We've been keeping a close eye on John Carpenter's Toxic Commando for a while - an "intense FPS" that's launching on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S today (March 12th) along with a bunch of other platforms.
In the trailers, it's painted itself as being a four-player World War Z (and Left 4 Dead) style experience, and that makes sense considering it's powered by the same engine (the Swarm Engine) behind WWZ and even Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2.
But is it any good? Well, the first reviews have been going live for Toxic Commando over the past 24 hours, and the scores are a bit all over the place to be honest! We'll share some of the reviews we've found for it down below:
TheGamer (4/5)
John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando focuses on delivering a very specific pleasure. Four buddies, a towering horde of undead, and a soundtrack that sounds like it escaped from something covered in dust in your basement. It identifies that particular itch perfectly, and it leans into it with a sense of gleeful, gory enthusiasm.
DualShockers (8/10)
In its best moments, John Carpenter's Toxic Commando is an unbelievably good time. Even in its worst moments, it's still a pretty solid zombie shooter with some great set pieces. That being said, any problems with the game can and probably will be fixed in time. The janky bots and frustrating solo player experience definitely make things a little rough around the edges, but underneath that is a fantastic game that will absolutely exceed your expectations if you give it a chance.
TechRadar (4/5)
John Carpenter's Toxic Commando is a satisfying spiritual successor to World War Z and a moreish co-op zombie shooter with enough new mechanics to stand out. The shift towards larger, more open maps and the addition of vehicles are both enjoyable twists that add more gameplay possibilities than ever and, although the campaign is a little brief, there’s plenty of room for the game to grow like the studio’s previous effort.
Noisy Pixel (7.5/10)
John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando is a polished co-op zombie shooter that prioritizes satisfying gameplay over originality. It delivers massive undead hordes, strong weapon feedback, and chaotic defense sequences that shine when played with friends. While the story and characters are shallow and some progression systems need refinement, the core gameplay loop of exploring open maps, gathering resources, and surviving overwhelming waves of zombies remains consistently fun.
GamesRadar (3.5/5)
What Toxic Commando does, it does very well – but most of it has already been seen elsewhere. Carving through zombies is fun, but by failing to leverage the idea of superpowered protagonists, the threat of fatigue after completing the story for the first time looms large, which isn't ideal for an online game like this.
CGM (6.5/10)
At the end of the day, John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando is a competent zombie horde shooter with solid gunplay. Sadly, all the elements that are in place to make the game feel distinct, such as the winch, its open-world and RPG-style loot system, instead leave the game feeling bloated and tedious.
GameReactor (6/10)
It's yet another shooter in an already overcrowded genre and despite Carpenter's name and the (at times) beautiful aesthetics, there's nothing here that stands out or makes you react. Fun in small doses? Absolutely. But something you'll be talking about in a year's time? Hardly.
As you can see, there are definitely some divisive feelings about John Carpenter's Toxic Commando as things stand, and it'll be interesting to see how it fares with the actual playerbase once the game releases later today. For what it's worth, the game's Metacritic score currently sits on 74 for PS5, 74 for PC and 72 for Xbox at the time of writing.
If you fancy grabbing it for yourself, the lowest-priced version is a very reasonable £34.99 / $39.99 on the Xbox Store, or you can get the Blood Edition featuring a Season Pass and a pack of cosmetic DLC.