Showgunners

Showgunners PC is an isometric turn-based tactical game set inside a brutal dystopian reality show. Previously titled Homicidal All-Stars during development, it now appears on current PC storefronts under the Showgunners name. You play as Scarlett Martillo, a contestant pursuing revenge while fighting through televised urban arenas controlled by corporations and a ruthless show director.

A Tactical Game Show Built Around Two Speeds

Showgunners alternates between real-time exploration and turn-based squad combat. During exploration, Scarlett and her partners move through hand-crafted environments from a pulled-back isometric perspective, searching for routes, navigating traps, solving environmental puzzles, and locating optional challenges before an ambush begins.

When combat starts, the game shifts into a grid-based tactical view. Movement, cover, weapon range, character abilities, and environmental hazards all shape each turn. The structure is more focused than a large-scale military strategy campaign: there is no base-building layer, no sprawling world map, and no procedural mission generator. Instead, each episode presents a curated sequence of encounters designed around its own hazards and objectives.

That structure makes positioning important, but it also keeps the pace moving. Players can set up attacks, exploit cover, use melee or ranged abilities, and react to enemies such as the Ogre and Ronin. Some arenas introduce ticking explosives, moving machinery, trains, or other hazards that can damage either side.

Characters, Fame, and Show Director Decisions

Scarlett does not fight alone. As the campaign progresses, she recruits additional contestants with distinct roles, weapons, and abilities. Each character has a unique skill tree, and talent points let you develop preferred combat styles rather than treating the squad as a group of interchangeable soldiers.

Equipment comes from shops, battle rewards, and hidden objectives. Weapons can change how a character contributes to an encounter, while optional chapter challenges may unlock new allies, legendary weapons, and useful items. The result is a compact progression system built around improving a fixed cast instead of generating endless replacement units.

Performance is also measured through fame. Surviving rounds, eliminating enemies, and finishing encounters with style attracts more fans and unlocks increasingly useful sponsorship deals. Fame is not just a background statistic; it supports the fantasy that every battle is being judged as entertainment, with tactical success affecting the resources available to the contestants.

The show director adds another layer of pressure. Depending on how well you perform, the director can help Scarlett or complicate the battlefield by introducing new obstacles, enemies, or tactical problems. This creates a risk-and-reward relationship between playing safely and putting on a spectacular performance.

Hand-Crafted Arenas and Twitch Integration

Showgunners is designed around hand-crafted levels rather than randomised maps. The campaign’s challenge comes from learning how each arena works, identifying threats, and combining squad abilities with the environment. Enemy behaviour and combat rolls can still produce different outcomes, but the underlying missions are authored encounters with specific themes and objectives.

Its most unusual PC feature is native Twitch integration. When enabled, viewers can influence selected situations through chat by adding enemies, changing terrain, placing or removing obstacles, or sending helpful items. Twitch mode is separate from the normal campaign progression, so it works best as a spectator-friendly challenge layer rather than a replacement for the main story.

This feature gives Showgunners a distinct identity among single-player tactics games. It is not a multiplayer campaign, and viewers do not directly control Scarlett’s squad, but the audience can alter the conditions around the battle while the player tries to adapt.

Content, Editions, and DLC

The base game is a paid, single-player campaign. It includes the main story, the recruitable cast, tactical episodes, real-time trap sections, skill trees, fame progression, sponsorship deals, and optional chapter challenges. There is no free-to-play economy and no competitive online mode.

Security Breach is a free story DLC chapter that expands Scarlett’s conflict with the Omega Corporation. It adds five tactical battles, six new character-specific weapons, new level mechanics, and the Stalker, an enemy built around stealth. The additional content is substantial enough to matter to campaign players, but it remains an extension of the existing single-player structure rather than a separate mode.

Storefront extras also include costume and weapon-reskin packs, along with the soundtrack and art book. The Deluxe Edition bundles the full game with the Neon Justice costume, soundtrack, and art book. These extras do not change the core tactical progression, so the standard edition contains the essential gameplay experience.

Who Should Play Showgunners?

Showgunners suits players who want streamlined turn-based tactics with a strong visual premise and a clear campaign structure. It is approachable for players who find larger XCOM-style systems intimidating, while still offering meaningful decisions around cover, action economy, skill trees, hazards, and squad composition.

The game is a particularly good fit for fans of tactical RPGs, dystopian science fiction, reality-show satire, and authored combat encounters. Players who enjoy moving through an area in real time before triggering a carefully planned battle will find a similar broad rhythm in tactical stealth adventures like Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden, although Showgunners places more emphasis on spectacle, fame, and environmental hazards.

It is less suitable for players looking for an open-ended strategy sandbox, a deep global management layer, procedural replayability, or online co-op. The campaign is deliberately linear and focused. Its appeal comes from learning the authored scenarios, improving squad builds, and handling the next televised disaster with limited room for error.

PC Features and Storefront Differences

The Steam version lists full controller support, Xbox controller support, Steam Cloud, Family Sharing, achievements, and Steam Deck Verified compatibility. The game can therefore be played comfortably with mouse and keyboard or a supported controller, including on Steam Deck.

Steam lists English full audio, with interface and subtitle support for French, Italian, German, Spanish from Spain, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and Ukrainian. GOG lists the Windows edition as DRM-free, with no requirement to use GOG Galaxy; Galaxy is optional for features such as cloud saves and achievements.

Showgunners is a single-player PC title. The storefront listings do not advertise co-op, split-screen, dedicated servers, mod support, or a separate anti-cheat system. Its PC ecosystem is instead built around controller support, Steam Deck compatibility, cloud features, achievements, optional DRM-free distribution, and Twitch audience interaction.

Players who want another Good Shepherd Entertainment tactics game with a very different setting can compare it with turn-based squad strategy in the supernatural western Hard West. Hard West is more systems-heavy and choice-driven, while Showgunners is more linear, faster to parse, and built around set-piece arenas.

Showgunners FAQ

Was Showgunners previously called Homicidal All-Stars?

Yes. Homicidal All-Stars was the earlier development title. The current PC storefront name is Showgunners, and there is no separate Homicidal All-Stars edition that players need to locate.

What type of game is Showgunners?

It is a single-player, isometric tactical RPG combining real-time exploration, environmental puzzles, trap navigation, and turn-based squad combat. Its missions take place inside a dystopian televised death game.

Does Showgunners have multiplayer or co-op?

No. Showgunners is designed as a single-player campaign. Twitch integration allows viewers to influence selected challenges, but it does not provide direct co-op or multiplayer control.

What does the free Security Breach DLC add?

Security Breach adds five tactical battles, six new weapons, new encounter mechanics, and the stealth-focused Stalker enemy. It continues Scarlett’s campaign against the Omega Corporation.

Does Showgunners support controllers and Steam Deck?

Yes. The Steam version lists full controller support and Steam Deck Verified compatibility. GOG also lists controller support for its Windows edition.

Is Showgunners a roguelike or procedurally generated tactics game?

No. Its campaign uses hand-crafted stages and authored encounters. The main replay value comes from experimenting with character skill trees, equipment, squad combinations, optional challenges, and different tactical solutions rather than replaying randomly generated missions.