To understand The Club is easy, as its premise is simple: with such a game, there doesn’t need to be any sort of deep story. By taking ingredients from arcade fighters, rail-shooters and even racing games, The Club melds together simplicity and pure action for a truly entertaining experience.

Upon starting the game you’re introduced to a cast of 8 individuals who have been recruited to participate in a tournament propagated by wealthy elites. Each character has their reason for participating in the event, and just like many arcade fighters, you discover a bit about them via an ending cutscene after completing the game. The goal of the game is to beat out the other 7 competitors across 48 stages, divided among 8 different levels.

Each character has different strengths among three attributes: strength, speed and stamina. For instance, while Dragov may be stronger, he is slower; and although Kuro is fast, he is relatively weak. Such a set-up really isn’t anything new and would work for different playing styles, except for the fact that there doesn’t seem to be any difference when playing between the characters. The real difference comes from changing the difficulty level; by playing as different characters, you’re really only doing so for personal preferences.

While the story is straightforward, it’s not entirely evident as to why each character is there. Aside from an opening scene where all of the contestants are being rounded up for the tournament, there’s little explanation as to why you’re there and what motivates you to just shoot other people. There is a bit of a wrap-up once you unlock the ending sequence for each character, but it is ultimately lacking in terms of any depth, making the game more about getting better scores than others through gratuitous violence.

The best part is, however, none of that really matters. The game is set-up as an arcade title, which is a classification for all action and no fluff. Instead of trying to create complex storylines with lame reasons to replay the entire Tournament mode, The Club makes for instant gratification and action—even to unlock the characters’ endings, all you need to do is play the last level on the easiest setting. What some would see as the game’s pitfall really turns out to be its best strength.

The Club is action. There’s the choice to play through the aforementioned Tournament mode, or single events which are unlocked as you progress through the tournament. True, it’s a little redundant, but if there’s a particular section you really enjoy and want to excel at, better to just play that particular one instead of an entire level.

Each tournament is broken up into 6 or 7 rounds of varying game-types. You’ll either have to stand your ground for a given amount of time, race to a finish before you explode, race laps, or sprint to the end of a section while accumulating as many points as you can. What’s great is no matter what you’re playing, the game runs smoothly on both the 360 and PS3. In-game, the environments are built well and look just right, and the character models themselves move believably and look great for their design.

While running, it may feel a bit reminiscent of Gears of War, complete with heavy breathing and grunting. As you sprint through levels you’ll hear distinct weapon sounds, as well as NPCs yelling your character’s name. The combination of ambient noise, action sounds, and gun chatter all feel right on. The only gripe on the audio side of things is with the soundtrack. The background music is your standard heavy, fast beat, but it really just gets lost in the background and doesn’t detract from the experience.

The game is built on a combo system where the more kills you rack up, and the more stylish they are, the bigger your score gets. For added adrenaline, combo gauges tick away if you aren’t fast to the next kill, making speed and accuracy a necessity. This set-up makes for a never-ending pursuit of perfection. The only downside is that each section plays out the same way for varying game-types: NPCs come from, and hide in, the same places. Although it would have been nice to see varying paths for enemies to keep things unexpected, ratcheting up the difficulty makes things interesting.

The game-types themselves add dynamics to the shooter genre and fit in perfectly with the game. Although it’s a bit morbid, running laps around Venice while killing dozens of enemies to keep your clock ticking is really an interesting twist for shooter fans.

Although playing through the same levels may get a little stale after awhile, The Club offers several multiplayer options which add to the life of the game. While many games neglect local play, The Club allows for four player split screen duals, as well as a bite-sized version of Tournament play. By creating playlists, up to four different players can take turns at a number of game-types to accumulate the largest score.

Also, multiplayer isn’t restricted to offline only, as there are your standard online game-modes with up to 8 players in a single match. Both online and off, there is a wonky hit-detection system which becomes a bit frustrating when trying to kill opponents. Standing still, shooting a guy in the head with a pistol will sometimes kill him, and sometimes not. Unless you’re equipped with a heavier weapon, firefights can end in head scratching and obscenities as you wonder why you didn’t kill the other guy after a good number of shots.

The overall feeling in multiplayer matches is different than many of the titles currently out there, but the difference really isn’t bad and creates more of a niche than anything else.

Whether you’re playing on the 360 or PS3, there aren’t that many differences. While Sony may not have any Achievement system, the same Achievements on the 360 are visible as Acknowledgements in-game on the PS3. There aren’t any real audio or visual differences, but there is a discrepancy in load times. If you’re running The Club on a 360 you’re going to get into the action just a little faster than your Playstation counterparts.

The biggest difference comes online. On one hand, the 360 supports player and ranked matches, delivering global rankings for each game-type as well as overall rankings. However, following matches on the PS3 you won’t get booted offline after the game is over. This is the major downfall of the 360 version. It’s really frustrating to finish a game, return to the multiplayer menu, reconnect, and try to find the same players you were just playing with.

So if you have both formats, the question really becomes: do you want a more user-friendly online experience, or do you want Achievements? Of course, this dilemma is always fixable with a simple patch. But really, if you have a choice, either way you go you’re going to get the same fast-paced, arcade action.

Whether you’re playing it on the 360 or the PS3, The Club is an exceptional title that doesn’t try to do too much. What it does do is deliver a great pick-up-and-play experience where you can spend as much or as little time as you want with it. What’s even better, for the casual gamer looking to dip into the core-gaming world, there’s a spot for you too. The easiest setting will be a breeze for anyone who’s played any shooter before, but the accessibility really allows for newcomers to play. In the end, there’s a few shortcomings with why the characters are there and strange hit detection, but it’s easy to look past once you pick up the controller.

Arcade games are a great way to just play, and The Club delivers for both hardcore and casual players alike with little to complain about.

Gameplay: 8.0
Graphics: 8.5
Audio: 8.0
Lasting Appeal: 8.5
Overall: 8.5

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