Turbo Overkill is a very fast-paced, gory boomer shooter where standing still for even just a second will get you killed pretty quickly, especially on higher difficulties. Luckily you can dash, slide, grapple, double / triple jump and even more to kill hordes of enemies on your way to stop an evil AI from taking over the world. It's extremely satisfying to weave your way through enemies and pick them off one by one, or all at once.
The story is obviously mostly pretty standard (though still dripping with over-the-top edgy coolness), but that's not what you are here for - you are here to murder enemies in a variety of ways. Turbo Overkill definitely delivers on that front, with numerous weapons like your chainsaw leg, classics like a Shotgun or Magnum but also interesting weapons like an Ion cannon or chainsaw arms (see the pattern yet?) As you explore the 25 different levels scattered across three episodes, you can also buy and find augments that mix up your playstyle - for example, one augment may allow you to regenerate health when killing enemies with your chainsaw leg, while others may set enemies on fire when you grapple to them or make it easier to collect powerups. Guns can be upgraded as well, making rockets rain shrapnel or turning double Uzis into a single, highly accurate rifle.
The gameplay loop of Turbo Overkill works best when it concentrates on it's good fundamentals - dash around, switch between the many weapons and blow up enemies. It's really fun when it does that, mostly because moving around just feels good and it's aided by the cool visuals and amazing soundtrack as well as hidden collectibles and secrets to find. In other words: 90% of the game is awesome. However, there are two areas where it stumbles a bit: vehicles and bosses.
Vehicle levels, of which there are luckily very few, are annoying. The motorcycle level is cool, but even after replaying it twice, I missed an enemy which is very easy because of the way the level is constructed (and you can't go back after certain spots), which is annoying when going for 100 % completion. The motorcycle, while cool, is awkward to control and constantly has to be left behind to solve small side rooms. Similar happens with the car levels, where you constantly have to switch between being in the car and going back on land. Both vehicles are equipped with cool weaponry, but they break up the flow of the game in a way that feels disorienting rather than refreshing, and the motorcycle level especially is filled with bugs and issues because you can jump high and easily find yourself out of bounds while the car levels are full of empty space only because it forces you to use the car.
Much worse than those are the bosses. Again, luckily there are only few, but aside from one exception they are all some of the worst in the genre. That's mostly because, as in every bad boss battle, you're not fighting the boss itself so much as you are fighting the random monsters it summons, often having to kill all of them before you can damage the boss (with one or two exceptions). On higher difficulties especially, they turn into a projectile hell where dashing to avoid one projectile means you dash into something else that kills you almost instantly and visibility is severely lacking because so much happens at once. You also can't save during them and many of the bosses have several phases.
The first boss was fine, but all other bosses ranged from slightly irritating to "I will turn the game off right now" rage inducing, even on lower difficulties which may solve the damage issues, but not the flawed design of the fights. One of the boss fights is an arena style matchup where whoever scores 5 points first wins - except if you lose once, you have to start over. So what's the point of counting to 5 then if the enemy can lose 4 times without issues, but I can't even lose once? A back-and-forth fight would have been much more interesting than that.
Those issues aside though, Turbo Overkill has a certain flow that ensures that when it works, it works very well. An awesome soundtrack, cool visuals, insults, gore, and an impressive (if slightly too long) runtime for a boomer shooter means you're mostly getting your money's worth with some hiccups along the way. It's no Doom Eternal, but it comes surprisingly close to that inspiration. It's still one of the best games of it's type I've played and definitely worth playing all the way through.
