The cyberpunk future is never going to be a nice place. Life is cheap, corporations dominate all, and the sky is blotted out by spires insulating the rich from those living in the gutters. The transhumanism bit is always a nice perk, of course, but enhanced senses and strength don’t really make up for what’s been lost, especially when upgrades are pricey and money is scarce. Cyberpunk is a techno-nightmare, and every year its horrors are a little less far-fetched. Even so, Johnny Turbo’s chainsaw-leg goes a long way towards making that future at least a little bit attractive.
Turbo Overkill is a high-speed FPS kill-fest in a techno-dystopia being taken over by the AI Syn. The city of Paradise has been overrun by Syn (subtlety is not welcome here) and Johnny Turbo is after the bounty on its virtual head. His advantage is that a job gone wrong has left him more metal than flesh and bone, and now Johnny can not only move at lightning speed but also packs a chainsaw in his leg. Which, contrary to all logic, is a weapon of awesome destructive power rather than self-mutilation. While Johnny gets a strong array of satisfyingly powerful guns the chainsaw leg is a go-to killing machine due to the way it combines with the slide, in that the faster you’re moving the more damage it causes. To round it out, each limb has a certain number of augment slots and the chainsaw-slide can be set to grant a little bit of health back per kill. There are plenty of big, vicious cyber-baddies that you’ll want to get nowhere near but they’re almost always backed up by at least a few minions, encouraging incredibly mobile combat as the corridors and arenas quickly transform into slaughter-houses.
In addition to the fast, intense combat that’s a hallmark of the retro-FPS, Turbo Overkill also leans heavily on the exploration aspect with big, intricate levels designed to put Johnny’s platform skills to good use. His incredible speed combines with a double-jump and a dash ability to help search out secrets in levels that are as intricate vertically as they are horizontally. Add in augments like the ability to kick off a wall for yet another jump plus a generous number of jump-pads and the city of Paradise almost lives up to its name in regards to platforming. Plus one of the augments is a shockwave attack when falling from a high enough altitude, and it’s immensely satisfying to enter a room by dropping into the center of a horde to make them erupt in cheerfully grisly blood fountains.
Turbo Overkill has been in Early Access for over a year at this point and today finally sees the last part of the story slotting into place to bring it to a 1.0 release, not to mention co-op multiplayer. The release brings with it an all-new trailer, giving a look at the action from opening city to outer space. It’s going to require a whole lot of killing to cleanse Syn from the world, and as of today Turbo Overkill is charged up and released for a full-speed cyberpunk chainsaw rampage.
