The Club is a Bizarre Creations game which according to them is "sure to refresh the mechanics of 3rd person action shooters just as we have shaken up the racing genre. The Club is designed to be an addictive experience with rewarding gameplay that tests your skill to the limit and offers a relentless pace never before seen within the genre."

Some pretty bold claims indeed, however I urge you to let me break it all down into layman's terms. The Club is basically a game in which you run around, shooting enemies as fast and accurately as possible to get as high a score as you can, via a multiplier system. It sure doesn't sound quite as appealing as the PR fluff so I will elaborate.

Can't catch me !

The game is basically mixing two genres, the classic mechanics of an old arcade game within a high gloss first person shooter. To be fair to Bizarre Creations they certainly are attempting to push the envelope a little because I don't think I have played anything quite like it before.

You enter each section of The Club, or circuit with the aim to kill everyone in your path and you have to progress from the start to the finish while taking out the armed men as fast as you can to earn points, every time you make a kill, your score multiplier increases, while each passing second drains a multiplier meter, lowering your score bonuses... phew. If you chain together a bunch of headshots then that multi meter will be bouncing around like a jack in the box. Skull signs randomly scattered around the levels also aid your multiplier boost, if you manage to shoot them between the human onslaught that is.

This concept really rewards those who are willing to replay the same level multiple times, because on first play you really are learning the layout as well as bad guy positions. Playing the same level three or four times will certainly improve the scores as your reflexes become honed to every little design nuance. The score is in fact the whole purpose of the game as you are competing with other members of this Club, a little like you would in Unreal Tournament except it is score based, not kill based.

Guys, does this yellow suit go with my blue mask?

The game is easy to pick up and play, however really high scores are only accomplished by a lot of playing time. Headshots are the quick way to get high scores and if you manage to rack up 4 or 5 in a row the sense of accomplishment is extremely high, I was grinning like a madman on the rare occasions I fluked it. This is in fact one of the games issues, the thumbstick is just not a good enough control method to accurately nail these kind of shots consistently , give me a mouse and keyboard any day! Playing devil's advocate, after 6 hours of constant game play I was adapting to the less than intuitive control method and I could even feel my reflexes improving. So initially, even though I hated the whole concept I found some merit in the playing metholodogy, learning to string together long flowing kill combos. I even felt myself entering "the zone" on a few occasions. I am aware this makes me sound like teenager in a Placebo t-shirt shouting "head shot" into his headset mic, but I am wayyyy too cool for that. No really.

The game will not appeal to everyone, the single player mode is the core of the game as you work harder to get higher scores, learning the levels and mastering the finer points of control to get as many head shots as you possibly can. With every success you climb higher and higher up the ladder board, chasing the top position. If these high intensity score attack games aren't your bag then this is just the wrong game to be even contemplating, even with the unlockable end sequences the storyline is just an afterthought. Basically you are a warrior feeding the frenzy of a secret society who like to watch people killing each other, the story is never elaborated into any great depth and it is purely there to add some kind of background to the high action combat gameplay.

Hello did anyone call for a window cleaner?

You can pick from a variety of characters, each with a different level of speed, attack strength and endurance, but at the end of the day, it's all about the killing, so the character selection is just personal taste tailored to your fighting style. I always choose a high endurance character as it gives you a little more scope for taking damage as you aim for those headshots.

Equally so, there is no level of tactical or stealth strategy to be gained from The Club, you have to keep on the move or your multipliers decrease with every passing second meaning you will fall further down the ladder. Regardless of the character you take, every one of them can withstand an inhuman amount of damage and with the two toughest guys it is quite difficult to die, unless you are extremely sloppy. If you are killed it will be due to you accidentally wandering into an open room with a large amount of foes in it. Time for a replay.

The NPC's are quite lame really, sure they fire a lot, but they don't inflict a huge amount of damage and they feel somewhat like glorified 3d wooden targets. The AI isn't even a consideration, never mind a weak point.

Ok who nicked my Bob Marley Cd?

Graphically both Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 versions look almost identical. I haven't spent a lot of time analysing the aliasing or the lighting, however after extended gameplay with both it was hard to tell which one I was playing. This would be a good thing for Playstation 3 owners if the game was up to Gears Of Wars standard but sadly it isn't. Technically, it looks well enough and the framerates are smooth, however the player characters and enemies are just the usual, run of the mill in game dudes we have seen a hundred times before. The level design equally so, is firmly footed in a city/urban theme, so they all are surrounded in metal and concrete. It is hard to nail it down, but it's all just so completely nondescript.

If like me, you love gore, and humour, then given the nature of this game you will be as disappointed as I was to notice that there is a distinct lack of both. I wasn't quite looking for a Soldier Of Fortune levels of body parts spraying over the screen, but just more a visual recognition that I had perfectly aimed that heatshot for the 4x multiplier. Clearly Bizarre have decided to opt purely for a high adrenaline fuelled shooter firmly intent with you, the player aiming to get the highest, baddest score you can, however if they had put a little more effort in coming up with memorable environments and spent a little more time on the character development I feel more people would find it attractive to play.

Hey baldy up here, follow the arrows !

So what about multiplayer? well this is confusing. The single player mode is actually the primary multiplayer game without additional human players, the true multiplayer modes in the game are actually variations of the traditional death match games we all know. Why not include a single player cooperative style mode, with you and a buddy fighting as a team against the foes, or even as enemies in a battle to achieve the highest leader board scores taking out the AI? In this game it's all about mass carnage, so a deathmatch with 5 or 6 human people just doesn't have the edge the game is so keen on promoting. I am sure there will be competition on the global leader board however.

So, summing up, The Club is a mixed bag. Bizarre Creations have released a game with the sole purpose of getting gamers into a adrenaline fuelled "killing zone", ranking up scores and timing headshots one after another. What it does, it does very well, and it can be great fun to play. The game however falls down with a lack of attention to detail both in the environments and character design, the AI is non-existent and to many it will be a just another game on the shelves in their local store. There will be, however a group of people wanting to improve their reflexes and with a perseverance to be the meanest killing machine on the leader boards. For those of you who fall into this bracket, this will be a gloriously addictive title. I fall into the latter group and I have thoroughly enjoyed reviewing this game, but my recommendation is given with reservations. As always if you are undecided, I recommend a rental.