If The Running Man had a neon-drenched love child with XCOM, it would look a lot like Showgunners. Originally launched on PC in 2023, Artificer’s dystopian bloodsport tactics game has now made its console debut, released February 19, 2026 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One. Published on consoles by Klabater, this release brings the core tactical experience to controllers for the first time, delivering a stylishly violent strategy game built around spectacle as much as precision.
At £28.99, Showgunners doesn’t attempt to reinvent tactical combat — instead, it refines and streamlines it, presenting a focused experience optimized for console play and smooth performance.
And the result? A razor-sharp, no-nonsense tactical game that thrives on pacing, personality, and cleverly designed encounters.
Welcome to the Bloodiest Show on Earth
Showgunners drops players into a dystopian future ruled by mega-corporations where violence has become prime-time entertainment. You play as Scarlett Martillo, a former police officer turned contestant in the world’s most brutal reality TV show.
The premise is simple: survive deadly arenas, eliminate heavily armed contestants, and keep audiences entertained while doing it.
What initially appears to be pure spectacle quickly reveals deeper tactical design. Beneath the neon lights and explosive traps lies a tightly constructed turn-based strategy game that wastes no time on unnecessary complexity.
Tactics Without the Tedium
Fans of XCOM will immediately recognize familiar grid-based combat mechanics, but Showgunners deliberately removes many genre staples.
There’s:
- No base building
- No research trees
- No recruitment micromanagement
Instead, missions are handcrafted and tightly paced. Each arena functions as a lethal puzzle box filled with traps, environmental hazards, and carefully positioned enemies.
Gameplay flows between two core modes:
- Real-time exploration, where players navigate arenas, dodge traps, and solve environmental puzzles.
- Turn-based combat encounters, where positioning, abilities, and teamwork determine survival.
By removing strategic downtime, Showgunners maintains constant forward momentum. Missions feel purposeful, rarely overstaying their welcome.
It’s tactical gameplay distilled to its essentials.
The Show Director: Chaos as a Mechanic
One of the game’s standout systems is the Show Director, an AI overseer controlling the broadcast.
Your performance directly influences how the battlefield evolves.
Play stylishly and impress viewers, and the Director may reward you with advantages. Play poorly or drag out encounters, and new hazards or enemy reinforcements can suddenly appear.
This mechanic injects unpredictability into otherwise calculated tactical encounters while reinforcing the central theme: you’re performing for an audience.
You’re not just fighting to survive — you’re fighting to entertain.
Fame Is Power
Victory alone isn’t enough in Showgunners. Style matters.
Scarlett earns Fame by:
- Performing stylish eliminations
- Avoiding damage
- Using environmental kills creatively
Fame unlocks sponsorship deals that grant gameplay bonuses and equipment advantages. This RPG-lite system encourages aggressive and creative play rather than slow, defensive tactics.
The result is a strategy game that rewards flair just as much as efficiency — an uncommon but welcome twist.
A Cast of Killers
Scarlett soon recruits allies, each bringing unique combat roles and upgradeable skill trees.
Rather than overwhelming players with dozens of units, the roster remains focused, allowing meaningful specialization and synergy development between teammates.
Hidden objectives and optional exploration reward players with powerful gear and upgrades, encouraging engagement beyond simply completing missions.
Narratively, Showgunners balances satire and sincerity well. Corporate dystopia is portrayed with sharp humor, but Scarlett’s revenge story provides emotional grounding amid the chaos.
Console Optimization
The console version feels thoughtfully adapted rather than hastily ported.
Controller support is excellent:
- Radial menus streamline ability selection.
- Quick-access controls maintain combat flow.
- Navigation remains smooth during both exploration and combat.
Performance on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X is stable, targeting 4K resolution with a consistent 60 FPS presentation. Load times are quick, and responsiveness remains sharp even during complex encounters.
The transition from PC to console feels natural and comfortable.
Visual Style and Tone
Visually, Showgunners embraces a vivid cyberpunk aesthetic infused with retro action energy.
Neon lighting clashes against brutalist architecture, while arenas resemble theatrical death stages more than realistic battlefields. Traps feel deliberately showy, reinforcing the televised spectacle theme.
Violence is stylized rather than excessive, with exaggerated effects emphasizing dramatic victories without becoming gratuitous.
The synth-driven soundtrack reinforces the game-show atmosphere, maintaining tension while amplifying the futuristic presentation.
It’s dystopia presented with flair and confidence.
Where It Falls Short
Despite strong combat design, a few limitations emerge over longer play sessions:
- Environmental themes repeat across later missions.
- Mission structure follows a consistent rhythm that becomes predictable.
- Enemy variety expands slowly in the late game.
- Narrative beats occasionally rely on familiar genre tropes.
Additionally, players seeking deep grand-strategy layers may miss broader campaign management systems.
However, this streamlined focus is also part of the game’s identity — prioritizing immediacy over complexity.
Value Proposition
At £28.99, the Standard Edition offers solid value through:
- A full tactical campaign
- Polished combat systems
- Strong narrative presentation
- Excellent console optimization
While additional content exists in other editions, the base experience stands confidently on its own as a complete tactical adventure.
Final Verdict
Showgunners is a slick, focused tactical bloodsport that succeeds through clarity of vision. By removing genre bloat and emphasizing curated encounters, Artificer delivers a strategy experience that feels fast, stylish, and consistently engaging.
The Show Director system adds dynamic tension, sponsorship mechanics reward creative play, and the streamlined structure keeps momentum high from start to finish.
It may not revolutionize turn-based tactics, but it executes its ideas with precision and confidence.
In a genre often weighed down by complexity, Showgunners proves that sometimes less strategy management results in more strategic fun.
