Video game review: For arcade-style shoot-'em-ups, join 'The Club'

GAME TITLE: The Club

PLATFORM: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC

STUDIO: Bizarre Creations

RATING: M for Mature

SCORE: 6.5/10

THE REVIEW:

GAME PLAY: Shooting games hog a lot of shelf space at the gaming-selling store near you. Some are breathtakingly fun ("Call of Duty 4," "Halo 3") while others are sub-standard and forgettable. So for a game entering the market, it isn't easy to elbow aside all the laser rifles and snipers competing for the consumer's money.

"The Club," a shooter from a third-person perspective, comes to the arena with a new approach that combines arcade-gun action with the need for speed, which is innovative enough to warrant consideration as not just another video game shooter. The game demands that players either hurry through a course of bad guys that shoot back or play king-of-the-hill with a bit of real estate, picking off the same generic villains until a timer runs out. There are variations on those styles, but those are the basics.

The plot, as thin as it is, drops players into the hands of an uber-rich group that gives the game its name and compels the participants to compete in the shoot-'em-up challenges or be killed by implanted explosives — the same penalty for not meeting the demands of the always-ticking clock. Players can choose to play as a variety of stereotypical protagonists: all tough guys from different regions of the world. None of the characters stands out or plays all that different from the others, and I wished for the ability to make my own character rather than choose from a handful of cardboard ones.

The action takes place in deserted locations like warehouses or grounded ships, each with aspects that tweak the frenetic, desperate pace of the game. Players are rewarded with bonus time for recording kills of flimsy opponents with multipliers adding up if kills happen in quick sequence and style points contributing to the overall score. Undiscovered bonus targets dot the walls, concealed not so much by being hidden but by the need to hurry.

In old-fashioned, arcade-style games, scores are everything. Players must manage living, hurrying, discovering and learning subtle differences of maps and difficulties to get the best possible score. Some players will love to be ever-seeking the highest-score dangling carrot while others — like me — would have enjoyed a more careful exploration of the environments. Even for exploration junkies, there is a real dose of fun to be had, it just doesn't satisfy for long.