Don’t judge a book by its cover, the old adage goes. Wise words indeed. And they’re doubly appropriate when taking about Bizarre Creations’ new blast ‘em up The Club.
At first glance, The Club appears to be another of those brainless shooters with a hefty body count. But dig a little deeper and you discover that this has much more in relation to the developers’ Project Gotham Racing routes than a blood thirsty kill everything that moves title like Stranglehold.
So this illegitimate son of two wildly different genres that shouldn’t really come together has finally arrived, with little fanfare. And what a blooming good ride it is.
They say:
Eurogamer: “The Club is brilliantly immediate, logical and rewarding in ways that the PGR games always were and are.”
Official Xbox Magazine: “It's a one trick pony but does it matter when the trick is this damn good? Buckle up and enjoy the ride.”
VideoGamer: “The Club is one of the finest examples of bringing the essence of arcade gaming to modern consoles and a game no adrenaline junkie should pass up.”
We say:
In essence The Club is your standard run and gun shooter that offers up a score for dispatching hundreds of enemies. But instead of a long winded story and a mass of levels to complete, you’re encouraged to replay the large number of challenges to attain the best score you can manage. Gears of War this isn’t.
The Club is sold as a brand new bloodthirsty sport for the masses to enjoy. Think Fight Club but with automatic weapons and you won’t be far off. There’s eight characters on offer and a wide variety of challenges across its various worlds. The more points you get, the higher up the leader board you go. Simple enough.
As you’d expect, all the challenges involve flooring as many bad guys as possible, but each has a different set of rules that call for new approaches to the mayhem. While Sprint and Run the Gauntlet both have you running to find the exit all the while blasting away at enemies, Seige forces you to stick to a designated area and defend for all your worth.
How you score the top points differs from challenge to challenge, but all require you keep close track on your Killbar. Score a kill and your combo increases, allowing for bigger scores. Score multiple kills and your combo spirals to dizzying heights.
The Killbar is also important for another reason. It’s constantly depleting and if you let it fall to the bottom you can kiss the top scores goodbye. You’ll find yourself charging around these levels to keep your Killbar up. Sedate isn’t the word.
Each challenge only takes a couple of minutes to complete so if your only aim is to see every world you’ll be done pretty quickly. You’d be missing the point though. The real thrill here comes from replaying challenges over and over for whopping scores. Once you’re hooked, we guarantee you’ll be blasting for hours to nudge your points ever higher.
Head shots achieve more points than a close range shotgun blast to the chest. Similarly long range efforts are rewarded with considerably more points than a close up blast of machinegun fire. It’s all there to encourage experimentation and it works a treat.
Full Live functionality means that your highest scores are available for all to see. Shoving a friend off the top of the leader board is a prize you’ll fight tooth and nail for.
OK so The Club isn’t the greatest looking game in the world. It’s way behind the likes of Call of Duty 4 or Assassin’s Creed, but the hectic pace more than makes up for it. Trust us, you won’t have much time to take in the scenery anyway.
A few extra challenges could have increased longevity, plus the online mode fails to capture the manic fragging feel of the single player.
But those few flaws aside, The Club is an addictive thrill ride that deserves your attention. It takes us back to occupying all top ten slots on Space Invaders down the arcades years ago sighs.
Like this? Try these:
Project Gotham Racing 4 – Xbox 360
Devil May Cry 4 – PS3, Xbox 360
PacMan – Just about everything
FORMAT REVIEWED
Xbox 360
OTHER FORMATS
PS3
POSTED...
Tue 11 Mar at 11:27am
