Product Reviews

This action game's a little different from the norm. Like an arcade game of yesteryear, The Club is all about the high scores. There's no storyline to speak of, and no purpose other than to gun down legions of pop-up men as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Clearly, it's an acquired taste. The challenge is one of reflex and memory, not tactics or puzzle-solving. Each successful kill increases a score multiplier. If you don't kill again within the next few seconds, that multiplier will fade away. So it's a matter of running the few, and relentlessly similar, levels again and again until you've learned them. To appear high on the online leaderboard, you will

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need to have memorised every dead end, every corner a baddie will appear from, every one of the hidden icons that grant bonus points. It's a racing game in disguise, and a constant quest for self-improvement.

If you don't have any interest in appearing on that leaderboard, The Club isn't for you. There's no satisfaction from merely completing a course. You must either practise constantly to maintain your place on those boards, or simply not bother. This game requires serious concentration, bordering on obsession.

The Club would be more accessible if it didn't play things so depressingly straight. It's a ridiculous idea for a game, but it doesn't ever laugh about it. It's just grim men, with grim faces. Also disappointing is the multiplayer mode. The legions of computer-controlled men aren't available when you're playing online. Instead, it's you versus seven human players in a few unadventurous death-match modes.

Still, it's a brave refocusing on what's at the heart of an action game: shooting accurately. Where other games get bogged down in overwritten storylines, this one is built for unceasing adrenaline. It's not for everyone, but if you're interested in constantly challenging yourself, there's nothing else quite like it.