Turbo Overkill Early Access Impressions


Turbo Overkill seems like a loving homage to retro-FPS games of the past, but it’s actually a game that carries a remarkable story. Its two-person indie game development team, Happy Trigger Interactive, was among the people who helped start such famous game developers as id Software and Remedy Entertainment, creators of DOOM and Max Payne respectively. Turbo Overkill is a game that has a vision with experienced hands to create it.

There is a lot of excess in Turbo Boost. The people who created it certainly didn’t hold back their ideas, resulting in a game that feels like Blade Runner has gone DOOM with Robocop nuggets in the mix. You have relentless enemies that can kill you if you’re slow, bottomless pits you can fall into, and a dangerous cyberpunk environment filled with glowing neon lights and a lack of respect for human life. Fortunately, you have an arsenal of extremely deadly but over-the-top weapons, including a chainsaw leg that makes you an opponent for any monster in your path.

With only two people doing Turbo Overkill, can it really give gamers the great FPS game they deserve? Let’s find out.

Turbo Overkill is an early access game at the time of this writing. It’s understandable that there are a few bugs and issues that need to be fixed. While they don’t harm the game at all, they can be incredibly annoying and even frustrating at worst. I experienced falling through the map without dying and once needed to restart a level because an area remained locked with no way to enter even after defeating all enemies. And I saw the game crash once. But all this hardly deterred me from playing Turbo Overkill.

I can describe the gameplay of Turbo Overkill as a first person shooter. The protagonist is incredibly fragile. A few good hits are enough to knock him down, which encourages him to constantly move around to dodge incoming fire. It does an incredibly good job of making me feel like a badass moving around while blasting enemies. I could even slide towards them with my chainsaw leg to rip them apart while gaining health and shields from my upgrades.

Turbo Overkill features a diverse selection of weapons. A big part of the appeal of the game is being able to choose between a variety of different toys to kill your enemies with. You have your dual guns which can auto-lock on enemy faces. You have your double barreled shotgun which can spit out sticky grenade launchers. You have your minigun which can turn into a flamethrower. Almost all weapons except the Rocket Launcher have an alternate fire mode that can expand their use. The arsenal is not yet complete in Early Access and more weapons will be added soon.

Enemies in Turbo Overkill are quite varied but punishing. They turn the level into a living hell where you frequently have to dodge to stay alive. Some of them can be really tough to fight, especially in small areas where you don’t have much space to move around. Although Turbo Overkill’s Steam page mentioned multiple bosses, there was only one real boss at the end of Early Access.

Despite Turbo Overkill’s carnage and debauchery, it’s not brainless and requires a degree of strategy in the shooter. You will die a lot even on normal difficulties and it is best to try different approaches if you are having difficulty.

Turbo Overkill Early Access - Review

As an Early Access game, Turbo Overkill can currently be completed in just under 8 hours. Each level lasts around an hour and the level designs are pretty clever. There are quite a few platforming in the game that required precise movements. Sometimes level design can be quite confusing as it was hard to understand or exactly the game wanted me to go. There are times when there is a clear marker of which direction I should be heading, but for the most part I was encouraged to look around the nooks and crannies to figure out exactly where I needed to jump.

The level environment can be just as deadly as the enemies themselves. There’s this train level near the end of Early Access where you can be killed immediately by landing on the sides of the train due to incoming structures. Another level takes place on rooftops where dodging at the wrong time can result in a fatal fall. There’s a particular level with the saws that you have to platform where if the game detects your hitbox hitting one of the saws, it’s instant death.

The neon-lit background of Paradise where the game takes place gives off a strong cyberpunk feel. It’s reminiscent of the 80s vision of what the future would look like. Although the story didn’t really hook me, I was interested in the environment and the world of Turbo Overkill.

Turbo Overkill isn’t very demanding and I could run it at maximum graphics settings with my RX 5500 XT (4GB) while even recording my gameplay. It’s clear that Trigger Happy Interactive focused more on the fun than the graphics and it pays off wonderfully.

Turbo Overkill Early Access - Review

Even in Early Access, I can say that Turbo Overkill is going to be a good game. I would love to see the full vision of Turbo Kill as envisioned by Scott Miller and Sam Prebble. Right now, the game could still use a bit of ironing, but it’s polished well enough to give it a good recommendation.

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