Turbo Overkill Preview – Neon Chainsaws

I’ve played a lot of boomer shooters in my time and Turbo Overkill might be one of my favorites. It was released on early access earlier this year, but this is the first time I’ve gotten a chance to try it out and I instantly clicked with it. Set in a grimey, cyberpunk world Turbo Overkill takes inspiration from DOOM and has you playing as Johnny Turbo as he tries to destroy an AI. The plot is light, the action is heavy and the music is always thumping in your ears. The standout feature is your slide ability, as the moment you trigger it your character jets forward Vanquish style and unveils a chainsaw within their leg to carve up enemies with. It’s an instantly addicting maneuver to do, especially since it’s infinite, and I was doing things like rocket jumping in the air to then come crashing down with the chainsaw leg. I got a brief tease of the grappling hook which felt effortless to use as I swung around the level, and the game just impressed me overall with its smooth movement options. You have a lot of ways to move around the arena and they all blend seamlessly into each other. The weapons are all pretty fun to use, each featuring their own equally satisfying secondary ability, but the swarm missiles from your robotic arm quickly became my favorite.

What I wasn’t expecting was a sort of RPG element to the game, where you can use money to not only buy upgrades for your guns, but for your cybernetics as well. There are augments to find that add modifiers to your loadout like increasing damage or letting you bounce off walls. One combo I instantly gravitated towards was equipping two augments that gave health and armor on chainsaw slide kills. I was already abusing that mechanic, why not get rewarded for it? I don’t think there was ever a moment I wasn’t at, or near max health during my demo once I got that. Every element in Turbo Overkill just gels perfectly with one another and you don’t have to wait to play it, since the first episode is out now and with the second coming in October. The final episode and full release is set to arrive early next year.