Running With Rifles gets WWII expansion set in Pacific
Runmen and gunmen
Oh hi, Running With Rifles [official site]. It’s been a while, huh? I had assumed you’d packed up your duffel bag, slung your gun over your shoulder, and sprinted off into the sunset. Turns out you’ve been digging into the Iwo Jima sands and all the other Pacific islands too, recreating the second World War in your own top-down cartoonish way. So, when’s that Pacific warfare expansion released? Next week? Sorted. Sorted.
Running With Rifles has been on RPS’ radar, ladar and playdar since 2011, offering battle antics in the style of ye olde Cannon Fodders of the 1990s but with nicer-looking cartoon graphics and some light-heartedness. When a grenade landed at the foot of a soldier, for example, they’d shout “OMG GRENADE”.
But the base game was set in a non-descript war with weapons and vehicles from all sorts of eras. This time it is squarely set during World War II, allowing you to “to witness the epic clash between the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) and the United States Marine Corps (USMC)”. Which probably makes the cartoon tone a wee bit clashy. Anyway, here’s what developers Osumia Games (formerly Modulaatio Games) are offering:
- 2 full campaigns spanning the major battles of the Pacific theatre
- 7 unique maps based on historical locations and battles
- unique set of historical vehicles, ranging from light tanks, jeeps, land defenses, landing craft, and patrol boats
- historical arsenal of weapons that evolves as the war progresses
- new types of weapons such as Flamethrowers, Bayonetted Rifles, and the Katana
- side objectives such as destroying coastal guns and anti-aircraft guns to rescuing prisoners or repairing abandoned tanks
- 40+ multiplayer support, dedicated servers, coop, PvP, PvPvE
It's out on Steam on Thursday October 26. Could be a reason to get back into it, if you were a Runner ‘n’ Rifleman of the original. But it also makes me wonder, what would today’s spiritual successor of Cannon Fodder be? Foxhole, perhaps.