[PREVIEW] Turbo Overkill, cyber chainsaw massacre

“Oh, another Retro-FPS as usual…” readers of little faith will say. If we can understand the feeling of weariness with a genre that sometimes seems far too abundant, make no mistake: Turbo Overkill is not a Retro-FPS like the others. Not only is it an ultra-violent game in which you blast through dozens of enemies while spinning through the air like a murderous Philippe Candeloro, but it’s also the only FPS in which the protagonist has a cybernetic chainsaw leg. And that is worth a look.

Gender : Retro-FPS | Developer: Trigger Happy Interactive | Publisher: Apogee Entertainment | Platforms: Steam, gog | Price : 20€ | Recommended configuration: 3+ GHz CPU, 8 cores / 16 GB of RAM / Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 or Radeon RX 6500 XT | Languages ​​: English only | Release date : April 22, 2022 in early access | Duration : about 5h (1 chapter)

Preview made on an editor version.

Paradise 2077

Late at night, a few silhouettes stand out in a poorly lit alley. They are a group of cyborgs controlled by a powerful boss, a computer entity named Syn who desires the same thing as all bosses: world domination. The band of hooligans wanders aimlessly among the fluorescent neon lights and the thick fog of pollution of Paradise, a futuristic and dystopian city ironically baptized. Suddenly, a roar is heard, louder and louder. Before the small group even has time to understand, a deluge of blades and pellets falls on it, skinning, cutting, exploding each fellow with many shards of hemoglobin. The last cyborg barely has the opportunity to see his adversary, when he finds himself cut in two by a chainsaw leg: his assassin is none other than Johnny Turbo, mercenary half-man half-machine, determined to stop Syn. And incidentally, protagonist of Turbo Overkill.

As you will have understood, the minimalist scenario of Turbo Overkill does not break a duck’s three legs, but it nevertheless legitimizes the massacres which will never cease to happen throughout the adventure. Because this is the essential concept of the game: kill, destroy, annihilate, gut, harvest a whole bunch of bad guys without asking too many questions. On paper, it offers a classic Retro FPS recipe, with its rather labyrinthine levels in which the player must find the key that opens the door of the associated color and kill hordes of bad guys appearing here and there. However, when it comes to kills, Turbo Overkill doesn’t go with the back of the spoon and gives the player a nice set of tools to spread jam all over Paradise.

Turbo Killer

First of all, Johnny is equipped with a full arsenal, ranging from a duo of magnums to a rocket launcher and a bi-class flamethrower sulphur. Each weapon has an unlockable secondary fire allowing him to vary the pleasures: homing bullets for the guns, proximity grenade for the sawed off barrel… What, associated with the famous chainsaw leg allowing him to cut his enemies by sliding at full speed? , make real massacres in the opposing ranks. But the faculties of our hero do not stop at his mastery of weapons. Basically, it is possible for him to dash and perform double jumps. Thereafter, it can be improved by giving it cybernetic increases giving it access to wall jump, wall run, or even explosive jumps. Very quickly, your character has a fairly extensive set of movement abilities, allowing him to twirl for long periods of time in the air or to cross the arenas very quickly while avoiding enemy fire. And believe me, you will need it.

Indeed, if the first levels seem quite easy, the difficulty increases drastically as one evolves in the campaign. After a while, mastering your movement skills, in addition to your arsenal, becomes necessary to survive increasingly complicated encounters, sometimes made up of several dozen enemies with different skills. The fights then turn into a ballet of death, in which your character flies away and narrowly passes between many projectiles, before exploding his enemies with a well-placed shot. Let it be said: Turbo Overkill is not a plane-plan FPS and it requires a lot of skill even for veterans, and this, from the difficulty 3/5. In any case, the frenzy of the fights and the many tools available to get out of complex situations give a breathtaking and really satisfying result.

The fight is not the only aspect of the game to take advantage of the different movement possibilities. Between two confrontations, you can use a vertical and aerial level design, whether during the platforming phases or to go in search of precious secret items. It can sometimes take a little racking your brains to find the right path among the many accessible platforms and other ledges, but that’s pretty rare – it’s unlikely you’ll ever get really stuck by the labyrinthine aspect of the levels. Note that Turbo Overkill strives to offer a variety of situations. One arena is filled with jump pads, the other takes the form of a skate bowl allowing you to gain speed with the chainsaw leg, while certain passages place you in control of a vehicle. In short, we do not get bored on the eight levels that lasts this version in early access.

Johnny Belle Gueule

You will have noticed it with the images illustrating the test, Turbo Overkill shines with its very successful artistic direction. Here we find old-fashioned patterns and textures mixed with more modern lighting effects. The cyberpunk world, while fairly classic, is beautifully depicted and matched with neon lights, holograms, screens, and myriad thoughtful details. Impossible not to mention this level in which the forest setting is actually made up of screens that our bullets can destroy, thus revealing a much less friendly environment… Moreover, the electro-metal soundtrack perfectly punctuates the massacres, even if it is a little agreed. However, we regret that the sound effects of the weapons lack punch and that the enemies have no personality. Cyborgs, armored cyborgs, TV-headed cyborgs, large robots and possessed exo-skeletons make up the opposing ranks and all lack a bit of charisma. However, let’s agree that it is difficult to give depth to enemies that we only see for a second before exploding them…

On the technical side, the game is close to flawless: it constantly runs at more than 100 FPS in 1440p and all options fully on my config – i7 12700K, RTX 3070 and 32 GB of RAM. In addition, it allows you to modify many parameters (FOV, bloom, chromatic aberration, HUD) in order to customize its experience as you see fit. Although freshly arriving in early access, Turbo Overkill is rather well finished and did not cause me to suffer the slightest bug, with the notable exception of save problems breaking the scripts and having forced me to restart certain levels from the start. Dear developers, know that the solution to this frustrating problem is very simple: stop using a checkpoint system coupled with a single save slot.

A real butcher

In early access, Turbo Overkill is already an excellent Retro FPS: pretty, varied and extremely nervous, it flatters our reptilian brain with its violent and demanding gunfights. If you’re the type to play to KILL KILL KILL and you’re not afraid to take a beating, we highly recommend it. Especially since the developers announce that the final game will feature two additional chapters as well as new weapons, new enemies and mod support.