Is John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando Worth Playing?

Game Overview.

A Great Game With Friends, but Not So Much Alone

John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando is a great game to play with friends, but it is not much fun to play by yourself. While the AI companions are pretty good, the problem is that certain mechanics really require human players, such as correctly activating defences and refuelling the truck. The AI can manage simpler things, such as manning turrets, somewhat, but there is still a considerable difference between playing with AI companions and playing with other people.

The story is decent, but as a single-player experience, I honestly don’t think it would have kept me hooked. When playing with others, however, the story becomes more like icing on the cake, because the enjoyment comes from the gameplay and working together.

Even then, depending on whether you are playing with friends or randoms, matches can go on for an excessively long time, which is not always ideal, especially when you don’t have an excessive amount of time to dedicate to a single session.

A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand

The maps are huge, and there are plenty of rewards to discover, so some players understandably want to explore every nook and cranny. Others, however, just want to get on with the narrative and move on to the next chapter, and I found that in nearly every group of randoms I played with, there was a clear split between those who wanted to explore everything and those who just wanted to get on with the game.

Neither group was necessarily wrong, but a house divided against itself cannot stand, and I found that runs were often more difficult and less enjoyable than they should have been because of it. Some players would go off on their own to explore, while others would race ahead and try to push the story towards its conclusion, leaving the group divided between people who wanted entirely different things from the same match.

This is one of the biggest problems with playing Toxic Commando with randoms, because while the game itself is great fun, you really do need to be willing to go along with what the rest of the group wants to do. If you prefer doing your own thing, or have limited time and simply want to progress through the campaign, you may find the experience considerably more frustrating than it needs to be.

Fantastic Combat and Some Brilliant Wave Defence

Visually, Toxic Commando is fantastic, the gameplay is great, and the combat is really fun. Driving vehicles is also very rewarding, but I must admit that the parts I enjoyed most were the wave defence sections, where you have to defend an outpost or objective against increasingly large numbers of enemies.

I loved these sections, especially when we were using everything we could throw at the enemy and they just kept coming. There was something immensely enjoyable about having to make use of everything available to survive the waves, and these sections were easily among my favourite parts of the entire game.

In fact, Toxic Commando is one of the best standalone, for lack of a better word, “Call of Duty Zombies” experiences out there. I would go as far as saying it is almost on par with Call of Duty Zombies itself, and that is high praise coming from me, because I consider Call of Duty Zombies to be the best example of what the genre has to offer.

I also enjoyed the classes, abilities and weapons, and when you combine all of those elements with the visuals, driving and wave defence sections, there is a lot about Toxic Commando that I genuinely enjoyed.

Saber Interactive Know What They Are Doing

Saber Interactive are good at making these types of games, and they have already proven that with titles such as World War Z and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. They have a history of making fantastic horde-based games, so it is hardly surprising that Toxic Commando gets so much right when it comes to throwing enormous numbers of enemies at players.

They know what they are doing, and that experience really shows in the combat and wave defence sections, which are easily among the strongest parts of Toxic Commando.

Strong Language Is Something to Consider

One thing worth mentioning is that the language is a bit salty, to say the least. As an adult, I have heard all of these words before, but I certainly wouldn’t let a child play Toxic Commando, nor would I recommend it to anyone who finds strong language offensive.

The F-words are flying around, alongside plenty of other colourful terms, including various ways of referring to excrement and other similar language. It is very much an adult game in that respect, and anyone particularly sensitive to bad language should be aware of that before playing.

Would I Play Toxic Commando Again?

Honestly, not really, unless the developers release an update that adds sufficient narrative content to pull me back. I enjoyed my time with Toxic Commando, and I enjoyed the classes, abilities, weapons, visuals and especially the wave defence sections, but beyond those elements, there just isn’t enough here to make me want to dedicate more time to it after a single playthrough of the campaign.

The campaign itself tells a decent story, but it is not enough to pull me away from other ongoing games such as Fortnite and Call of Duty, both of which already take up a considerable amount of my gaming time.

That is not to say I regret playing Toxic Commando, because I don’t. I enjoyed it, and there are some genuinely fantastic elements here, but I just don’t feel the desire to go back and play through it all again without a substantial amount of new narrative content.

John Carpenter's Toxic Commando FAQ

John Carpenter's Toxic Commando is an action game developed by Saber Interactive and published by Focus Entertainment, it released on 12 March 2026, and is available on PC, Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

Is There Group Finding/Matchmaking Support?

John Carpenter's Toxic Commando offers the following matchmaking options:

• ☑ Solo Matchmaking
• ☑ Group Matchmaking

Are There In-Game Microtransactions?

The John Carpenter's Toxic Commando in-game store sells:

• ☑ Cosmetic Items
• ☑ Cosmetic Item Bundles

What Peripherals Are Supported?

John Carpenter's Toxic Commando supports the following peripherals:

• ☑ Console - Controller
• ☑ PC - Controller
• ☑ PC - Mouse and Keyboard

Is There Any Mature Content?

John Carpenter's Toxic Commando is unrated and contains:

• ☑ Strong Language
• ☑ Gore
• ☑ Violence

Final Verdict.

Do I recommend John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando? Yes, particularly if you have friends to play with and can pick it up in a sale. I would also recommend it to people who don’t mind playing with randoms and are happy to go along with whatever the rest of the group wants to do, because there is a genuinely fun game here with fantastic combat, great visuals, enjoyable classes and abilities, and some of the best wave defence gameplay I have experienced outside of Call of Duty Zombies.

However, if you are hoping to play it solo, or prefer doing your own thing rather than going along with the crowd, I would recommend either waiting for an incredibly steep sale or trying it through Xbox Game Pass, which is scheduled to add Toxic Commando on 12 November 2026.

Ultimately, Toxic Commando is a fun game, and I enjoyed my time with it, but while I would happily recommend experiencing it with friends, I don’t see myself returning for another playthrough unless the developers add enough new narrative content to make it worth my time.