The Club

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List Price: $19.99
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When I first heard of The Club, I assumed it was a story in the same vein of The Most Dangerous Game or The Running Man. However, once the game booted up, I discovered this was not the case.

To start, you pick from six characters (or eight, you can unlock two characters through repeated gameplay). Each contestant with their own statistics for Speed, Stamina and Strength. There's the typical speedy but weak character, a strong but slow character, and a mismash of other statistics for the remaining contestants.

The Club does have some foul language and frequent bloodshed/violence, so it earns its "M" rating with flying colors.

There's a basic training level, which gets you accustomed to the 'over-the-shoulder' camera view, and explains the button layout quite well. Your ultimate goal is to score the highest amount of points possible.

The point scoring depends on a few factors if you are far away from an enemy and you place a perfect head shot, you will get a high number of points. Conversely, if you are right up against an enemy and you shoot him in the leg, your point score will be minimal. With every kill, you start a bonus multiplier. This multiplier immediately starts to count down and if you don't kill another enemy or shoot a skull target multiplier, the bonus will bleed out and you'll have to start over again.

The mission stages fall into the following categories:

(1) Kill as many enemies as possible and make your way to the exit.

(2) Kill as many enemies as possible within the allotted time limit.

(3) Kill as many enemies as possible while running laps around the level.

(4) Kill as many enemies as possible without leaving the predetermined boundaries.

(5) Kill as many enemies as possible and reach the stage exit within the alloted time limit.

This basic formula makes up the 48 stages of the game. You can choose from 4 difficulty levels: Casual, Reckless, Insane or Real, each more difficult than the last.

Aside from the Tournament Mode, there is a Gunplay editor used to combine stages with weapons that are unlocked through the course of the game. There is also a multiplayer option that can be used to battle other Club members online, or to pit two players against each other via split screen battle mode.

Pros:

This game is a shooter, and it provides plenty of shooting. There is no shortage of bullets, blood, or bonus multipliers. Anyone who likes shooting games will be entertained.

There are plenty of secret areas in each stage. You'll have to look carefully to find all the Skull Shots, the Secret Skull Shots, and other hidden items.

There are all kinds of creative ways to put down your enemies from the ricochet (better known as Rico-SLAY) technique, to the Crack Shot, to the Snap Shot, you can master them all when you join The Club.

I really, REALLY enjoyed the levels with boundaries. If you stray outside the safe zones, you have 5 seconds to "GET BACK!" before your character gets killed instantly. Not only do you have to avoid enemy fire, you have to watch those chalk lines too! What a great way to spice up a shooter game.

The online mode offers fierce competition, with everyone striving for the highest score on any chosen level. If you feel bored by your local competition, hop on the internet and see how tough The Club can be.

Cons:

There really isn't any story to speak of, all the characters are simply different choices to go into battle with.

The Club is fun to play at first, but it gets old quick with the constant repetition of aim, shoot, run, rinse, and repeat. The level layouts are fairly short, and quite similar to each other. The graphics are reminiscent of Resident Evil 4 so it doesn't feel like a Playstation 3 game.

The offline replay value is virtually non-existent. A player can run one character through the whole tournament in about 4 hours, but after that, there really isn't any desire to finish with other characters.

What's the biggest drawback? Well, it's clear The Club was primarily designed to be played online. Without an online presence, it quickly becomes boring, even a two-player option can't keep the game interesting for long. This is a fun rental, but I wouldn't pay full price to own it.

The development company behind The Club, Bizarre Creations, is better known for their work on the Project Gotham Racing series, and other racing games.

Since this is their first venture into the world of shooters, I'm hoping Bizarre Creations can learn from their mistakes and work on making shooter games that are fun for both online and offline gamers.

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The Good:

Solid graphics with realistic movements and good scenery, but nothing revolutionary here.

Controls takes some getting used to, but once learned they are pretty easy.

Game concept is fresh and original... this isn't your typical shooter. The basic concept is kill as many people as fast as possible to earn the most points. There are different game types, but this goal is the same in each.

Nice locations, with descent level design. You'll play in a wide range of locales, from Venice to underground compounds in Russia to an abandoned cruise ship. There are 8 locations in all.

Characters/Weapons: you get to pick from 8 unique characters with varying degrees of speed, strength and stamina. The weapon selections includes shotguns, machine guns, rocket launchers, pistols and a sniper rifle. Overall a good degree of choice in this department, but the game's frenetic pace limits how often you'll use this range of weapons.

Tight menu structure/graphics

The Bad:

This game gets old pretty fast. You'll go back a few times to improve your scores, but it just doesn't have much replay value. Part of this stems from the fact there are no rewards for your score or winning (besides the bullet for winning a tournament... awesome). Let's say you could improve your character's attributes by performing better... that would add some replay value. Or if they had a create a character where you could select attributes, pick your weapons, etc. But they chose a very structured arcade style gameplay, and that hurts replay value in my opinion.

Sound is mediocre at best. The gunshots sound unrealistic... very arcade-like.

Storyline seems like an afterthought or just filler.

Online mode is BORING. I couldn't get into it.

It takes forever to turn. You can speed this up in the settings, but it doesn't get fast enough. This is frustrating when you need to turn to kill someone.

Some levels are too dark, making it hard to spot enemies.

The Verdict:

Overall, this is a fresh concept, but the structure of the game limits replay value and ultimately makes the $60 asking price seem unreasonable. I had high hopes for this game and I'm a little disappointed. I would rent it first, or pick it up used.

Buy The Club Now

There's not much to say that hasn't been covered in previous reviews. Single-player action is just awful: don't waste your time on it. Online, however, it pretty entertaining. While not introducing anything novel or innovative, the game does just fine in being a solid multiplayer game with few major flaws. It has your classic multiplayer modes: kill, team kill, capture the flag, king of the hill, etc. Had I spent $60 on this game, I would have been very disappointed, but at a measly $10 AND eligible for free shipping, it's a great buy even if it only entertains you for a few evenings.

Read Best Reviews of The Club Here

This game was ok and didn't get much better. It was a little too simple and just not enough to keep you interested for more than like 30 minutes....

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I haven't played the PS3 version but I have played the Xbox 360 version, and since I'm sure it's all the same, this game was epic!! It's a simple shooter that is easy to get, play and understand. I plan on actually buying this one in the near future. I love this simplicity of the campaign aspect of it, you hit targets, people, and it's really easy for people like me who have really bad aiming skills.