Show Some Love For The Club (Page 2 of 3)

Style Points

It's a masterful system, because flair and timing count for so much more than brute force. The more you play it, the better you get, until you're comfortable throwing in the embellishments that truly make it your own, whether they involve frequent bullet-dodging rolls, or stitching headshots together with spins for additional points. The arrows that guide your path aren't always common enough when you're starting out, and enemies tend to blend into the shadows a little too well, but repeated play dulls such minor rough edges.

The killbar that makes ludicrous scores possible is constantly ticking down, which keeps your right index finger forever dancing between the trigger button that drops thugs to the bumper that lets you haul ass to your next victim. Breakable "skullshot" targets are sprinkled all over the place to help maintain your streak between firefights, but pumping bullets into flesh is the best way to go. Siege and Survivor events give you a break from the manic pace, since they plant you in a cordoned space you can only venture from for a few seconds at a time, but they're really just the pit-stops between laps, even if the option to blink once in a while is a relief.

Internet Tough Guys

While it is a pleasure to finesse your way through the eight environments solo, taking the action online is almost as satisfying. You earn points by capturing objectives, shooting enemy skullshot collections, capping the opposing leader, or surviving as long as possible in the virtual tag of Hunter/Hunted. Even old standards like vanilla deathmatch are measurably improved when linked with such a beautifully crafted scoring system, and serviced by controls that are virtually perfect once you crank up the aim sensitivity a notch or two.

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, instead ebbing and flowing with a satisfying smoothness that's accessible without being overly simplistic, and action-packed without being nerve-deadening. It's like watching an action movie with the stereo cranked up to eleven except you're the maestro dictating every movement of the bullet ballet.

PROS: Fantastic scoring system, exhausting pace, instinctive controls, large and attractive courses.
CONS: Level paths not always clear, enemies blend a bit too well into the shadows, minimalist sound design, disposable story.

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