Stephen King writing as Richard Bachman in the early 80s released The Running Man -- a dystopian sci fi novel that eventually made its way to the silver screen in an action epic starring Arnie. Now, some 40-plus years later a new game is taking inspiration from the classic story, as well as other 80s and 90s action films, titled Showgunners, and it looks rad.

In a future society torn apart by extreme income inequality, climate change, and civil unrest, one show has taken the masses by storm, giving desperate competitors a shot at fame and glory. But first they’ll have to survive the arena. Each live-streamed broadcast delivers a hellish new obstacle course with a unique theme, traps and challenges. As a contestant with your own score to settle, you’ll have to battle other heavily armed combatants, explore for life-saving sponsorship packages, and outwit especially devious surprises from the show’s director if you hope to become the next champ.

KEY FEATURES

• A Classic Revenge Story: Experience over-the-top, American Gladiators-style action and attitude inspired by sci-fi epics like RoboCop, Escape from New York and The Running Man.
  
• Become a TV Legend: Defying death through skillful play will grow your fame and make you a star! Record confessionals, sign autographs for fans, and unlock sponsorship deals for bonus rewards to help you win the show.
  
• Challenging Strategy Gameplay: Dive into a full single-player campaign featuring deep tactical combat mechanics that will test your skills across a variety of hand-crafted levels.
  
• Create the Perfect Squad: Build your team from a range of classes with their own skill trees, and customize their loadouts with powerful weapons, implants and utilities. Level up your characters and discover new strategies to take on each episode’s uniquely devilish trials.
  
• Survive the Future of Entertainment: Face off against fierce rivals outfitted with heavy weapons and cyborg augments, but watch out for surprise traps and twists from the show’s director, who’s more than willing to throw out the rules to boost ratings for his corporate overlords!

From publisher Good Shepherd Entertainment and developer Artificer, Showgunners currently has a demo available on Steam and will be releasing proper this coming May 2 for PC on Steam and GOG.

Also, if you've never read The Running Man novel, do yourself a favour and pick it up. It's infinitely better than the movie, which is saying a lot. It also might have one of the most claustraphobic passages ever written.