E3 '07: The Club Hands-On Impressions

We first saw The Club, Sega's upcoming third-person shooter in April and again in May, but we hadn't been able to get our hands on the game to try it for ourselves. Now that the game is playable on the E3 show floor, that has finally changed.

The Club's premise is vaguely reminiscent of the old Schwarzenegger flick The Running Man. A bunch of rich people who apparently have far too much time and money on their hands decide to entertain themselves by starting a sport. This might not seem like such a bad thing, if it weren't for the fact that the sport involved real people trying to escape from dangerous locales--while other people are trying to shoot them. Some of the eight playable characters in this "sport" are willing participants, but we were told that some of them are there against their will. Either way, they don't want to die. We got to check out two of the The Club's participants: an "extreme sports" guy who is actually here for the thrill of it, and a scary-looking Russian criminal who looks like he has killed before. Each character is rated for speed, style, and strength, so not only does each person have a unique look and backstory, but they'll all play differently as well.

While your main objective is always to avoid dying, you'll want to shoot accurately and use destructible objects in the environment creatively, because you're given points for everyone you kill. You can also string together combos by killing dudes before the combo meter runs out. Should you end up in an area where there aren't any bad guys, there are often targets on the walls that can be shot to keep your combos going.

There are five different game modes to keep things fresh. In sprint, the objective is to reach the end of the level without dying; in time attack, you're given a set amount of time and then awarded more time for every person you kill; run the gauntlet gives you a certain amount of time to exit the level; siege places you in a small area and sends swarms of enemies your way; and survivor is similar to siege, but takes place in a larger level. There will be eight locations in the game ranging from an ocean liner (with metal walls that bullets can ricochet off of) to a warehouse, manor, and prison. Never ones to pass up the opportunity to practice our survival skills in a jail setting, we headed off to New Haven Prison.

We were given a goal of 200,000 points before the level started and were sent merrily on our way. The level began in the prison's bathroom, and as soon as we turned a corner we were confronted by our first gun-toting foe. We shot him down, down to the ground. Feeling the adrenaline rush of our first kill and hoping to start a combo, we took off down the hallway to dish out some more pain. That plan hit a snag when we ran into a bad guy carrying a riot shield, but a well-placed grenade made short work of him. From there we ran through the inside of the prison, trying to find the balance between being aggressive enough to maintain combos but not getting so careless that we died. Eventually we made our way to the prison yard, where we found ourselves being peppered with fire from all directions. The game uses a lot of earth tones for the levels and the characters, so it was sometimes difficult to locate the enemy unless they were shooting. But it wasn't impossible. We certainly had no trouble at all finding the guy manning the guard tower with a rocket launcher--he sent us scrambling for cover. Once safe, we simply leaned around the corner and took him out. But don't think you can just hide behind cover and shoot stupid guys who will stand there while you shoot--they'll dive for cover and shoot right back.

Though we did manage to find our way to the exit without dying, we ended up failing the mission because we failed to reach 200,000 points. You'll really need to know the levels and maximize your combos to reach the goals for each level, but replaying the same levels isn't the only way you'll be able to get replay value out of the game--it'll also have eight multiplayer modes that will be playable online.

The Club is being designed to play fast, but the controls are being kept simple so that the player can focus on the action onscreen and not fumble for buttons. In fact, we were able to learn them in less than a minute. You can do a quick 180-degree turn with a single press of the Y button, toss a grenade with the B button, and reload with X, and the A button performs various actions depending on the situation at hand. Movement is controlled via the left analog stick, and you can look around with the right stick and zoom in to a closer, over-the-shoulder view with the left bumper.

It's not scheduled to ship until late 2007, but The Club appears to be shaping up quite nicely. We'll have more on the game as its release date approaches.