Retro indie shooters are a dime a dozen these days and it’s harder than ever for new games in the genre to stand out in the crowd. Developed by Trigger Happy Interactive and published by Apogee Entertainment, Turbo Overkill is yet another indie retro first-person shooter, but it’s not just a run-of-the-mill FPS. From its incredible visuals to its exceedingly fast gameplay, Turbo Overkill is one of the best shooters to release in the last decade.
Players control Johnny Turbo, a cybernetically enhanced, bounty-hunting “street cleaner” who’s trying to restore a bit of his humanity. Set in the neon highrises of Paradise, Johnny is tasked with taking down Syn, a rogue AI that’s taken over the city with an army of cybernetic monstrosities and wishes to expand their territory across the galaxy. With the aid of his own AI companion S.A.M.M, Johnny blasts his way through thousands of enemies and rival bounty hunters in order to stop Syn and claim his payday.
Like other retro shooters, the narrative in Turbo Overkill is relatively simplistic, but solid writing, great vocal performances, and massive action set pieces combine for an entertaining ride. Hidden audio logs and enemy descriptions provide interesting backstories for those who wish to absorb the bigger picture, while cutscenes establish Johnny and S.A.M.M’s characters and offer plenty of hilarious interactions and even a few moments of introspection. The playful and referential tone of the game contrasts well against the over-the-top gore and grisly imagery. While the story may not keep you on the edge of your seat with twists and turns, it serves the action-packed gameplay well, while offering up some great payoffs and moments that had me grinning with glee.
As the name would lead you to believe, Turbo Overkill is a very fast game. Other retro shooters like to dial up the movement speed or the floatiness of their characters, but this game takes it to a whole other level. The action plays out at such a fast pace, that you may occasionally find yourself getting lost or turned around in the craziness, but this is never frustrating. A game like this would live or die by its frame rate and performance, and on my PC Turbo Overkill ran like an absolute dream. There were a few instances where I got stuck in a part of the environment or fell out of bounds past a reset zone, but these were few and far between, and I never lost significant progress as a result. There were zero crashes during my 14-hour playtime, the game is very polished. At times the game felt like it was on fast-forward, and it made every combat encounter that much more fun.
Movement is key, and Turbo Overkill employs just about any fun movement mechanic implemented in a shooter in the last decade. It has double jumps, rocket jumps, wall running, a grappling hook… Turbo Time is a slow-motion bullet time effect that reduces the damage you take, increases the damage you deal, and even drops health pickups from enemies all while also looking incredibly slick. But probably the most important tool is Johnny’s slide move. You see, as if being kitted out with enough weaponry for a small army isn’t enough, Johnny also has a chainsaw built into his leg. Sliding will rocket Johnny forward, damaging any enemies that are caught in his path. You can initiate the slide attack after jumping as well, so like many of the other movement mechanics, it can be used as an offensive attack or to aid in platforming challenges. The speed of the game combined with all the options they give you for traversal makes the simple act of getting around the game’s levels always engaging and fun.
The most important aspect of a shooter is the gunplay and Turbo Overkill knocks it out of the park. There’s a large arsenal complete with the tried and true classics, dual pistols, SMGs, multiple shotguns, chain gun, rocket launcher, plasma gun, a sniper rifle that allows you to telefrag enemies and even an arm-mounted micro missile launcher, and an orbital laser cannon. Each weapon’s sound effects are delightfully chunky and crisp. When combined with the after effects of the all-out carnage of battle, the insane power of the weaponry will make you feel like a cybernetic force of nature.
The gameplay goes even deeper when you get into upgrades. Killing enemies will drop Zhen which can be spent on various upgrades belonging to two major groups, weapon upgrades and gene upgrades.
Weapon upgrades will add new alternate fire modes to your existing arms that can fundamentally change how each weapon performs. For instance, when upgraded, the chain gun will transform into a flamethrower, or the dual pistols will gain the ability to automatically lock on to enemies and fire out a large and damaging energy blast. Gene upgrades on the other hand will augment parts of Johnny’s body allowing for enhanced combat or movement abilities. These can range from turning your double jump into a triple jump, increasing the movement speed even more, to enabling enemies that are killed with the chainsaw slide to drop health and armor pickups. Both the weapon upgrades and gene upgrades allow you to focus on preferred styles of play, and are acquired at a fairly nice pace throughout the game. There were times when I would come across multiple machines with nothing new to purchase which seemed a little odd in the moment, but ultimately it didn’t affect the overall enjoyment of the game. If anything, the deliberate withholding of upgrades made sure that every new chapter felt like it bestowed some new toy or mechanic to play with which in turn made me always excited to push on and see what new upgrades awaited me in the next level.
There are also a few missions in Turbo Overkill where you get to drive vehicles like a flying car or motorcycle. These levels were a great shakeup to the gameplay. The flying car level is a bit more open-ended in its design which contrasts with the previously more linear levels leading up to it. And the motorcycle mission is a high-octane dash over destroyed roads and buildings that allow for you to stop and explore locations off the beaten path. And performing the Akira slide into enemies is endlessly fun and entertaining. The game perhaps could have used a few more of these sequences, but ultimately the missions in which these take place stand out due to their uniqueness compared to the rest of the game.
In a shooter, guns are only as good as the enemies they’re used on, and Turbo Overkill has some unique and disturbing cyber freaks to dispatch. There are plenty of standard fodder enemies that are more nuisance than threat, as well as giant killer robots and mutated creeps that will try to put you down. Most enemies will succumb to enough firepower but some enemies require specific weapons or tactics to take down. Hovering drone enemies for instance can only be damaged via a weak point that is attacked from above, or cybernetic soldiers walking around with energy shields that will explode when overloaded with the pump action shotgun’s alt fire attack. And some enemies can even provide protective shields for their allies which makes them a top priority. As the game progresses, the amount of enemies and their combinations ramp up and up until you are fighting literal armies of enemies in each level. Exploiting large numbers of enemy weaknesses becomes this lightning-fast, on-the-fly decision-making that is extremely exciting and keeps you on the edge of your seat. You may feel the overwhelming numbers closing in on you only to grapple hook into just the right position to fire off a volley of rockets that turns the tide of battle in your favor. Few games can achieve the level of exhilaration felt during combat in Turbo Overkill.
That exhilaration is put to the test during the game’s boss fights. Bosses come in different shapes and sizes, the best of which being the fights against rival bounty hunters. These challenging encounters strike a feeling closer to a 1v1 deathmatch than a traditional boss fight. Larger-scale fights require you to fend off against waves of smaller minions or counter a wide range of unique attacks over multiple phases. Some of these fights can become a bit tedious with the amount of smaller enemies you need to dispatch but the grand spectacle on display usually makes it so these are rarely ever boring encounters.
Turbo Overkill has five difficulty options, each of which modifies parameters like enemy projectile speed and damage output. Higher difficulties include extra parameters like limiting health pickups, where augments can be purchased, and even enemy movement speed. I played through the game on “Street Cleaner” which is the third option of five and featured slightly faster projectiles and slightly higher damage from enemies. Outside of two or three tricky spots, I never really experienced significant challenges to where it felt insurmountable. Most of my deaths in the first two-thirds of the game came from failed platforming more than being overwhelmed by enemy fire. After finishing the game, I went back and replayed some of the end game levels on “Serve Me Pain” which is difficulty four out of five, and this felt a bit more challenging while still feeling fair and beatable. For players unfamiliar with how to tackle playing a retro shooter, I would recommend playing on “Normal Joe” which features a base 1.0 modifier to projectile speed and enemy damage. If you are a player familiar with first-person shooters, then I would say playing on “Street Cleaner” or “Serve Me Pain” will offer up a fun level of challenge. If you are the type to put your skills to the test, then the highest difficulty “Murder Machine” with its appropriate 6.66% enemy damage modifier is the way to go.
Outside of the game’s campaign mode, Turbo Overkill offers some bonus modes to play with, like an Endless horde mode, and a custom level editor where players can create and share their own levels. Endless mode offers a number of settings you can play with to tailor the combat experience to what you would most enjoy, from randomizing arenas you fight in, to what weapons and abilities you can start with. You can repurchase and equip augments with money gained during each wave and you can even specify which music track you want to blast around to. The level editor offers a whole suite of variables to tinker with and an extensive list of objects and enemies to sculpt into the level of your dreams. Custom levels in the right hands can really extend a game’s life and replayability, and with a strong core gameplay loop like Turbo Overkill, it’s hard not to imagine players making some great custom maps.
Visually speaking, Turbo Overkill is impressively stylish. Art direction is incredibly strong using a variety of saturated colors and creative lighting. Levels almost feel color-coded which gives each one its own identity, from the harsh red of Exodus to the lush green of Toxin Refinery. The lighting allows the colors to truly pop and gives an almost glow-like quality to each level. The combination of 3D models and pixel art is a style that has been attempted in many games of this type, but I don’t think any achieve the look quite to the level of quality of Turbo Overkill. The game uses a lot of cyberpunk, sci-fi, and horror imagery throughout its levels, but each level feels uniquely its own. And some of the vistas the game presents beg you to stop and take a knee.
The level design was the other major aspect I was impressed with. Levels in Turbo Overkill are large in scale and will take a fair amount of time to get through, most levels took me between 30 and 40 minutes to complete. Players move between two modes of gameplay while exploring levels; platforming and arena-based combat. These two modes of gameplay often intersect and overlap but the environments are carefully designed around all the tools you have available. Some of the most fun you will have comes from running along a wall taking out enemies with your dual pistols, jumping on a bounce pad and skyrocketing into the air, and landing in a combat arena surrounded by enemies and using the area to your advantage. Levels are at times very tall which not only gives off a grand scope, but it adds tension and excitement to every jump you take. The freedom you are afforded from the extensive movement abilities makes it so platforming is never arduous or frustrating. Collectables and audio logs are hidden in every level which rewards those who really explore every nook and cranny with new abilities, secret levels, and story details. The level design combines with the spectacle of the visuals and the gameplay in a fantastic way, and despite a few instances of getting stuck here and there, it’s really the glue that holds the entire experience together.
The last part to touch on is the music. Initially, I wasn’t super impressed by the music, many of the tracks felt like typical electronic metal type music that is common in many retro shooters. But as the game evolves, so does the music for the better. I still don’t think any of the music tracks really stand out or get stuck in your head, but in the moment they really help amplify the energy of a fight or set a moody vibe. And as the stakes are ramped up, so too is the music with the tracks in the late game levels being some of the best in the entire game. I was particularly fond of the track from “Sunset Synesthesia” which incorporates a concert band melody for a level primary set in a casino. The music is generally epic and is as varied as the game’s visuals, I just don’t think you will be humming any of the tracks on your morning commute.
If you are a fan of first-person shooters, you need to buy and play Turbo Overkill. It has a few minor blemishes but the game is tightly crafted, gorgeous to look at, over the top, and most importantly insanely fun to play. At $25, it’s a no-brainer. Turbo Overkill is available now on PC and is expected to release on consoles at a later date.
