Repetition has never been a prized commodity in action games, and when it comes to offering variety even the most venerated examples of the craft have faltered. There are some who feel that Halo’s perfectly balanced gameplay crumbles to dust in the face of its later levels’ identikit corridors. Others would stroll right past the trailblazing design of Quake to focus on the omnipresence of brown castles. Legend has it that there are even people who would undermine the glorious Resident Evil 4 due to the zombie hordes being entirely composed of the same five Spanish peasants. These are the kind of individuals that would receive a birthday present with a beaming smile, before describing at length the one, minor way in which it is in some way inadequate – we are not among them.

Bizarre Creations’s The Club is so fascinating because it takes repetitive action, places it in a context, lays down some ground rules and creates something utterly compelling. This is a game that demands you play the same level sections again and again, a game that stipulates that all enemies will appear in the exact same places on every attempt, and that they will move in the same meagre handful of attack patterns. This would be tantamount to commercial suicide for any other action title, but Bizarre has contrived a story, attached a points system and given us one of the best releases of the year so far. The Club is a deeply impressive sleight of hand. We love them for it, and so should you.

The story, for what it’s worth, centres on a morally bankrupt society of the wealthy elite, who organise human blood sports for the purposes of gambling and their own general amusement. The eight participants are a motley collection of mercenaries, psychopaths, ex-cons and thrill seekers, all with a tale to tell, none of which will make a blind bit of difference to whether you actually enjoy the game. This isn’t a genuine criticism, but The Club’s setting is purely a functional thing, the characters mere foils to provide the player with another vessel with different stats. One has dreadlocks, one wears a raincoat, one is Japanese, but the real engine that drives your choice is how strong, fast and durable they all are. Bizarre has often compared The Club to a racing game, which if we look at it logically would make its characters your cars.

The main tournament consists of eight different arenas, each of which consists of six or seven individual events that take place in a part of that setting – in the same way that Project Gotham Racing splits a city into several different routes and tasks. At the most basic level The Club’s gameplay is driven by the acquisition of points for killing your assailants, with bonuses awarded for distance, headshots, style and a variety of other factors. Every kill increases the score multiplier, which immediately begins to bleed away until you make another – meaning that you could carry a chain of kills across the duration of an entire round. Should you place in the top three after all events are completed you’ll be awarded with a gold, silver or bronze bullet. But you won’t win gold on your first attempt, and that’s entirely the point.

The Club is pure gameplay. Bizarre’s racing metaphors seemed like marketing hype at first, but after completing the tournament once only to dive straight back in with a different character the truth of the comparison begins to shine through. You will learn the positions of those bobbing enemy heads like the corners on the Nurburgring, time your reloads like gear changes, and memorise the placement of every health pack and ammo pick-up to get the ideal balance between points and punctuality.

And the great triumph of The Club is that you will want to. Few games are as gloriously playable as Project Gotham Racing, but Bizarre has somehow managed to translate some of that keen sense of balance and weight to another genre entirely. The Club may never stray too far from Bizarre’s comfort zone, but you could ask little else of the studio’s first tentative steps into the daunting action field.

In his appraisal of The Legend Of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass, Level Up’s N’Gai Croal posited that there are two types of gamers: those that prefer to move in circles and those that prefer to move in a straight line. The latter demand a measure of linearity, with a clearly defined beginning, middle and end, while the former like to retrace their steps, progressing by increments through diligent effort. With shelves swelling under the weight of quality action games, this is what The Club is bringing to the table – a slight game with a limitless life that, among likeminded friends, can match any of its peers for immediate thrills. If you can stand repeating yourself, that is.

Matt Handrahan