Turbo Overkill is a fast-paced, cyberpunk-style first-person shooter developed by Trigger Happy Interactive and published by Apogee Entertainment (Rise of the Triad). It’s a never-stopping homage to the likes of DOOM or Quake, with health pickups, hidden armor, super fast movement and hell of gore. I got to check out a preview build of the game, to get a little taste of what Turbo Overkill is all about. The answer is blowing things up, turns out.
Turbo Overkill Preview
As far as the preview build I played is concerned, Turbo Overkill isn’t swinging for the premise fences. You’re a grumpy bald man with robotic appendages who smokes cigars and seems to be out on some kind of mission. With chainsaws equipped under his kneecaps and the ability to maneuver around with inhuman prowess, Johnny Turbo is a Doomslayer type bathed in neon light.
Everything I expected out of Turbo Overkill is pretty much what I got. The action is fast and responsive, the laws of physics scarcely apply, and there are tons of intense firefights. The weapons were a little on the standard side, but in all fairness a lot of the alternative fire choices spiced things up a lot. From there, it was a matter of navigating the DOOM-like maze halls and unlocking doors by killing all the weird-looking baddies.
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It’s kind of a mess visually, if only because I couldn’t tell you what most of the enemies looked like. There were a few different humanoid ones with distinct weapons, a big guy I could only describe as a grey mass of gunmeat and some blue guys that hopped around like spiders. There’s an interesting artistic gimmick going on here that does great work for the environment, but doesn’t do the enemies much justice.
Luckily the visual noise doesn’t interfere with the not dying part, since the projectiles and attacks you have to avoid are pretty easy to grok. And that’s good because you move super fast, which is only made more complex with a sliding command that brandishes the ol’ chainsaw kneecaps. I found myself sliding through groups of enemies to save ammo on occasion, and that was pretty rad.
If you’re looking for a new, but familiar shooter, then it seems like Turbo Overkill could fit that craving. There isn’t anything here that stands out as unique, but it runs great, handles like a dream and certainly activates the lizard brain parts of the player. I’d like to see more, especially since the game’s Steam page notes things like upgrades not present in the demo build, so perhaps those bits of connective tissue add a little more to building a distinct identity. For now, I’ll go with chainsaw kneecaps as the big highlight.
