Sega Nerds

Review: The Club (Xbox 360)

by Graham on February 8th, 2008

It has been nearly a week since the “Guns ‘N Gore Event” at Sega Europe HQ, where we were treated to a test run of Condemned 2: Bloodshot (which I still can’t talk about - sorry) and The Club.

Well, since then, I have spent the better part of a week playing the final version of The Club and getting to know the ins and outs of the game.

Now, one thing I should point out is that when I first heard about The Club, I had my doubts. Then, I saw an early development video, and to be frank, I thought I was looking at one of the worst games I had ever seen. It wasn’t just the graphics (though they were bad at the time), but the gameplay looked boring and the sound was terrible – the guns sounding like pea-shooters. I am happy to say that absolutely everything has been improved, and it was later revealed that Bizarre had never wished for the mentioned video to be leaked onto the net.

For those who don’t know, The Club is defined as an “Action Shooter” but is very different from pretty much any other shooting game to date. The general idea behind the game is to bring shooting games back to their roots, in the arcades, with point scoring/beating a main priority. What Bizarre Creations decided to do is mix the genres of racing and shooting together to help achieve the game’s unique status.

Rather than having a set series of levels, which you go through and kill everyone around, the levels have a few pre-determined courses within the levels. And rather than just killing everyone, the objective is to gain the maximum amount of points by killing in style.

There is a rough story to The Club – to help give the characters you play as some meaning and purpose. But the guys at Bizarre did point out that, in many respects, the stories for each character should be more of an afterthought for the gamer. So while you do get to learn a little bit about each character and why they are in The Club, you won’t ever find out their life stories.

One question many might raise is “What exactly is ‘The Club?’” (Not referring to the game as a whole, but the organisation within the game).

The Club is supposed to be a top-secret organisation, founded and funded by some of the most powerful people and companies (and possibly governments) the world over. The idea is that The Club has bought/built great arenas around the world, some within cities, which are kept secret from all but the members.

A good example is one level set in a cornered-off section of Venice – The Club is so rich and powerful that they can afford to buy part of the city and keep the activities within quiet from residents and the government.

The idea being that people are brought into The Club, to fight for their lives, but each character has a different story and reason for being there.

For example, one character, Seager, is a rich adrenaline addict, who feels he has done most of the normal extreme sports the world has to offer, and needs a new fix, and he actually pays to enter the tournament. Another character is Finn, a gambler, who now owes the wrong people a large amount of money; he has been forced to enter the tournament to pay off his debts.

So the characters have some good variety, and you will no doubt fall in love with some of them, choosing your favourite to play with.

How does the gameplay work out?

The game plays as you would expect with any other third person shooter. The game’s concept may be quite unique, but fortunately, the actual button presses are very normal and very easy, allowing gamers to instantly pick up and play the game.

Now, you can quite easily play the game like any other third person shooter – running in gung-ho, spraying bullets around and casually killing any enemies who come your way. You may even finish a level or two doing this, but you won’t get far in the tournament rankings or a very high score.

To keep the idea of point scoring a big factor within the gameplay, Bizarre has made it so that players need to link their kills, to rack up a decent score. Once you kill someone, you kick off a multiplier that raises with each successful kill. However, there’s a multiplier gauge that counts down in between your kills. If you allow your countdown gauge to run out before your next kill, you’ll lose your multiplier.

So if you kill one person and then another within a few seconds, you’ll get a multiplier of X2, then the points you gain from the next kill, which is different depending on how you kill them (i.e. A headshot is worth more than a shot to the gut), will be worth those initial points multiplied by the multiplier.

So if you get 1,000 points for a headshot, but have a multiplier of X3, that single kill will now be worth 3,000 points.

To make it a bit easier to keep your multipliers alive, there are Skull Shots, little signs that you shoot, littered through each level. You don’t get any points for shooting them, but they allow you to keep your multiplier up, which ultimately enables you to keep on getting a high score.

If you ran through a level in the same way as any other shooter, casually killing and not taking too much care with your shots, you would most likely get an average score of 200,000 (depending on the level, of course). But if you play, taking care with your aim, using the level to your advantage and racking up a high multiplier, by the end of the level, your score can quite easily hit one million points.

But one key factor within the game is the concept of replayability. I highly doubt anyone could get a top score on his first go on any level within the game. The game has been designed so that players need to learn the levels and courses to keep the kills coming thick and fast.

This is one thing I really love about the game - it’s so effing addictive!

More often than not, you will play through a level and get a decent enough score, but you know you can do better, and if you are like me, you will keep going back over and over trying to get a better score each time.

One other addictive aspect about the game, depending on how you look at it, is how pretty much everything is locked at the beginning. By playing through the game, you’ll begin unlocking things. This may annoy some gamers, but in my eyes it’s good, as it gives the gamer something to aim for … other than Achievements.

However, everything isn’t as rosy as it may seem. One thing that I found a little annoying was the aiming. You have a reticule on screen at all times, which is good, but when you want to get a better aim, you can hold down the aim button, which brings the camera closer to your character, allowing you to see your targets and the cross hair better.

That is all normal, but my problem lies when firing in the aim view. For some reason, I find that the bullets tend to veer off to the right ever so slightly when aiming. This isn’t a huge problem if the enemy is stationary, but I find it quite a challenge to take down moving targets effectively while aiming.

A game made for two or more?

Not only is the single player very fun and addictive, the multiplayer also hits the mark, as far as I’m concerned. The Club has many different modes, and while most of them are typical, there are a couple of modes you won’t find in other games.

I have only really had a chance to play on the standard death match, as far as multiplayer goes. It is the typical death match where you run around a level finding weapons and ammo to take down the other players and obtain the highest kill count.

You actually play on the levels from the single player mode of the game, but the levels no longer have set routes you have to follow, they have been opened up to allow for more space … and fun for the extra players.

However, when playing with only two or three people, some of the levels do feel too big. At the Guns ‘N Gore Event, I ended up actually having to ask people roughly where they were, simply because I had been running around for a few minutes not seeing anyone. As it turns out, we just kept missing each other.

Thankfully, this is only a problem with a small number of players, because we also played with more players that day and found it to be really enjoyable all round. The weapons you use are pretty well balanced, and fun (like the chain-gun or rockets).

One thing I will say over some other death match games is The Club requires more accuracy if you want to win. You can just roughly aim and hold down fire to get kills. But I found that, just like in the single-player mode, if you actually aim properly, you can get kills faster and more effectively. In fact, (not meaning to boast) every death match I played that day, I won just because I went for headshots whenever I could.

How about them there visuals?

Graphically, The Club is nothing to write home about, but I think even Bizarre would agree with that. You don’t get the fantastic attention to detail or brilliant lighting effects found in most Xbox 360 or PS3 titles these days.

However, while you won’t be blown away by anything you see, the graphics are still good. The key areas that need the detail (like the main characters) have been dealt with, and there is plenty on screen to keep your eyes satisfied. It’s only when you stand still and look up close that you notice any problems in detail.

You get to see some pretty cool explosions and level damage (like bullets tearing up pillars), so the game isn’t void of special visuals, and while I say the graphics won’t impress, I really don’t think they disappoint either. Truthfully, I think perhaps my mind has been warped from playing other games that rely more on impressive visuals than new types of gameplay.

But the chances are, if you’re playing the game correctly, you won’t be standing around to enjoy the scenery much, because the game is more about speed and skill than just looking good.

Sounding good?

As I mentioned before, when an early development video was first shown, the audio was dreadful. The guns sounded like pea-shooters and explosions looked and sounded really shitty.

Luckily, the game drastically improved during development, which just goes to show that gamers shouldn’t take too much notice of early videos, but also developers should try their hardest not to let videos leak out so easily.

While the guns may not sound quite as heavy as some people would hope, they do sound good now, and the explosions sound so much better than before.

Perhaps one of the best aspects of the game aside from its great gameplay is the music. Most of the music in the game has been composed by a man whose name I failed to pronounce correctly in my recent interview with Bizarre – the genius that is Richard Jacques (Head Hunter, Jet Set/Grind Radio, and more). But while the music is pretty great, I also think that it is perhaps not some of Richard’s best work. I’m just being picky here, but I really preferred the music from Head Hunter.

Don’t get me wrong, though it’s well performed and matches the game pretty well, but it doesn’t have those tunes that’ll stick in your mind long after you put down the controller.

Summary:

The guys at Bizarre have said that this is their “Marmite game” – either you will love it or you will hate it. Personally I love it.

I had my doubts, but when it came down to playing the game, I really got into it. It’s quite rare these days to find a traditionally addictive game. Most games will draw you in, using an expansive world or deep character driven plot. Not The Club.

While the concept of point scoring is pretty old, because the idea hasn’t been used in modern games, it gives the game a fresh feel about it, and that alone should be enough to get gamers to give it a try.

I am so tempted to give the game a 9/10, but I feel it has been let down in a few areas. Needless to say though, this is a great game.

Final Thoughts:

A highly addictive, fast-paced and unique shooter. Buy it.

8/10 - Great

Tags: The Club

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POSTED IN: Europe, G, Microsoft Xbox 360, PC, Review, Sony PlayStation 3