Official Website

Platform: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Genre: Action

Number of Players: 1 or 2 (up to 8 online)

Support: HD 720p, PS Network Compatible, Ethernet Broadband, Leaderboards

SEGA and Bizarre Creations aren’t looking to make it onto the list of games that are considered good for children to play, but then again, the powers that be in Congress who have taken it upon themselves to be the moral conscious of society have overlooked just who the real gamers are in the world. Not all of us want squeaky clean good times. We crave something a little more, and if that means that there is some bloodshed and violence involved, that’s perfectly fine with us. The funny thing is, I thought for sure we had a ratings system in place, and maybe those who want to keep trying to tell us right from wrong should be a member of The Club.

Ah, but what is The Club exactly you may be asking yourself. The Club is a blood sport of a different caliber; the cold steel and gunpowder caliber to be more precise. You will assume the role of one of eight different characters (six in the beginning, two which are unlockable) who have been recruited to join The Club. The gladiator style combat will pit you against many nameless mercenaries who are out for one thing; to kill you. It’s a deadly game, survival of the fittest, and a brutal sport that you just might escape from alive, but then again . . . probably not.

The Club is an action game blended with a shooter to some degree and implements some of the multiplayer games found in many first-person shooters, though which a much higher entertainment value in my opinion that what is found with the latest installment of Unreal. However, this isn’t a first-person shooter but rather a third person action title, and action itself is the main attraction. The Club isn’t a game for those who want to rest easy, find a safe place, and shoot until the barrel of their gun glows red. This is a fast paced title where you don’t necessarily have to think fast, but being able to be fast on the draw is one of the keys to survival.

You will find yourself taking a trip across the globe, but not for sight seeing. The Club has managed to procure some rather interesting locations for their sport. From an abandoned prison to a grounded ocean liner, the remains of an insane asylum and even the remnants of a Russian bunker are just a few of the eight different locations that you will find yourself battling through. The idea behind the games might be killing, but there is more to it than just letting loose. The Club rewards you for stylist kills and combos are the key between ranking at the top and becoming just another statistic. Everything is based on combos, and that will be one of the primary things that will help you succeed.

Once you’ve managed to get in your first kill, your combo meter will appear in the top right of your HUD and it begins counting down. You must get in another kill, or shoot one of the many skull signs found in the levels to keep it built up. With the combo in play, your score will increase, but The Club again isn’t just about shooting blindly, though that will work. Head shots will score you points and zooming in with weapons will help achieve this. Rolling and then killing an enemy, a death roll, will also give you a much better score as will barging through a wooden barricade or shooting an enemy that is a great distance away. If your combo meter should deplete, simply killing another enemy will bring it back into play, and the combo also plays an important role in your final point total as it is the multiplier for your health and accuracy scores.

Aside from the skull signs there are also secret skull signs in the stages as well. These will help open up the secrets of the game, but it’s not just signs that you should be looking for. There are weapons and ammo to pick up so you can arm yourself with something as basic as a pistol or grab some heavy firepower like shotguns, machine guns, and even rocket launchers not to mention you can lob grenades to take out multiple enemies.

The Club may sound like it’s just about running from one point to the exit in order to achieve the highest score, but there are other methods of play to be found in the stages in The Club. The basic ones, the Sprint, is just about getting to the exit with the highest score, a very simple premise, but then there’s the Time Attack. Here you will find the same idea of reaching the exit, but every second counts. Each foe you kill will add three seconds onto your clock, and additional time can be picked up from clocks scattered in the stage as well as time signs that act much like the skull signs and keep your combo built up. If you run out of time, The Club has a nasty surprise in store for you when a small detonator explodes leaving you a bloody mess on the floor. This same concept applies with Run the Gauntlet, though in this phase of the game, you’ll need to achieve a given number of laps around the battlefield, still scoring points and keeping your combo flowing. In these stages, the club at least has given you some help with arrows pointing the right way.

Siege has you defending yourself against an onslaught of enemies, but there’s a catch. The area you have been placed in is outlined by chalk and pylons. If you journey outside of them, you have five seconds to get back inside before the detonator goes off. These same rules apply in the survivor mode, though you must last until the counter has expired as wave after wave of enemies take a shot, or two, or more, at you. These games also occasionally feature a mounted machine gun to make your survival a bit more feasible, but they do have a tendency to overheat at times.

As you complete the different games across the stages that The Club has readied for you, they will become accessible in the Single Event mode so that you can reply them. You can also replay them in the tournament mode and with four different skill levels and eight different characters with different stats, it does enhance the replay. Also, your scores during the tournament mode will be uploaded to the leaderboard so you can see just how you fair against other competitors across the globe. As more and more options become unlocked, you can create your own stage in the gunplay mode and save it, or simply load one that is included.

The final portion of the game is the multiplayer version of The Club which supports up to eight players in a single game. There are two different modes of play to be found here; a free for all and team play. If you are willing to go up against everyone else, you can participate in a score match, a kill match which is the equivalent of a death match, and a hunter/hunted match. If team play is more your style, you have the option to play siege, a team deathmatch, Team Fox Hunt (capture the flag), Team Capture (King of the Hill), and Team Skullshot where you will find your enemies skullshots and destroy them before they destroy yours.

The Club plays quite smooth, especially considering the sheer amount of action that is undertaken during the game. The camera is very easy to control so there’s no worry of having any interference or something standing in your way when you’re trying to take out yet another gunman. The graphics though really are amazing. The environments themselves are extremely detailed and work on the concept of a maze like setting combined with some run down and nasty looking locations. There is a bit of repetition with the enemies, but that’s to be expected, and there is a great deal of variety with them so it does keep the game fresh. Yes, there is a bit of blood as well, but it’s not gratuitous. The main characters though are the real strong point. They each have a very good, unique look to them, so if you’re playing as the bleached, dreadlock wearing Seager, Renwick, a cop out to bust The Club (and a character that is something of a Ving Rhames/Samuel L. Jackson influence), the insane Nemo or even Finn, a gambler trying to get out of debt, you will find that the characters aren’t just a palette swap. They all have a very interesting look to them and some of the little details that you’ll find are not just some piece of their costume but an item with just a minor bit of animation to help bring them to life.

There are only a few drawbacks with the game. I’ve often seen my enemies performing blind fire moves, something that I really wish I was able to do as well. It may drop my combos down, but I would think scoring would be hired in cases like these. Female characters are always a nice touch as well, and more destructible environments are most definitely appreciated. These are minor things however, suggestions more than anything else, and even without these, The Club is a solid title.

Are you ready to join The Club? I’m sure you are, and this is a fast paced action title that will keep your adrenalin flowing as much as the blood seen in the game. This is a breed of action game that is in line with titles like Devil May Cry where magic and other unrealistic concepts are tossed aside in favor of high caliber action and The Club may be easy to get into, but getting out is another story.

-mike-