REVIEW: THE CLUB
Reviewed on PS3. Also on Xbox 360, PC Developed by Bizarre Creations. Published by Sega
The Club is a 3rd person shooter that incorporates elements from other games such as BC’s own PGR series and Tony Hawk games amongst others. The premise is so slight (its usually the sort of premise you get when a programmer has to justify the setting)- you are a bad ass who gets trapped in a Club where you basically have to kill or be killed. Its one very small step up from “in the future violence is televised so here’s arena combat.”
You pick one of the available characters and compete with him, unlocking new levels as you go. Each setting has a few different game modes you need to beat in order to progress. They generally start with ” just get to the end of the level,” then “get to the end of the level before the timer runs out” (with extra time granted for stunts, kills, etc), “survive in one area until the timer runs out” and variations of the three.
So its really a simple third person shooter than controls OK with super macho characters in a silly story mode that’s just an excuse to do time attack in a shooting game. Its all about best times, high scores and rankings. Tony Hawk style shooting tricks, score multipliers and lots of shooting. This is a game where you could in theory beat the story mode in an evening but the replay possibilities with the different characters mean the game can last you as long as you’d like. Of course, having been out for some 18 months and not made that much of an impression on the larger market, you might find online a bit of a graveyard here but the reason this game is actually import ant may not become apparent for a few years.
Namco released a game called Kill.Switch back in the PS2/ Xbox era. It didn’t do all that well, but when its main shooting mechanic of stop and pop was popularised by Gears of War and Uncharted, there were many disgruntled fanboys who bubbled to the top of the forum pages to point out that Kill.Switch did it first. The Club wasn’t a hit but it is a game that developers mention a lot as an influence on their latest game: “It’s a bit like The Club.”
What’s this got to do with the price of NAND chips in China? Well, The Club is dirt cheap and for a small outlay, my friends, you can be one of the first to post on GAF how a new Xbox 720/PS4 shooter is just The Club. Or you could just play The Club as a cheap date now and have fun with it.
Controller1.com rating 2/3 (if it is cheap)
