The Club (X360) Review

The Club

From the creators of great titles such as Geometry Wars and the project Gotham racing series comes a new style of shooter: The Club. Bizarre Creations has been pretty well known to make impact games, ones that push the barrier and that bring something new to the table; The Club is a great example of their work. The title shows off a new concept of shooters and does it pretty well. With its Crackdown like feel and racing game roots, the game should sit well with hardcore gamers and those just looking for a good time. Suit up and welcome to the club.

Visuals – 8/10

Don’t get me wrong, The Club is not a graphical benchmark among games but it doesn’t do anything bad. Visually, The Club is par with most other Xbox 360 titles on the market that aren’t trying to be the bells of the ball. It gets the job done on the kind of feeling a player gets while playing the game. It isn’t too cartoony while it is not too realistic.

Shading in The Club is completely horrible. Multiple times throughout the game players will only be able to pick out those shooting at them by their enemies bullet trails instead of actually being able to see the body which is shooting at you. Even looking closer, or scoping, does not help in this regard. On occasion players might find themselves running straight past a few enemies, yes more than one, without even knowing they are there until they begin shooting. It’s very frustrating especially when the game focuses on killing a lot of people really fast.
The game does shine however in explosions. In a game based around blowing things up and killing people, it better look pretty good. Also, the game gives a good attention to detail at points. Facial details are pretty good, on the playable characters, but enemies look like the bad guys from Crackdown or Saints Row. Landscapes and arenas look dirty and grim that really add life to the game, it makes the player feel as if where they are ties to the concept of the title, shoot first ask questions; never.

Sound – 7/10

Bizarre really took the bungie rout when it came to an in-game commentator. It does however, work extremely well. Hearing the very deep and authority like voice heightens the arcade style the game displays. Environments and weapons sound spot on, just like they should. Nothing sounds out of place that would make the game awkward, but nothing sounds really too realistic that you would be able to decipher which gun a player is shooting without looking at it.

Menus shine well and pump the adrenaline while waiting to shoot people. Also, the in-game audio works well with the type of game you’re playing. The Club did receive a low score however because things could have been done a lot better. Nothing sounds really bad, but at the same time nothing really sounds so great that you’ll be writing home about it.

GamePlay - 7.5/10

Shoot fast, aim quick, and try not to think because if you do you’re going to lose points. Bizarre has brought a very good new concept to shooting games when it comes to The Club. Instead of a campaign filled with some compelling story, The Club focuses on style and the basic ability to press a button. There is nothing too complicated about the game, which makes it hard. The concept is so easy and the actual gameplay is rather intuitive and makes players want to continue, for a certain time. However, after playing for awhile some players may get a little bored because nothing really new pops up as the game progresses. New styles and techniques make the game more fluid but it’s like a racing game really. The courses change but the core gameplay stays the same; Running and shooting, running and shooting.

The Club is something straight out of the movie Running Man but just in game form. You could think of it as the Daytona 500 of shooting, instead of racing a car in circles, you’ll be running in circles shooting people, explosive-barrels, and skull-in-cross bones metallic signs. Now, it doesn’t seem like a good concept but Bizarre made the game fun. It’s thrilling and challenging as it is easy. It’s not as complicated as Rainbow Six: Vegas but not as simple as Call of Duty 4. The game is based around a point system that really focuses on style and combos. The overall objective is to gain the most amount of points in a round which will give you a certain about of points for the overall tournament. Think of it as Mario Kart on crack, if a player scores the most amount of points in the first round of the tournament they get 10 points toward their overall final score, just like a first place in Mario Kart would, rounds go on the same way.

The actual gameplay is really adrenaline pumping, for a short while. After around one tournament run-through some players will start to feel a little robbed by the whole experience since things become more-and-more harder as the tournament rolls on. Nothing is so “hard” that will turn people away, but it doesn’t make a player feel as accomplished when the only way they can win a round is by having to be an expert at the game, which might deter some players.

If you can get past the fact that you’re probably not going to win you’re first dozen times through, then the game is really fun. The point system is rather hard to understand since it seems like points will generate out of nowhere for nothing but when you are attempting to get a higher score it is impossible, so the best way would be to not think and just go with the flow. Eventually though enough gameplay, skills and certain little details will be discovered.

The Club is filled with eight different playable characters, none of which make the game too different that you’ll have your favorite to pick. Picking a character in The Club is like picking a snow boarder in any SSX title. You’re pretty much picking that person because of their look and not for what they can do, which makes the game easy with no thinking involved. The Club does however, have a large array of map selection, kind of like a racing a game. Each map is different but none change it up enough to make the player feel as if they are playing through something new, like a new mission in any other shooter title. As time rolled on the game became more of grueling task rather than a fun one. This is a type of game players will want when their time in their lives aren’t as abundant, meaning if you have 10 minutes to play a game before you go out somewhere The Club would not be a bad option to play from time to time. Which makes the game nowhere near worth the $60 slate it’s been plagued with, renting however is a completely different option. I would suggest everyone to rent this title at least once.

Longevity – 5/10

The different skill levels leave room for players to play through courses again and again, but it only gives players the option, whether or not the player will want to is another story. Personally, I would only go back through the tournaments for achievements, and we all know how that goes. There isn’t a real satisfaction factor when one actually completes a tournament besides, thank god it’s over now give me those 10 freakin’ points, which will draw most players away. Granted, if a player is really into racing games or likes to just keep upping the ante then maybe the amount of time playing will increase, but for the most part one time though will be enough to get the point.

The actual “multiplayer” aspect that The Club brings along with it is nothing too special either. It’s like what crackdown would have been if agents could fight each other with less exciting weapons and no jumping ability; expect there is no auto-aim. So if that strikes your fancy then The Club’s multiplayer range might suit you pretty well.

The amount of content that players could play is pretty significant but they want to actually play through them more-than-likely isn’t there. Possibility some community features could of made people want to play more, like on-line stats or something of that sort, but right now the only thing driving players to go through levels again would be for their own personal gain, because really who looks at on-line leader boards over the Xbox? Yeah, thought you didn’t.

Conclusion

The Club is like a good movie with a bad ending. It starts out well and grabs the attention of the player but quickly looses it as time rolls on. The initial wow factor and the concept mean well but just weren’t completely done correctly to keep people wanting to play. Now, I would highly suggest everyone get a crack at The Club. It’s really fun and the experience would make anyone enjoyable until they’ve beaten the game one time completely through.

It’s bad to say but it seems like publishers are banking on achievements to keep people playing their product. Without achievements I wouldn’t see why anyone would really play through a tournament more than once, or even that initial time. So more-or-less if you’re an achievement whore this game should set well with you; if you’re looking for something to curb the bad taste in your mouth left my Halo 3 fanatics and the swarms of people who indulge themselves in Call of Duty 4, looks like you’re going to have to wait a little while longer until Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 hits the selves.