The Club

By Alan Bell

You’ve seen shooters before, of that there’s no question. First person, third person or the currently in vogue “only just” third person (over the shoulder camera), chances are good you’ve seen, played and probably own several of them – regardless of what system you’ve got. If, then, we were to describe Bizarre Creation’s (creators of the Project Gotham Racing series) The Club as an over-the-shoulder (a-la Gears of War) shooter, you’d probably feel like you had a good idea of what to expect.

You’d be wrong. Very wrong. Well sorta. But “very wrong” makes for a dramatic start to this preview so we’ll run with that.

The Club turns the current trend towards ultra realism on its ear; sure, it’s real nice looking with a serious realistic bent to the graphics, but that’s where reality stops looking and goes off to play some Twister with the cars from PGR. The Club is all about score. It’s like the videogames of old, before achievements, online, before 3D. The goal is to get as many points as possible.

You’ll get, for example, more points for a headshot than you would for a body shot. Killing someone increments your combo counter – which immediately starts counting down. Kill someone else before the time runs out and your combo meter will keep counting up. All of which, of course, affects your score.

There are also multiple modes (set across multiple levels, of course), which pit you against various challenges (such as beating the clock), all of which are graded against the glorious standard of your points total. There are multiple characters to select from (eight – laid out just like Street Fighter II), each of which has a unique look and gameplay trait to them.

In single player mode, the enemies are laid out (or spawn) at strategic positions over the level, which you advance through (as opposed to simply run around in, like in a deathmatch game) in your attempt to beat the level goal or your previous score. They’re not AI “bots” that attempt to replicate human behaviour (a-la Quake 3 Arena). In multi player mode, all bets are off as you attempt to wrack up huge scores against other like-minded individuals.

There are loads of multiplayer modes:
• Kill Match (classic free for all death-match)
• Team Kill Match (team death-match)
• Score Match (death-match but the goal is score, not kills)
• Hunter Hunted (kill the hunted player to become the hunted – only the hunted can score)
• Team Fox Hunt (kill the enemy’s randomly selected “fox” player)
• Team Fox Objective (get your fox into the enemy hen house for a certain period of time)
• Team Siege (defenders have only one life)
• Team Skull Shot (destroy five enemy “skull” targets before the enemy destroy yours)

There are also a number of fun-sounding single player modes which, in addition to training you up on the ins and outs of the combo system and controls, also sound like a blast to have some turn-about fun with your mates as you attempt to beat each others’ high scores.

The Club is coming to Xbox 360, PC and PS3 this week (Feb 8th) – and there’s a demo out now that lets you taste a couple of modes, if you just can’t wait (on all platforms). The second it hits we’ll be all over it and let you know if this is a club you want to get into.


A new demo has just been released for The Club, check it out here

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