Running Man, the '80s movie with Swarzenegger, used to be one of my favorites as a kid. In it, he's a man stuck in a television show in which a bunch of over-the-top villains try to kill him. In Showgunners, you play as a show participant. The game mixes three styles of gameplay: - You participate in the game with a partner. There's some easy fights and some fun puzzling. - X-Com style combat. - Between two levels, you can chill at your base and talk to your partners. The puzzling part is a fun intermezzo but the combat is where this game shines. You play with three characters from a cast of six and have to get through stages of progressively harder enemies. It uses the two step system: move your character or use a special ability and then fire your guns. Each character looks nice and they're all unique. You have your melee fighter, tank, support, sniper, mini gunner and hacker. It's just great fun. A typical turn could be to let your minigunner soften a few baddies. Your close combat fighter can then chain kill a few. And your hacker can switch places with the worst baddie. Next turn the enemies will then all fire on him. I'm not the best at this genre but the combat difficulty was great for me on normal mode. I could usually get through it without too much trouble but had to reload a few times. You can see that this game was made with love. Sounds and looks good, the combat is satisfying and I kept wanting to play more. The story isn't much but well, who cares? Highly recommended if you looking for a ~18 hour x-com style game.
