As I’ve shifted back toward the PC end of the spectrum from years of 30 frames of console clunkiness, I’ve pushed a little further into the few examples of turn-based games I enjoy. I’m partial to Wasteland 3, Phoenix Point, and basically anything by The Bearded Ladies. What I’m saying is anything XCOM–like in its gameplay. Showgunners is state-funded cyberpunk-Professor Genki on BBC 2 on a Saturday night with turn-based XCOM-like gameplay. I see now why I was instantly attracted to its cluttered background of dingy colors.

Starring in “Homicidal All Stars,” you (as Scarlett) run the gauntlet in a nightly showcase of your painting skills. Too bad for everyone else that your palette only consists of scarlet. With an interesting bunch of characters, you’ll roam around levels Wasteland 3-style in real time. However, battles throw you into the typical polite game of fisticuffs of such turn-based tactics.

I say fisticuffs, there is plenty of lead-slinging to be done too with characteristic weapons of this heavily industrialized slum backdrop for your rise in fame. Corporate overlords and TV ratings be damned, Scarlett and the team amassed through the season are getting to the final.

It is a strange and wonderful setting, especially for a game. Showgunners takes the concept of our reality TV obsession and takes it to its logical conclusion. Similar to the concept of 2007’s The Condemned (minus the Battle Royale influence) and Ghost Rider, you fight across enclosed locations during each episode against cartoon villains called Scum, Ronin, Muertas, and so on.

On each map (each episode) there are houses of death you’ll enter to fight in distinct areas. Sometimes these areas will be apartments, stations for the L-train, and sometimes god knows what. All of them are explained with exposition from what I believe the kids call a “shout-caster.”

There are XCOM-style ambushes in the overworlds, though they often play host to environmental puzzles to find boxes of loot. Luckily you don’t spend the earned in-game cash to open them. To cut complaints off at the pass, there are a lot of comparisons to be had with XCOM because Showgunners is a turn-based tactics title and takes a large amount of influence from those games. Thankfully there is an addition I’ve been asking for in every turn-based title: A fast-forward button. In my turn, I can work out where everyone is and who’s being splattered across the back wall.

Showgunners also takes some influence from grindhouse horror, as a shotgun blast dismembers better than medieval torture devices. Though you can’t always see much of it as the camera work can sometimes be about as useful as Michael Bay in a tumble dryer. I’ve had the camera catch on portions of the furniture during the kill cam. Additionally, the dismember effects have focused on either Scarlett and the team or the Scum you’re spreading across the walls of these pigsties. The overworld camera controls with keyboard and mouse aren’t much better either, often feeling a little claustrophobic.

Complaints and comparisons aside, the aesthetic of Showgunners is what stands out the most. Not only do you level up, buy new weapons, and have a home base to go to between episodes, but during levels you’ll come across the live audience during the show asking for autographs, and with the fame garnered you’ll get sponsors. Intertwined, depending on your reaction to autograph requests, certain companies will want you to be more cocky, nice, funny, or the other one that I can’t say here to get their attention. You need both a certain amount of fame and these stipulations too for specific sponsors.

What I couldn’t work out was the influence of the showrunner. Seemingly taking effect when you are making easy work of the grunts in levels, this villainous figure seemingly sitting in the production gallery doing all the work on his own “shakes things up.” This is more or less to say that he’s a Chris Chibnall: Throwing seemingly random nonsense at you to make an element of the episode more “exciting.” One part of me knows some of them will be pre-determined to happen. However, for the others (if others aren’t pre-determined) I don’t know the criteria that triggers them.

Being a PC-centric title, the question of performance is something to be had. I’ve been running Showgunners on Ultra for everything, with motion blur turned off (of course) and DLSS off. I’ve had an uncapped frame rate of 95-100 easily. That said, for some reason in the main menu everything is locked to 45 frames per second, no matter the settings or resolution. Capped in-game with lots of effects like fire and smoke, I’ve not seen a significant drop below 60 for any length of time time. I have no complaints there.

I’ve stumbled into a couple of minor bugs though. Quite literally in a few cases, such as a trap being triggered as Scarlett runs through it during exploration then being stuck or unable to run from that point on. A reload solves the problem, which you’ll probably have to do anyway given you’ll be stuck on a trap that’s killing you. Or you might be stuck walking through the next one to your death. Also, while using one of Scarlett’s abilities, “Assault,” I was unable to select parts of the range of movement and WASD would stop controlling the camera.

The only major issue I found was after the 1.01 patch. I went into a side arena to get used to a new character I’d happened to just pick up, only the segment didn’t end when I killed everyone. “Horror Hospital” originally had a bug that saw strange things happen, and was supposedly patched out. Entering after that patch, I was unable to leave or end the segment for whatever reason. Thankfully, the save system will save on every turn in battle. It is fairly easy to have multiple saves or a quick save and a quick load. Otherwise, I’d have been locked in there for a long time.

I also found a handful of audio problems. Some were issues with quality, with one janitor and Tybalt sounding like they were recorded by someone’s uncle with a built-in laptop mic. Others were weird, such as Marty having a normal conversation back and forth with Scarlett, then suddenly the reverb and other more subtle effects dropped on him for a line or two. It might be an issue that annoyingly breaks immersion, though it is difficult to say after a short while that it is memorable.

Showgunners might be a little simplistic and arguably “old hat” in terms of story, but I think that works to Showgunners‘ benefit overall. Without spoilers, you play as an ex-cop that joins the show mostly made up of criminals. Taking themes of cyberpunk (the genre), the prize for winning “Homicidal All Stars” is a lovely big bag of money, which Scarlett doesn’t care about. As tens of contestants will die in an episode, she’s gruff and no-nonsense, so already you know it is a revenge plot. It is better in set-up than Watch_Dogs, but only marginally.

The dialogue and voice acting (particularly for Scarlett) aren’t extraordinary. In fact, it is rather generic and does the fundamentals but little more than that. Again without spoiling too much, your teams will change over the course of the season, introducing different styles and variations to the combat. How that comes about feels like it should affect Scarlett in more than cliches and bitterness, though the backstory makes up for some of that given its darkness. Make no mistake, Showgunners isn’t pleasant. At one point you can add The Warden to your team and he’ll be introduced by crushing a man’s skull.

Showgunners is a great gorefest take on the XCOM gameplay we’re all used to, with several interesting targets to unload hot metal into. Some might take its very linear approach as a slight negative, but either via a sequel or DLC down the line, I wouldn’t mind playing other seasons of “Homicidal All Stars” with different characters. Ultimately, with very claret-colored backdrops in a reality tv obsessed world, the simple plot and enjoyable (yet similar) gameplay make this unwelcoming and hateful world feel like home as you kill your way to the top.

A PC review copy of Showgunners was provided by Good Shepherd Entertainment for this review.

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Showgunners

$29.99

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• Fun, interesting cyberpunk setting.
• Solid XCOM-style gameplay.
• An interesting cast of villians to pump lead into.

Cons

• Minor bugs and sound issues.
• The options could have a number of extra graphical options.