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The Club (video game)
Encyclopedia
The Club is a third-person shooter
video game developed by Bizarre Creations
and published by Sega
.
The story of the game centres around The Club, an underground blood sport controlled by a wealthy elite who place their bets on who will survive the gladiatorial-style combat.
s, head shots, and long range shots earn extra points. After each kill, the player has several seconds to get another kill before the bonus multiplier starts to reduce. This interval also reduces the higher the multiplier gets. Icons are scattered throughout each level, offering bonuses. Weapons, ammunition and health are present but the player is not rewarded for picking them up. The Club incorporates elements from racing video games, including time attack
events.
. The multiplayer servers for the PlayStation 3 are now shut down.
The demo was added to the PlayStation Network in the EU region on 27 December 2007, Xbox Live on the 23 January 2008, and on the North American PlayStation Network on the January 24, 2008.
Composer Richard Jacques
wrote the score for the game, while Jesper Kyd
scored the main theme.
's Tom Bramwell complimented it as "a shooter that turns tired genre conventions around with a bullet to the shoulder." but stated that it would be "divisive" due to the game's run and gun mentality, which went against the contemporary trend towards tactical shooter
s. Bramwell pointed out that The Club "does for the third-person shooter what no one else has even bothered trying to do: moving it closer to the 2D shoot-'em-ups of old in a manner that appeals anew."
Andrew Reiner, writing for Game Informer
, mentioned Bizarre Creations' background and its influence on The Club. " The speed-first mentality of the racing genre is cleverly infused into the framework of a run-and-gun shooter...And to truly capture the racing atmosphere, some of the levels have players running laps in specific environments...It may sound odd, but the racing shooter formula works amazingly well." Reiner called The Club "A nice change of pace, and hopefully the beginning of a new genre."
GamePro
reviewer Cameron Lewis wrote "What might be most impressive about The Club is that despite the many disparate elements that it cherry-picks from genres as diverse as racing, skateboarding, and first-person shooters, the whole never bears the disjointed feel of a Frankenstein creation."
IGN
reviewer Alec Meer stated that the scoring system "will prove an immediate turn-off for some." and went on to blame the "fairly dismal" graphics for putting potential players off, saying "It's about how it plays, not how it looks. But if it looked better, more people would want to play it." He praised the gameplay as "it does the job it sets out to do very well." but said the game only had "specialist appeal."
VideoGamer.com's Tom Orry praised The Club as "a game packed full of style, brimming with replay value and demanding of the most skilful players around. This is an arcade shooter like you've never seen before...The Club is one of the finest examples of bringing the essence of arcade gaming to modern consoles."
Edge
called The Club "a heavily structured and well-considered score-attack game.", granting it 7/10.
Third-person shooter
Third-person shooter is a genre of 3D action games in which the player character is visible on-screen, and the gameplay consists primarily of shooting.-Definition:...
video game developed by Bizarre Creations
Bizarre Creations
Bizarre Creations was a video game development studio, best known for their racing titles: Metropolis Street Racer and the followup Project Gotham Racing series . The company has also developed games in other genres, including the Geometry Wars arcade series, plus third-person shooters Fur...
and published by Sega
Sega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
.
The story of the game centres around The Club, an underground blood sport controlled by a wealthy elite who place their bets on who will survive the gladiatorial-style combat.
Plot
The player chooses from a roster of characters who are forced to compete in The Club, a modern form of gladiatorial combat.Gameplay
The Club is played from a third-person perspective. The player must make their way through a level as quickly as possible, or defend one location and survive attacks from respawning enemies for a set amount of time. Gameplay is centred around a score mechanic where each kill acts as a bonus multiplier. Various kill methods, such as ricochetRicochet
A ricochet is a rebound, bounce or skip off a surface, particularly in the case of a projectile. The possibility of ricochet is one of the reasons for the common firearms safety rule "Never shoot at a flat, hard surface."-Variables:...
s, head shots, and long range shots earn extra points. After each kill, the player has several seconds to get another kill before the bonus multiplier starts to reduce. This interval also reduces the higher the multiplier gets. Icons are scattered throughout each level, offering bonuses. Weapons, ammunition and health are present but the player is not rewarded for picking them up. The Club incorporates elements from racing video games, including time attack
Time attack
A time attack is another term for time trial. The term is commonly used in Japan for individual time trial events for motor vehicles that involves a vehicle running around the circuit in lieu of a qualifying lap and the term is widely adopted outside the country for tuner event and...
events.
Multiplayer
The game includes eight multiplayer modes, with online leaderboards to compare scores. Online games can feature up to seven opponents on-line, or four-player local split screenSplit screen (computer graphics)
Split screen is a display technique in computer graphics that consists of dividing graphics and/or text into non-movable adjacent parts, typically two or four rectangular areas. This is done in order to allow the simultaneous presentation of related graphical and textual information on a computer...
. The multiplayer servers for the PlayStation 3 are now shut down.
Development
The title was released globally on February 8, 2008.The demo was added to the PlayStation Network in the EU region on 27 December 2007, Xbox Live on the 23 January 2008, and on the North American PlayStation Network on the January 24, 2008.
Composer Richard Jacques
Richard Jacques
Richard Jacques is a British music composer. He is best known for his video game music, most notably for numerous video games created by Sega.-Early life:...
wrote the score for the game, while Jesper Kyd
Jesper Kyd
Jesper Jakobson Kyd is a Danish video game and film score composer.Kyd combines sounds of dark ambient, electronic and symphonic music and has won many awards. He is also notable for his early work in the Amiga demoscene, where he composed a large amount of music in his teenage years, in...
scored the main theme.
Reception
The Club received positive reviews. EuroGamerEurogamer
Eurogamer is a Brighton-based website focused on video games news, reviews, previews and interviews. It is operated by Eurogamer Network Ltd., which was formed in 1999 by brothers Rupert and Nick Loman. Eurogamer has grown to become one of the most important European-based websites focused on...
's Tom Bramwell complimented it as "a shooter that turns tired genre conventions around with a bullet to the shoulder." but stated that it would be "divisive" due to the game's run and gun mentality, which went against the contemporary trend towards tactical shooter
Tactical shooter
A tactical shooter is a subgenre of shooter game that includes both first-person shooters and third-person shooters. These games typically simulate realistic combat, thus making tactics and caution more important than quick reflexes in other action games...
s. Bramwell pointed out that The Club "does for the third-person shooter what no one else has even bothered trying to do: moving it closer to the 2D shoot-'em-ups of old in a manner that appeals anew."
Andrew Reiner, writing for Game Informer
Game Informer
Game Informer is an American-based monthly magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of popular video games and associated consoles. It was formed in August 1991, when FuncoLand started publishing a six-page magazine, free in all its retail locations...
, mentioned Bizarre Creations' background and its influence on The Club. " The speed-first mentality of the racing genre is cleverly infused into the framework of a run-and-gun shooter...And to truly capture the racing atmosphere, some of the levels have players running laps in specific environments...It may sound odd, but the racing shooter formula works amazingly well." Reiner called The Club "A nice change of pace, and hopefully the beginning of a new genre."
GamePro
GamePro
GamePro Media was a United States gaming media company publishing online and print content on the video game industry, video game hardware, and video game software developed for a video game console , a computer, and/or a mobile device . GamePro Media properties include GamePro magazine and...
reviewer Cameron Lewis wrote "What might be most impressive about The Club is that despite the many disparate elements that it cherry-picks from genres as diverse as racing, skateboarding, and first-person shooters, the whole never bears the disjointed feel of a Frankenstein creation."
IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
reviewer Alec Meer stated that the scoring system "will prove an immediate turn-off for some." and went on to blame the "fairly dismal" graphics for putting potential players off, saying "It's about how it plays, not how it looks. But if it looked better, more people would want to play it." He praised the gameplay as "it does the job it sets out to do very well." but said the game only had "specialist appeal."
VideoGamer.com's Tom Orry praised The Club as "a game packed full of style, brimming with replay value and demanding of the most skilful players around. This is an arcade shooter like you've never seen before...The Club is one of the finest examples of bringing the essence of arcade gaming to modern consoles."
Edge
Edge (magazine)
Edge is a multi-format computer and video game magazine published by Future Publishing in the United Kingdom. It is known for its industry contacts, editorial stance, distinctive anonymous third-person writing style, yearly awards and longevity....
called The Club "a heavily structured and well-considered score-attack game.", granting it 7/10.