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The Club
Publisher: SEGA
Developer: Bizarre Creations
Genre: Third Person Action
Release Date: February 19, 2008
Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC
Reviewer: Eric
The concept around The Club sounds great. A third person action game, that
brings arcade action to the masses, both on and offline. Once you get your hands
on The Club you will start to realize that something is really wrong. Did SEGA
drop the ball again by bringing out The Club or did they finally do something
right for a change?
With first person shooters popping out every month it seemed like a good idea to
put together a third person game that played just like Quake Arena. It sounds
like a great idea, but then I finally got to play The Club. I really think SEGA
needs to call it quits because The Club is just as bad as the story and the all
around experience.
 The Club blends the action of both Quake Arena and Twisted Metal. The game isn’t
about cars or team based action, The Club takes you from Point A to Point B. You
are rewarded for killing as many characters on screen per play. That is it, The
Club doesn’t offer anything else.
There are only a few modes to play in this game. Either go to the end of the
level killing as many guys, stay in the chalked off area or do laps. At times
the developers may combine two modes in one, but the overall gameplay is just
the same. You have to do this numerous times and it just doesn’t sit well with
me. After the first tournament in this game I realized that I was going to have
to do this forever. The Club feels like an arcade game, I just wish the Game
Over screen came up after ten or so minutes.
I literally beat this game in one sitting. There takes no real talent to beat
this game, you get so many continues to beat one tournament, which is only six
rounds. After two rounds you will start to notice that the loading time is much
longer than one single round in The Club. I dreaded each time I won a round
because I knew there was going to be loading time once again. This isn’t your
ordinary loading time too; we are treated to the same text that reminds us how
to win the current round.
The character select screen has a nice range of characters, all of which really
play the same. If you can manage to go through all the tournaments then you can
unlock two more characters and once again they play the same. The only time you
may notice a difference is when a character has no speed, they tend to move a
tiny bit slower.
Each character has there own profile loading screen and theme music. After two
rounds in the first tournament I was sick of seeing those screens and hearing
the same theme music. You have to hear this music all the time for that one
character. Over and over again you will be reminded how bad this music really
is. None of the music selections in this game are any good.
The Club isn’t looking so good yet and things are going to continue down that
path. Gameplay this game plays like any first person shoot, but instead of being
in first person you are in third. For about an hour this game seems like it is
good and all. Then things start to go bad. In order to run you have to hold the
LB button and to aim you have to hold down the RB button. Here is the real
catch; to fire you have to press the LR button. Your fingers literally get
tangled up; there is no way to play this game without getting a headache.
 Timed rounds will have you running the whole time, but this is a chore because
of the stupid control layout. How am I supposed to run with a control scheme
like this? I have yet to beat any tournament on the hardest difficulty. This
really is not a problem because you can beat the game even if you come in last
place. If you want achievement points then you better find some way to deal with
the controls.
Remember when I brought up Twisted Metal? The Club seems to copy off of Twisted
Metal’s endings. You see your character react to the recent happenings you went
through in The Club. There are some twists in the endings, but none of them
really matter because of the poorly executed….well the poorly executed
everything in this game.
Oh and don’t expect to play this game online with anybody. I waited for twenty
minutes for some one to come into my created game. The Club is a dead zone on
Xbox Live. If this game still had players online then I think it would bring
some excitement.
Final Verdict
SEGA is turning out to be the biggest joke in the video game industry. Whatever
their name is on it seems like that game turns to garbage. The Club will give
you some enjoyment for an hour at most, but if you find yourself playing it for
another hour then you will beat the game. That is all this game has to offer, a
bunch of gameplay that could have been good.
Rating
3.75 out of 10
The Club Trailer
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