The Club (Demo)

I don't have much to say about this underachieving, unambitious game except that I found it to be terribly underachieving and unambitious. When given the chance I will preach to the masses about how games are maturing as an artistic and storytelling medium. Games will always find a ready market with kids and teenagers, but the real untapped potential lies in attracting the mind share and passions of discerning adults.

I need only point to recent hits like Mass Effect and BioShock to provide a glimmer into what the future holds for games, when adult themes can be addressed right alongside gripping game play and whiz-bang visuals.

The Club seems to want to take us back several years and almost wallows in its own simplicity. While I have no issues with "straight shooters", I can't get over how such obvious talent and solid production values could be lavished on a full retail version of the "Instant Action" mode you so often find in games that actually bother to include a full story campaign.

With nothing to hang my hat on but the game play, I still went into The Club demo with an open mind, hoping that the shooting action was enough to get me hooked. The first bad sign was seeing the controller layout and discovering a button assigned to the sole act of spinning your avatar around 180 degrees. Once I was dropped into the demo's prison level, I immediately felt the urge to take cover, only to find that no such ability was available even though my enemies took liberal advantage of walls and overturned tables.

Blasting enemies to bits was simple enough although many of the guns suffered from Pea Shooter Syndrome. I also wondered why they bothered offering me 3 types of pistols that all handled the same way. The real difficulty of the game comes from achieving a set number of points for each level. It's not enough to dispatch your enemies: you have to do it in style and do it efficiently. Crucial points are awarded if you string together combos and kills lose their value if you go too long without taking a life.

Once I clued into this whole concept, my antipathy towards the whole game really set in. The core game play is perfectly valid... for a Live Arcade title perhaps, but it's hardly substantial enough to base a full-price retail game around.

Like anything else these days, an uninteresting game can be bolstered by a co-op mode, but I couldn't even muster up the effort to see if one was offered. But really, if it's co-op mass killing I'm looking for, why not just play more Terrorist Hunt in Rainbow Six: Vegas?