Bet on Soldier: Blood Sport - PC

The film The Running Man explored a terrifying world where modern day gladiators battled it out on the world’s TV sets. And the idea is nothing new to videogames either, dating at least as far back as the glorious arcade and SNES game Smash TV.

So it’s great to see the idea resurface on the shoot-em-up’s modern home, the PC, as Digital Jesters present the splendidly named Bet On Soldier, developed by Kylotonn. According to this particular nightmare vision of the future, our planet has become ever more obsessed with war, with most people employed in some capacity to perpetuate a never-ending conflict between huge, greedy corporations. When only fighting will do, even entertainment is violence-orientated, and the world’s most popular TV show is Bet On Soldier, a futuristic Colosseum which encourages viewers to place their bets to raise more revenue from their corporate overlords.

You play as Nolan Daneworth, a man with a violent past who enters the competition after his fiancee is murdered, apparently by current Bet On Soldier champions the Boryenkas Brothers. In the world of Bet on Soldier you have to earn your bullets, armour and weapons by killing opponents and placing bets. Failure to do at least one of these means you won’t have a leg to stand on. You’ll raise a small amount of money by killing, but you really need to start betting on other competitors to get the big bucks, which in turn leads to more weapons and armour for you, which means you can bet on yourself as you become more likely to win. There are an enormous amount of weapons available; the usual mix of pistols, rifles, rocket launchers and flamethrowers, along with explosives and trusty melee weapons like the rotorblade.

Battles take place across Europe, Alaska, Nevada and Cuba, but you’ll need to ignore the surroundings if you want to survive. Naturally, being a PC shoot-em-up, B.O.S. has a multiplayer mode, and up to 32 players can play online in a deathmatch featuring some of the betting elements you’ll be familiar with from the main game. All in all, the game’s a tidy package and a good sight more imaginative than your average FPS. I’ll buy that for a dollar. more