Besides creating many iconic cult movies like Halloween, The Thing, and Escape From New York, you may also be aware that filmmaker John Carpenter is an ardent fan of video games. Has he then finally decided to make one? Well, yes and no. Toxic Commando may bear his name in the title, but the real credit goes to developer and publisher Saber Interactive. Still, after playing this apocalyptic co-op first-person shooter for the first time at Gamescom 2025, I see how it bears his influence. This isn’t just a cynical marketing stunt to put his name on the box.
“We wanted to kind of tap into those ’80s horror and over-the-top action films like Big Trouble in Little China, so we reached out to Carpenter, who was like, ‘Yeah, this is great,'” said Saber’s chief creative officer, Tim Willits. “He’s played the game with us, he’s helped with some concepts, he’s been good about saying, ‘Focus on these types of things when you tell this type of story.'”
It may be more accurate to describe Carpenter as having more of a consulting role rather than being deeply involved in development. But his role is also more hands-on at least in some areas: The director famously composed some of the themes for his own influential movies, and has written music that will be incorporated into the game.
While not directly referencing Carpenter’s back catalog, the story of Toxic Commando, about a corporation seeking a new limitless power source that unwittingly awakens an evil entity, is totally the kind of idea I can imagine he might have conceived of in the peak of his filmmaking career–this evil is even named the Sludge God, which is as unapologetically B-movie as it gets.
Our four-player session was less focused on the story than it was on just diving into the gameplay itself. Willits recommends the best way to catch up on the backstory is through the comic book prequels Saber has produced in partnership with Dark Horse Comics.
“The story is very fun and quirky, but it does not get in the way,” he said, though those who do want to get immersed in the story can also opt to solo the game with computer-controlled bots as teammates. That should provide a better way to appreciate the moment-to-moment chatter with the other titular commandos–the laid-back Walter, the nihilistic Ruby, the empathetic Cato, and the natural leader Astrid–each played by small-screen actors whose likenesses have also been faithfully rendered in-game.
Although a session cannot have everyone picking the same character, they’re not bound to specific roles on the team like in, say, a hero shooter. Every player gets to have their own personal journey in terms of loadout and classes. The latter mostly refers to the mutant abilities you have equipped from a device strapped to your chest that’s keeping you from being corrupted by the Sludge God’s infection. Usually, this means being able to drop area-of-effect fields that your buddies can stay in to improve their defense or offense, the kind of boost you’d want when facing down hordes of undead. There’s also no restriction if everyone in your party decides to play a support class, for example.
Obviously, when it’s a co-op FPS that involves blasting zombies, thoughts of Left 4 Dead aren’t far behind. However, the shooter I ended up thinking about as we took on our demo mission was actually Halo, Saber having also had a hand in that game’s anniversary edition remaster. Not only was the map we roamed a pretty large sandbox, with plenty of optional areas to explore and also mark with pins, we could also get around in vehicles. These are randomized in each session, so you might come across a pick-up truck or an ambulance van, or find an armored vehicle where someone can get onto the gun turret while the camera pulls back in third person for the driver. It has the same joy as piling onto a Warthog with your buddies.
There are some considerations to keep in mind with the vehicles you drive, though–they need gas to run, so you might need to find fuel to top up the tank. A turret also has limited ammo, so you won’t be able to use it indefinitely. Some vehicles might not have the tires to handle going up some steep and muddy slopes, and it’s impressive how Toxic Commando essentially makes use of the tech seen in Saber’s off-road driving sims like Mudrunner and Snowrunner to give vehicles different capabilities in a variety of situations. Again, the armored vehicles are the most capable for getting around, and come with a very handy winch that can be used for pulling down barriers in the way.
The real technical star of the show, however, is Saber’s proprietary Swarm Engine. Originally created for World War Z’s huge zombie hordes, and impressively utilized for the swarm of Tyranids in Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2, Willits said the engine has evolved to even greater heights in Toxic Commando.
“The environments are much larger than they were in World War Z, so the swarms come in all sorts of different directions,” he explained. “We have more super creatures, special monsters, but just like our upgrade progression system in World War Z and Space Marine 2, you have different classes and you can upgrade your abilities, loadouts, even some of your passives.”
That also ensures there’s never a dull moment. When following the objective of destroying specific tendril nodes so that we could reach a church, we encountered a swarm of undead. But even when exploring other points of interest, the engine keeps the map populated with enemies so that there’s always something to shoot or contend with while trying to find loot and stock up on supplies.
At times, the non-stop hordes can get overwhelming. Case in point: Toward the end of the mission, we reached the church and had to endure a siege of undead coming from all directions. Willits said Toxic Commando is probably the most difficult game the studio has made in years, given how much the action can ramp up. But that difficulty is managed in real-time by the Swarm Engine’s AI director that’s designed to also make you feel like the odds are against you.
“It keeps track of who you’re fighting and balances the difficulty,” he explained. “When you’re playing and feel like, ‘My god, I’m not going to survive,’ and then you just pull through at the last second, a lot of that is the AI director.”
John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando is coming soon to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.
