Multiplayer support is an area in the title that is nearly completely broken, with functionality barely passable enough to make it onto a blurb on the box art. While the single player campaign is based on stylishly killing enemies the multiplayer throws it out the window and is based simply on killing other players for the sake of racking up the kill count. Additionally the net code used for multiplayer is remarkably sub par, and the frequency that the player will unload a weapon at point blank range into an enemy without result only to have the other player kill them while they appear to be looking sideways on the screen is rather high.

Though the player’s goal is to kill hordes of nameless enemies, they are detailed and look different from one another and are a far cry from games where in a level you kill twenty five of “Man with blue shirt and baseball cap”. The environments are well detailed and are easily identifiable, and though they are essentially corridor shooters they are made up of a series of interesting locales and never boil down to simple room-hallway-room mechanics for very long. When killed, enemies let ragdoll physics take over and slump to the ground in a believable fashion, but only after a series of blood effects let the player know that their shots found their mark.

The audio side of the engine is pretty sparse, with musical tracks that are subdued to the point of being barely there and sound effects that never really pack much of a punch. Weapon sound effects in particular simply don’t convey any real force or threat, which is a shame considering how big of a role they play in a game that is made up of little more than non-stop killing. Enemies have quite a bit of voice work assigned to them, and each location in the game has its own set of voiceovers complete with accurate accents for whatever nation it takes place in.

The Club has a lot of fresh ideas but its lack of refinement in many key areas drags it down a notch. The gameplay is simple to learn, despite the spotty controls, but incredibly difficult to master which either gives the title a degree of longevity if you’re willing to learn its nuances or it’ll cause you to shelve it all together in frustration. With the multiplayer side as underwhelming as it is, and it’s a missed opportunity because the game’s design screams for great multiplayer support, The Club is easy to recommend as a rental to see if it clicks for you, but it’s tough to go any higher than that.