The Club

Well others have outlined the gameplay elements so I won't repeat that.

What you have to realise when buying this game is that you are not paying for a 10-12 hour campaign. You are paying for a game that can be played through on easy level in a couple of hours. However, step the difficulty level up and the challenge begins to try and perfect your runs, timing your shots well so you keep your combo going to rack up high scores.

A previous reviewer said there are no tactics but I disagree, the choice between spraying your enemies with machine gun fire just to keep your combo going, or risking going more precise for a much more score worthy single headshot, at the risk of losing your combo is a constant one. Similarly, weapon choice is a constant decision.

The fact that there is no story as such and this is primarily a trip back to the good old days of gaming where the sole purpose was to beat your high score will grate some people. I find it a hugely refreshing change.

Multiplayer is good fun and lag free (though last night there were only 12 people in the world playing The Club online)

My only gripes are that the difficulty curve is quite steep. you will blast through every level on casual mode, yet put it up one level to reckless and it gets pretty tough, pretty quickly. Either Casual is slightly too easy, or reckless is slightly too hard. There are 2 further levels which seem nigh on impossible to me so why reckless has to be as difficult as it is I'm not sure. On the flipside, when you nail it and completely blow your previous high score away, it is a very, very satisfying feeling. Also I would have liked to have seen a bit more in the way of unlockable, but that's pretty minor really.

EDIT : Now I've been playing this for a week, I'm starting to really learn some of the levels and although I still havent won a tournamant on Reckless, I'm consistantly getting 2nd place over the 6 events, so it does get possible to take on the higher skill levels, (managed 4th in an Insane tounament too!) even for a shooter neanderthal like me.

PGR4 + Tony Hawks + Tekken + guns = The Club

The most enjoyable shooter for a long time.

I have just read a review of The Club written by somebody who is clearly disgusted that it is not Gears of War and I am inclined to agree. After all, The Club merely requires you to run and shoot in order to drive forward a very threadbare narrative, whereas Gears of War... Hang on.
The Club really is tremendous fun for a while. It's structure is very much like that of an extreme sports game (time trials, combo points etc.) But instead of a snowboard or a BMX you've got, y'know, guns. Lots of guns. All of the locations look fantastic and it doesn't take too long to get to grips with the controls (left thumb run, right index finger shoot). But once you have, you'll be filling up your Combo Meter and Death Rolling into Head-Shot Heaven in no time and having a ball while you do it.
That said, there are a couple of frustrating omissions. The Club's most obvious influence is Japanese uber-cult film, Battle Royale, and yet that is the one game mode that has not been included. You just long for a massive Smackdown between all of the main characters - of which there far are too few - to make a brief change from constant parade of what are essentially armed victims.
Two of the featured game modes - Siege and Survivor - ARE EXACTLY THE SAME! I don't know why that bothers me enough to hold down the shift button while I type it, but come on! "Would sir care to purchase a tomaytoe to go with his tomahtoe?"
The biggest draw-back is how quickly The Club loses it's appeal. After you have completed the tournament on Casual (first difficulty) in a few hours and then realised how futile it is to even attempt it on Reckless (second difficulty), there is only so much satisfaction to be gleaned from playing it through again. What The Club needs more than anything is a character and weapon customization system. It's the sort of little detail that this sort of game needs to make it worth spending more than a few pounds on. Buy it pre-owned.

Having played the demo for a while and was quite taken with it, I finally decided to buy the game. I was put off a bit by the mixed reviews that this game had. I even considerd the PC version, but after hearing about the NIGHTMARE problems people are having with crashing DRM and Limited installs etc... !!, I decided to get the 360 version. normally Im quite selective when I buy a game, unless its got like 5 stars I wont touch it, but I was wrong about the club. The game is a real blast !!, The sound effects and music are brilliant, Ive been playing the club for a while now, its a little hard at first trying to keep up with the massive scores you have to get to stay up in the rankings in tournement mode, this game needs alot of practice, but its somthing you have to work up to. all in all... I think its a really decent game, ive had lots of fun playing it and continue to do so..........

Mike UK