Before the start of each event, the game flashes the existing scores of each of the other eight characters, giving you an idea of what kind of score you need. After the event, each of the characters is awarded points based on where they finished, and the master leader board is updated. The top three slots at the end of the tournament get Gold, Silver, or Bronze bullets, though it is not necessary to win one to continue through the tournament. There are six different players to choose from at the start of the game, with two unlockable characters added to the mix later. Each of the characters has their own balance of strength, speed, and stamina, and finding the right mix to fit your style of play will help boost your tournament performance.
The Club also is a throwback to a time where the only hint of a story you had was a brief intro and some scrolling text. The end of the Tournament mode offline hints that there was some sort of story behind all the bullets, though that thirty-second clip is about all you get of it. If they were attempting to convey a feeling that they tricked you into joining the club and you could not leave, they failed miserably. If there were some intriguing backstory to all the action, it would have been nice if they had clued you in prior to the last cut-scene.
The game also offers single-event challenges for players to test their skills, and a slick 'create-your-own-tournament' mode called Gunplay. In Gunplay, gamers fill a playlist comprised of any of the events from any of the locations. It adds a little variety to the standard tournament style, but not enough to keep you coming back. A little more replay value comes in the form of the robust multiplayer over Live. Boasting eight online game modes with decidedly unique goals, it is a wonder why the offline mode does not offer nearly as much spice. The standard team and solo deathmatch are here, but so are clever events like hunter/hunted. The game assigns one of the players as 'hunted' and their score increases for every moment they can stay alive, avoiding the bullets of the other players. Should the 'hunted' get taken down, the person who did the deed becomes the 'hunted'. The game progresses like this until someone breaches the target score.
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The third-person perspective of the game actually takes away from some of the action, as too often your character will be running full-bore to get through a stage and almost completely block out an enemy from your sight. This minor annoyance, combined with somewhat sluggish controls for most players, creates a somewhat frustrating gaming experience. The game plays decently enough if you were only trying to blast your way through the game from start to finish in search of some clever ending. The game's goal of grabbing a higher score each time out magnifies the issues.
The game does a solid job providing different weapons for you to do your damage. You generally start each round with two unique weapons, and must pick up other weapons and ammo from dead bodies or weapons crates strewn throughout levels. Though the variety of the weapons could use some more depth, at least the guns behave accurately. Do not expect to hit an enemy on a perch across the street with your shotgun, and it takes the uber-fast firing turret a few seconds to warm up.
