DLC) on the way, this is one co-op adventure that I’m going to come back to time and time again.

Going commando

Set in the near future, Toxic Commando takes you to an infested wasteland that’s been walled off from the rest of civilization. Once the site of a high-tech mining operation, it turns out that humanity has accidentally awakened the Sludge God - an occult, ancient being that corrupts everything that it touches with an insidious black ooze.

You’re one of the self-proclaimed toxic commandos, four low-cost, somewhat bumbling mercenaries that have been brought in by the mining company’s desperate CEO to unwittingly assist in the cover-up by blasting everything in your path.

It’s a decent framing narrative that’s explained through cutscenes dripping with ‘80s style, complete with dramatic animated title cards and a pleasingly retro film grain effect. Dialogue is unapologetically cheesy, and while some might find the constant quipping of the four playable characters a tad grating, a handful of well-executed jokes meant that I was eager to watch each successive cinematic on my first playthrough.

Unfortunately, there are some moments where the game’s lower budget becomes evident: the odd bit of floaty animation and a particularly jarring moment where a cutscene late in the game seems to end a few seconds too prematurely immediately spring to mind.

Crucially, all nine missions are plenty enjoyable thanks to a good range of objectives and plenty of unique mechanics to explore. They take place in increasingly large semi-open-world maps that offer a surprising amount of freedom. There’s always an objective marker on screen guiding you to the next story location, but you’re able to wander off and explore as a team without any penalties.

This is a massive departure from the very linear structure of World War Z, but taking the time to get to know each environment is vital as you crank the difficulty up. Hidden supply caches feed you a steady stream of valuable ammunition and health items, and rare Sludge Seeds (often nestled behind an army of powerful enemy types) can grant a vital second chance if you run out of lives.

Vehicles are littered throughout the maps to help you get around and are a key part of many objectives. Hopping into an armored all-terrain vehicle with a mounted gun dramatically increases your firepower, for example, while those who choose the comparatively fragile ambulance can give the team a much-needed health top-up.

SludgeRunner

Even if you choose the most kitted-out vehicles, you’re never close to invincible thanks to a range of environmental threats. Muddy terrain will stop you in your tracks as your tires lose traction, giving the many, many sludge zombies the opportunity to surround your vehicle and chip away at its overall health.

Most of the cars are equipped with an in-built winch that can be deployed to get you out of sticky situations with a well-placed pull, leading to delightfully frantic moments that have you crying out to your squad, desperately trying to free yourself before foes arrive.

Vehicles require plenty of fuel too, which has to be obtained from your environment and manually topped up whenever needed. There are generally a few cans of it in most locations, but the constant threat of running dry and ending up stranded without a ride adds a nice extra layer of tension.

I do wish the campaign was a little longer with a few more maps (I managed to roll credits in just under ten hours), but there are at least plenty of reasons to replay. There are four classes to choose from, each fulfilling the standard damage-dealing, healing, support, and tank archetypes with substantial ability trees to unlock and some unique specializations.

On top of this, the weapon arsenal is pretty meaty with a varied selection of assault rifles, shotguns, SMGs, pistols, sniper rifles, and so on - not to mention some powerful limited-use heavy gear that you can only acquire in the maps themselves.

In addition to an overall power level that affects its damage, each gun can be fully customized with a modest but impactful selection of attachments. They all come with corresponding visual upgrades, lending a solid sense of progression to kitting out your favorite gear.

When you max out a gun’s level, you can even ‘prestige’ it a la Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, resetting its unlocks in exchange for unique skins. Sadly, leveling everything up is especially grindy and would require you to undertake multiple full playthroughs for each gun. This can be frustrating, basically locking you into committing to a specific one, as high-level weapons are essential for tackling hard and very hard difficulty missions. I’m optimistic that this can be addressed in a post-launch balance update, though.

Some new special enemy types also wouldn’t go amiss. Don’t get me wrong, there's an okay selection here already, but the current roster of ‘tanky ones’, ‘exploding ones’, ‘fiery ones’, and so on isn’t anything that hasn’t been done countless times before in other zombie games. At least they’re endlessly satisfying to mow down.

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Accessibility features

John Carpenter's Toxic Commando doesn’t have a dedicated accessibility menu or many standard options like colorblind modes, but there are still a few useful settings.

The game features subtitles by default, which can be increased or decreased in size as needed. You can also add a background to make the subtitles a little easier to read. Keyboard and mouse controls can be fully customized on PC, and controller players have the option to enable aim assist.

How I reviewed John Carpenter's Toxic Commando

I played more than ten hours of John Carpenter's Toxic Commando on PC, which is a 5070 Ti-powered model from retailer Scan. It has a compact Corsair 2000d RGB Airflow case, Asus ROG Strix B860-I motherboard, Intel Core Ultra 7 265K processor, a 2TB WD Black SN770 SSD, 32GB of DDR5 Corsair Vengeance RAM, and an Asus Nvidia 5070 Ti graphics card.

These specs were more than sufficient to run the game on its high visual preset with DLSS set to native. During my time with the game, I completed the entire campaign and experienced a mixture of both solo and co-op play, forcing a handful of my TechRadar colleagues to go commando and face the sludge legion.

I frequently compared my experience to my playthroughs of other zombie shooters, including the likes of Left 4 Dead, Back 4 Blood, and World War Z, in addition to other games by Saber Interactive, like MudRunner and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2.

First reviewed February-March 2026