Turbo Overkill Preview

Did you play the recent DOOM titles and think, “Hmm, this doesn’t have enough over-the-top action for me?”. Were you disappointed with the severe lack of chainsaw-leg augmentations in Cyberpunk 2077? If so, Turbo Overkill might just be the game you’ve been waiting for all your life. Taking both the words in its title incredibly seriously, this game is most definitely fast, and most definitely brutal.

Inspired by boomer-shooters of old like DOOM and Quake, and with a healthy dose of Fifth Element and Blade Runner vibes in the mix, Turbo Overkill feels like a cyberpunk sandbox of death and destruction. It’s quick, violent, and satisfying. Each of the weapons have a varied style of use, allowing you to flick between them in the heat of battle, switching up the punishment you deal in a gratifying way.

With an ever-growing list of guns and abilities you gain whilst you progress through the levels, the action comes quick as you face hordes of cyborg enemies that wouldn’t look out of place in a System Shock game. Luckily the level design lends itself well to the sheer maneuverability of your character, Johnny Turbo. Being able to initially slide, double jump, and dash in mid-air, you start the game off with plenty of means to traverse the arenas, both in the tighter corridors and the more vertical, open areas.

My, my, what great big teeth you have!

The graphics toe the line between old-school shooters from the ‘90s, but with some more polish around the edges, creating a nice blend of pixel-style 3D environments and effects coupled with some great lighting and enemy design. It reminds me of Valheim in that way, as if emulating an original PlayStation game, but with the vastness and ambition of a modern release. The result of Turbo Overkill’s neon-infused level design reflecting off your weapons and the weather effects also ties the ribbon neatly on the whole cyberpunk vibe.

Beyond the satisfying smatter of your guns blasting and your chainsaw whirring is the great soundtrack. As synth-laden as you’d expect from a game with cyberpunk aesthetics, but with a solid dose of heavy guitars and thundering drums to keep your pulse high during the firefights. It’s clear that there’s influence from Mick Gordon’s DOOM (2016) and DOOM Eternal soundtracks in the composition, which really adds to Turbo Overkill’s action sequences.

If you can pull yourself away from diving around the levels and getting lost in the fights, there are plenty of secrets to find, with cassettes and tech-chips in hard to reach or hidden areas, as well as massive health and armour pick-ups to reward you. To keep things interesting, you can further enhance yourself with augments you can find throughout the levels or buy at vending machines with the cash you gain from killing enemies, granting extra bonuses like picking up armour for every kill with your chainsaw leg, or wall running.

Hope you boys don't mind me dropping in on you like this.

Turbo Overkill sets a great precedent for Early Access. Whilst it does not have the content of a full-length title yet, it provides an experience that both looks and feels like it could be a finished game. I didn’t run into the usual array of pesky bugs or crashes that plague many other Early Access titles, and although the graphics might not be the most intensive, it’s still incredibly well optimised. I didn’t drop any noticeable frames or have to sacrifice visuals for the sake of performance.

As developer Trigger Happy Interactive’s debut title, Turbo Overkill’s current release provides a nice little piece of the game with the introductory episode, and yields great promise for what’s to come. The only question left to ask is this: why the need for so much gruesome graphic violence? In the illustrious words of Quentin Tarantino, “Because it’s so much fun!”