When we first heard about The Club, the backstory had us hooked — a super-elite bloodsport where only the most exclusive, wealthy, and sadistic participants face off in a gauntlet of killing trials à la Fight Club, but with guns and a timer. Once we started the game and clicked past its gone-in-the-blink-of-an-eye intro, we realized there’s no such story to be had — it’s all gunplay, all the time, which seems fitting (sort of) for this kind of no-nonsense, high-score–centric shooter.

The Club is all about fast-paced, arcade-style, third-person twitch shooting, and it works really well. You have unlimited sprint, you can do Marcus Fenix–style roll/dodge moves, and all kinds of little details make each game type feel varied. The whole experience centers around completing events where you’re rated (via a points system) on your number of kills, how many of those kills you can string together into combos, and how stylistic each one is. In tournament mode, you’ll play between five and seven events in rounds, unlocking eight levels and two extra characters along the way: Nemo (a fisherman coat–clad psycho) and the pony-tailed, un-ironically named Killen.

The eight levels are well designed and varied, ranging from a steel mill (Stahlwerk) to a former looney bin (Manor House), and the game types range from Sprint (run through to the exit with the highest score) to Time Attack (get to the exit in a certain amount of time with the highest score). Or try your hand at Siege and Survivor modes, which task you with staying alive in a specifically cordoned-off area (you have Snake Plissken–esque micro-explosives injected into your body that will explode if you stray outside of the safe zone for more than five seconds) until the timer runs out — all the while being rated on your kill score.

The multiplayer, which is where we suspect most of you will spend the majority of your Club time, offers the normal deathmatch modes, as well as some VIP modes and team Siege — one of our favorites. While all of this works really well and might make Counter-Strike fans consider trading in their mouse and keyboard for some great 360 multiplayer, we can’t help feeling like there’s something missing, like a narrative, especially while you grind through the same five or six events over and over in tourney mode. How did we get inducted into the Club? Aren’t some people supposed to be gambling on us? And who the heck injected these explosives into us? Without knowing about the world in which we’re playing, all of it seems totally disjointed.

That said, if you can overlook the lack of any narrative cohesion, The Club looks great, controls well, and offers you tons of options for giving your trigger finger a good workout.

ON XBOX 360

+ The fast-paced, arcadey vibe is fun and well-balanced.

+ Characters control well and can sprint for days.

- High scores don’t grant bonuses (e.g., weapons, player upgrades).

? Why can’t we use the riot-police shields in multiplayer?

8.0