The Club seems to offer a unique gameplay scenario, Like Project Gotham, Only with guns. Bizarre have told us plenty of times how this is the next big thing in shooters, but we’re here to ask, Is it?
The premise of The Club is similar to that of the other Bizzarre Creations games, Geometry Wars and Project Gotham. Basically, You have to perform preset feats of style over and over, until you get a massive chain (basically just a points multiplier) until the time or track runs out. In PGR thats a good idea, racing around the same track getting more and more points for new cars or tracks, whereas in The Club running about the same level over and over, shooting the same guys, for no particular reason begins to get a tad boring.
The game is reasonably easy to learn, Standard third person stuff really. The skill is in learning how to kill people. You may want to just shoot a man in front of you, and run away from the man behind you and be done. Thats fine, but after a few hours of play you’ll go back to the same scenario (which seems to happen a lot) and quick spin to the man behind you, headshot him, spin again, kill the man in front, long distance headshot, just because it boosts the chain. This may take hours and hours of repetition and practice but in the end you get that massive score and its all worth it, right? Well thats for you to decide, but due to the lack of any actual rewards the charm of constant repetition is lost on me.
Gameplay.
The gameplay is straight to the point in this game, no little mini-games or sideshows, just the core objective of chasing that multiplier higher and higher. And I must say that for a while the adrenaline really is flowing; You crosshair is flying about, The combo box is rapidly ticking down, all sorts of points and special kills are popping on the screen, enemies popping up from every hole. But as with anything else, tedium sets in. You may want to attempt the online multiplayer, which offers many of the same game modes, but with real people. Due to the lack of any sort of matchmaking system you’ll rarely find someone you can compete with equally. In my first online foray, I found myself matched against the number 1 ranked player, in the world. Well, Im sure you can draw you own conclusions there.. One of the major dissapointments was the fact that there was no distinguishable story to be found, at all. Theres a strange english bloke, who likes seeing people kill people quickly, your chosen character likes killing people quickly. Genius. You do get a video at the end, but doing 8 tournaments with 8 players just to get the videos? I think not.
7/10
Graphics.
Theres very little to set the graphics of The Club apart from from any other game at the moment, nothing makes me say wow, very average. One of the more annoying factors is preset animations for things like skullshots or timeshots, seeing the same animation 8-15 times per level really starts to bug you, but it is just a small thing.
7/10
Sound.
Theres a developing trend here, the sound is average. Nothing special, nothing dissapointing. What I am still unsure of however, is the announcer voice. Very quake-esque; hearing this strange fella shout “snap shot!” ten times on the run is very irriatating, because the giant text on my screen is obviously invisible.
6/10
Conclusion.
The Club is at heart a good game, and its nice playing something different from the drones of corridoor FPS games. But the Club never really accomplishes anything with all the time you invest in it. Sure you get a high score, that split second adrenaline hit but thats about it. The online mode doesnt have much to offer either. If you’ve been looking for an outlet for your super-competetiveness (or desire to kill lots of people quickly) then this is the game for you, and only you really.
Decent game, marred by ‘averageness’
6/10
