- Title: The Club
- Platform:Xbox 360
- Publisher: SEGA
- Developer: Bizarre Creations
- ESRB Rating: “M” for Mature
- Genre: Arcade TPS
- Pros: Fast pace; addictive; arcade , high score-style gameplay is a hoot; lots to do
- Cons: Presentation is only so-so
- Achievements: Good mix between single and multiplayer.
Features
The first thing you need to know about The Club is that it isn’t a story-based game where you are playing simply to get to the next level. The tiny shred of story that does exist is entirely unimportant, and your goal is to kill enemies as stylishly as possible in order to set new high scores. This is an arcade-style game through and through, and that is why it is such a smashing success.
The main single-player mode is Tournament mode where you pick a “track” (one of a handful of different levels) and then you play through several different events and earn points just like a racing game. Events include simply getting to the exit of a level, having to stay in a limited space and survive until a time limit, time challenges where killing enemies put more time on the clock, and there are even events where a course is laid out through a level and you have to literally run laps.
Multiplayer is also a big part of The Club. Every single-player event has a leaderboard you can try to top, which is nice. And you can also, of course, play competitive and team games on both Xbox Live and in splitscreen.
Gameplay
The gameplay is very fast paced and controls well enough, but I wouldn’t call the actual nuts and bolts of it all that spectacular. You move around, and shoot stuff and toss grenades, and you can roll, and that is pretty much it. The levels are very small and are beaten very quickly. If this were a normal third-person-shooter, it would be downright boring and clunky. But the style of the game makes up for this. The carrot of having high scores to top keeps you coming back until you learn the layout of each level and learn how to use each and every weapon to its fullest. Then the little voice in the back of your mind takes over, telling you to keep playing just one more game until you beat your high score, and before you know it, hours have passed by. That is The Club in a nutshell. It isn’t the prettiest girl at the dance, but the one you are probably going to have the most fun with.
Graphics and Sound
As far as the presentation goes, I’m kind of torn. The environments are detailed and your chosen character looks good, but the enemies are bland clones of each other and the game overall has kind of a bland look thanks to the limited “next gen” color palate that seems to consist only of grays and browns. The sound is pretty poor all around. Generic music and sound effects topped off by a way too excited, way too stereotypical “ARCADE!” announcer.Bottom Line
