Turbo Overkill PS5 Review. Trigger Happy Interactive and Apogee Entertainment have finally released their bonkers arena shooter Turbo Overkill on PS5. A whole new wave of players have now been given the opportunity to slice, dice, and blast their way through three acts of visceral, crazy and hilarious missions – and I cannot recommend it enough.
Turbo Overkill Review (PS5) – Welcome to Paradise
Synth City
I’ve played many arena/boomer shooters old and new. I’ve also played a ton of the plethora of modern shooters designed to look like their counterparts of the past. This is exactly where Turbo Overkill lies and, I must admit, when I think about all of them in fondness, I’m really struggling to remember which one I had as much of a blast on as this absolute gem.
It’s like Quake, Cyberpunk 2077, Doom Eternal, Blade Runner, and a whole hell of a lot more all rolled into one brutally stylish package.
Welcome to Paradise. The protagonist’s hometown. You play as an augmented badass aptly named Johnny Turbo, returning back here to discover this cyber city overrun by a psychotic AI called Syn. Syn has mutated all of the poor folk into cyber mutants and I’m not sure what’s worse. The fact that they’ve been mutated in the first place or the fact Johnny’s back home.
Johnny is blessed with a million different ways to shred his way through all of Paradise and you can utilize them all in any weird and wild way you like to traverse through the vast and beautiful city all the while annihilating all enemies that stand in your way. It’s pretty freakin’ great if you ask me.
Forget about obstacles in Turbo Overkill. You can wall run, wall jump, dash, slide and more. Oh and don’t forget the double jump, and yes, even while you’re sliding. Which is extra effective thanks to your deadly dicing deployable chainsaw leg. That’s not a sentence I ever imagined saying that’s for sure. You do indeed have a chainsaw sheathed within your right leg, deployable at any time, and it’s as brutal and hilarious as it is fun to use.
A Chainsaw for knees? Yes please!
The sliding, parkour and wall running gives you the arena traversal of Ghostrunner and Eternal with even more speed and combinations to kill your opponents, and there are a lot of options.
The retro-cyberpunk aesthetic and soundtrack to accompany it is absolutely killer. I really like the nods to Doom’s rock/metal tunes with nasty riffs woven into the electro-synth cyberpunk songs. I honestly can’t say enough good things about them. They’re absolutely kick ass.
The songs alter or change altogether when new enemies are introduced or when you acquire a new weapon or ability to make those moments feel even more meaningful.
Soaring synths? Check. Melodic metal and killer riffs? You bet ya. Pumping drums? Abso-freakin’-lutely. Retrowave? Hell to the yeah! It even has some sick driving bass-lines with a bit of funk peppered in for good measure. Trust me. It’s all there, and it slaps.
Symphony in Red
Each level is meaningfully crafted where you’re free to explore the entire levels as you gather more abilities and so on. With the exception of a few points of no return doors or elevators on certain missions. Locked doors reminiscent of Doom serve as entrances to new areas but also shortcuts to back track or access a previous area quicker or easier.
I’m a huge fan of finding secrets and the replay-ability of old Quake/Doom games and the like, and this delivers all of that in spades. The shortcuts are sometimes a means of getting back to a previously secret area that can now be accessed with a new-found ability.
I do recommend turning aim assist off as it is far too magnetic in my opinion. I understand that it wants you to fly around the room and land shots like a killing machine, but I found myself perfectly able to pull that off with it off. It was far more rewarding after a bit of practice to land those shots without it feeling like it’s holding your hand a little too much.
No Ammo? Hurt them emotionally
The Doom Eternal-inspired mechanics, where using different abilities aid you to encourage use of everything in your arsenal, is a nice touch. Adding an ability where slide killing enemies with your chainsaw grants small amounts of armour say, like the Doom Slayers flamethrower, added that extra layer of tactical depth.
It drip feeds you extra abilities, weapons and upgrades in a very well paced way that kept me feeling impressed with what I could do at a given point in the game but feeling more and more badass as I gained them.
As you gain these extra abilities, like wall running. The arenas later in the game start to incorporate walls to run on and so on. This opens up the breadth of options you have to slice and dice your opponents as you develop your skills.
I’m really fond of the BioShock inspired vendors that allow you to upgrade said weapons, tweaks and cybernetic augments. The augments particularly reminded me of Deus Ex and Cyberpunk 2077, which was another really nice influence turned intuitive.
Get yer upgrades here!
It’s got a really great balance of making you feel like a killing machine but providing that challenge for player engagement. It’s awesome to feel as badass as you do but it does really give it to you on the hardest difficulties.
Weapons and their secondaries are all super fun, unique and satisfying to use in their own way. It’s an arsenal Doomguy would be proud of. Even your pistols secondary would make Judge Dredd himself “Quake” in his boots. Certain augments can also be used offensively you’ll be pleased to know.
There’s so many great weapons and augments in this wild ride in fact, that I’ve decided to omit a lot of the later ones from my review. That’s because I’d much rather you experience them for yourself rather than I spoil the insanity of them here. Some are best kept secret for that “Hell Yeah” moment when you acquire them for yourself.
I want you to have that same sense of surprise and hilarious reactions I had using them. I promise you will! One early example I will give is the Twincendiary. A mini-gun that hails a barrage of bullets upon your foes, unless that is, you’re a bit too close for comfort. Then just feel free to use it as Flamethrower to roast your victims instead.
Splice to meet you
There was some cheeky check pointing that conveniently placed me with low health; where I’d be dead in one shot on the high difficulty I was on, right in front of an enemy mid shot with my back turned.
It sometimes took a few respawns and trial and error just to get out of the situation. Luckily, I didn’t ever find myself completely stuck that way. However, I do imagine you could well be if it’s a bit more cheekily saved.
That’s about as much of a negative thing I can say about the time I had with this fantastic game to be honest, although the story is pretty thin. It didn’t take me long to forget why exactly I was shredding hordes of mutants and at times some areas are a bit bloated. However, I was having such a blast I didn’t care all that much.
It’s an arena shooter first and foremost, and that’s what people come for: having an absolute blast while killing everything in sight. Doing all that to a blood-pumping soundtrack with this vibe is absolutely all you need.
Good ol'(new?) fashioned fun
Overall, Turbo Overkill is the perfect marriage of all games in this particular genre new and old, taking everything you love about the originals whilst introducing features you see from the latest greatest entries. Combine this with features you see in other genres such as RPGs, Turbo Overkill makes one for one hell of a thrill ride. If you have any interest in boomer/arena shooters, or are an avid fan already, this is one game you simply must add to your collection.
Turbo Overkill is due out on February 14, 2025
Review Code kindly provided by Apogee Entertainment.