Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1178 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Sega
• Released on: 2008-02-08
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Platform: PLAYSTATION 3

Manufacturer's Description

SEGA and Bizarre Creations, the developer behind the critically acclaimed racing series, Project Gotham Racing and arcade smash hit Geometry Wars, deliver a whole new breed of third-person shooter known as The Clubâ„¢.

Join a misfit cast of killers forced to fight for their lives in an underground blood-sport controlled by faceless, obscenely wealthy and influential elite. Battling in abandoned locations spread across the globe these modern day gladiators with guns seek victory for a number of reasons - some for wealth, some because they have no choice and some to satisfy their insane bloodlust. No matter the reason the only thing that guarantees survival is their skill with a gun.

Customer Reviews

Not the best game, but the most addictive!
After I had read some very mixed reviews on this game I was not sure whether or not to buy it. Please don't make the same mistake.

After I eventually decided to buy it I never looked back. It is a very unique game and one which requires a great understanding of the way in which sega works. They are very unpredictable and come up with the most bizarre ideas... and this one worked brilliantly.

If you have playstation network then you will probably find it hard to pull yourself away from the addictive online multiplayer version of the game, where you can challenge up to 7 other players from around the world. Even if you do not have network play it is still very addictive, with many modes of multiplayer games.

However, this game is a bit like marmite... you either love it or you hate it. But what I am saying is, don't disregard it until you have played it yourself. It is a great deal of fun and has an interesting structure to it. Staying objective here however, I would like to point out the downside of this game. It does get a bit repetetive when playing single player mode, as you basically replay the levels over and over again. Do not let this put you off of a wonderful game though.

I hope this review helped those of you who have a bad taste in your mouth about this game. Thank you for taking the time to read it.

A Proud Member of The Club
The Club: either you get it or you don't. The Club is all about speed and accuracy, rhythm and repetition. There's no story. There's no cutscenes. The game is about a corrupt organization of rich men who organize an underground competition to see how long you can survive. You learn this in the tutorial and a 2 minutes intro video for all the characters at the start of the game. You have eight contestants to play as. Their differences are basically down to speed and damage. While some of them are faster but take lots of damage, the others are stronger but slower. All the characters are stylish if a bit cliché. There's the strong Siberian dude, the tough cop trying to take down The Club, the agile Japanese, the African guy with tribe markings on his face or the radical sports freak. There's not much difference playing as one or the other, it's pretty much about your favourite character and if you want speed or stamina. They're all charismatic and cool.
The whole objective of the game is to rack up as much deaths as possible. If you spend too much time without killing someone, your combo lowers. Anytime you kill someone the score is multiplied by whatever your combo is at the time, so you need to kill as fast as you can. You have to know the levels and where the bad guys appear. They're always at the same places so you can memorize the pattern and choose the order of killing for getting the biggest combo you can.
There are 8 locations where you play tournaments. Venice, a steel mill, a mansion and even the middle of a war. The graphics are average but there's a good level of detail in the levels. The music is perfect for the fast paced action.
There's never a dull moment in The Club. There's no cover system because that would go against the objective of the game. You're always running, trying to keep your combo from going down, looking for a guy to kill. The game is not difficult but can be challenging. The AI is nothing extraordinary but there are a lot of enemies and things get very intense. There are various game modes. In Survivor you have to survive a set amount of time in a closed location, being attacked from all sides. In Run The Gauntlet you have to reach the end of the level before time runs out and in Time Trial you gain time as you kill enemies to do a number of laps around the level. If time runs out, you die. In Siege, you're in a confined area, shooting from long range at the enemies.
The online multiplayer also has a good amount of modes but all people play is kill match or team kill match. These are the usual modes everyone knows from every multiplayer game. In The Club you start with a weapon which is usually bad and have to find a more powerful weapon in the level. What happens is that the players that know the maps better always get the better weapons and dominate play which can sometimes be very frustrating. Still, it can be fun.
The Club is an old school game. There's no story progression, no plot, its just shooting. If that's your style, you will love it. If you're looking for CoD4 or Halo, look elsewhere. This is a simple, addictive game. You have numerous leaderboards and you'll soon be playing the level just one more time to climb a few more spots, beat your record, get that perfect combo. In terms of longevity, it never ends. It's not an innovating game. Its gameplay is repetitive and over time can become tedious but it's also a lot of fun.
I'm happy to be a member of The Club.

Ruined by unfinished online component.
The main single player game will be allot of fun if you like to hone your arcade skills with multiple plays through the same level. I didn't enjoy it that much but I really bought The Club for it's online multiplayer.

Unfortunately the lack of a friend list or any way to lock hosted games to specified users means that there's no way for me to play on a server with friends. Every online session is with a random collection of players. This is fun for a while but it quickly becomes boring especially as there is also no voice support online so there's no way of working out tactics with your ad-hoc team as you play.

The 360 version isn't missing these online options probably because Microsoft wouldn't sign off on it's release without them. However as they weren't required for the PS3 release they just haven't been done. It's ruined what would have been one of the PS3's better games.