John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando review – from the director of The Thing

If you’re a fan of old school 80s horror and sci-fi movies, you’ll know exactly who John Carpenter is and so you’ll probably also appreciate this Xbox 360 era action throwback.

John Carpenter is one of the most acclaimed directors in the history of genre cinema, having been responsible for the likes of Halloween, Escape from New York, The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China, and They Live. He hasn’t made a new movie in over a decade, but he does still make new music, having previously composed the soundtracks for many of his films. All that is common knowledge, but what you may not know is that he’s also a big fan of video games.

It’s not something he talks about a lot, which may be just as well given he lists Sonic Unleashed, Jak And Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, Fallout 76, and Dead Space as amongst his favourites. That may not be a very encouraging list but none of those have anything in common with this new game, by Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 developer Saber Interactive.

Despite Carpenter’s love for gaming, he’s had very little direct involvement with the industry. He consulted on and narrated 2011 horror-themed first person shooter F.E.A.R. 3, but beyond that all he’s done before is the soundtrack for the grossly underappreciated Sentinel Returns, from 1998. Thankfully, he also worked on the soundtrack for Toxic Commando, although we’re dubious as to how much involvement he had with the rest of it.

Beyond the music, the only other thing Carpenter is specifically described as doing for Toxic Commando is the story – although he didn’t write the script (we’re glad to know, because it’s awful). This certainly isn’t the sort of game you’d expect him to make, based on either his filmography or his list of favourite games, but if Carpenter is still pawning noobs online at the age of 78 then more power to him, but we’re not convinced any of this was actually his idea.

There’s a superficial similarity to F.E.A.R., but in most respects this is a fairly standard Left 4 Dead style co-op title. Rather than the tense, slow-paced horror game you might have imagined, Toxic Commando is a surprisingly old-fashioned co-op shooter that if it weren’t for the graphics could easily be mistaken for a late era Xbox 360 game. And that includes the almost monochrome colour scheme and obnoxiously unpleasant soldier types that talk and act like surly teenagers.

The plot involves drilling into the Earth’s core and unleashing a Sludge God that infects a corner of the US with its goop and turns everyone that touches it into a zombie. Your group of four mercenaries become the only ones that can put a stop to it and… that’s about all that matters for the plot, other than they get weedy superpowers along the way.

There’s a decent variety in terms of mission objectives, although a lot of the game boils down to destroying sludge roots and then getting ready for a timed siege. The latter is a lot of fun (as long as you win) as the hordes of zombies are very large – almost on par with Days Gone – and you’ve usually got a range of defences, from electric fences to machinegun turrets, that you can repair with a collected item; although these are frustrating rare and going out of your way to collect them can take a long time.

Everything in Toxic Commando is competent but nothing about it is original or surprising. The gunplay is solid and although you might have expected some more sci-fi style weaponry all the guns are a lot of fun to empty into a sea of the undead. You also have a variety of vehicles you can commandeer, some of which are military and have a turret (that you have to keep topped up with fuel and ammo) and others of which are civilian and can be triggered to explode on a short timer.

All the levels are small open world environments, filled with optional items to try and find and collect, including multiple types of in-game currency, which are used to upgrade your weapons and characters between missions. There are four class types, although any character can be any one of them. Unfortunately, the skill trees are very unexciting, despite the fact that technically you can use magic.

That’s not quite as interesting as it sounds, as the two most fantastical classes just use a forcefield or shoot area of effect projectiles, while the other two are a medic and the ability to use a drone. Any resentment at picking the boring one is soon lost though, when you realise all the abilities only last for a scant few seconds and take an eternity to cooldown again.

Toxic Commando is… okay. It gives every impression of being patched together from – or perhaps it started as a sequel to – Saber’s earlier World War Z game, although it is better than that. It’s still not a paragon of originality but there are some relatively unusual elements and the whole Left 4 Dead clone concept is so old-fashioned now that it’s become a bit of rarity.

It does feel like a game out of time, but the presentation is a lot better than you might expect given the mid-budget price, which helps to mollify all the obvious concerns about its short length, terrible script, and general lack of new ideas. It’s even relatively playable on your own. We wouldn’t advise buying it if that’s the only way you’re going to play it, but while the AI compatriots are useless at handling objectives they are perfectly capable when it comes to fighting zombies.

Our biggest complaint is that the music is the only way you can tell that John Carpenter had anything to do with it, which seems a terrible waste given his movie talents and that he does have an interest in games. On the scale of his movies this isn’t down there with Ghosts Of Mars but it doesn’t even reach the level of In the Mouth of Madness, let alone one of the really good ones.

Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox Series X/S, and PC
Price: £34.99
Publisher: Focus Entertainment
Developer: Saber Interactive
Release Date: 12th March 2026
Age Rating: 18

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