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When Fiddy Cent told us we’d find him in the club, we’re not sure this is what he meant. Indeed, if the bullet-riddled rapper was found here sipping Bacardi like it’s his birthday, his torso would have more holes than Swiss cheese.  The Club is a dangerous place, where shooting is a sport - think Resident Evil 4’s Mercenaries mode with bells on and you’re halfway there. The story is simple. The Club is an underground organisation where members - from a swarthy Russian criminal to a burly ex-NYPD detective - take part in a series of violent events set in various locations in differing states of disrepair. These range from an abandoned steel mill to a disused, rusting ocean liner, each of which are realised with a bleak grime-chic aesthetic. The concept is even more straightforward - each area contains a number of armed enemies, who you have to shoot to rack up as many points as you can. Where this differs from any other third-person shooter is in its combo mechanic. Simply shooting enemies as they appear is not enough - as you make your first kill, a meter ticks down until you blast a second foe (or one of the many skull insignias dotted about each arena). Each time you tag an opponent, the score multiplier builds and the combo meter ticks down faster. The idea is to keep this going for as long as possible before it starts ‘bleeding’ - every second without a kill thereafter and your multiplier goes down by one, eventually resetting if you can’t find an enemy to tag in that time.Points are awarded based on the quality of your kills as well as the quantity - a shotgun blast to the chest from point-blank range won’t earn you the same score as a distant headshot, while more stylish moves encourage showboating. Expert players will melee-attack a nearby foe, before sprinting to a barrier, vaulting over it and rolling forward to  perforate the skulls of two unwitting goons, before spinning round and blasting an enemy behind their back.

Further wrinkles are added by the five different types of event - Sprint is a simple run-and-gun to the exit, while Siege requires you to stay alive for a certain amount of time inside a coned area (venturing outside for more than five seconds sets off micro-explosives implanted in each contestant). Time Attack is perhaps the most unusual, as you make laps of the level, with three seconds added to your clock per kill, and time bonuses to be shot or collected as you go.

While all this might sound simple enough, be warned: The Club is an unapologetically tough game whose rewards aren’t immediately apparent - unless you either practice or choose the Casual difficulty level. Here, it’s all too easy to win every single event with a points tally that dwarfs the combined total of your seven rivals - but it’s by far the best way to grow accustomed to the layout of each stage. Particularly as the low lighting and infuriatingly vague signposting in places can easily cost you a valuable combo.This is one of the main complaints we have with The Club - its graphics might be superbly solid and detailed (you’ll struggle to spot a single glitch or any frame-rate drops) but its rubble-strewn, decaying environments combined with the fast-paced gameplay mean that it’s an all-too-common occurence to miss a chalk arrow on the floor showing the way. Not only that, but some events are downright unfair - one of the siege stages takes place in such a dark indoor arena that frequently you’ve no idea where your enemies are…until their bullets have hit you and you’re losing energy at a rapid rate. Even with the gamma setting on full and your TV’s brightness turned right up, you’ll be firing blind on more than one occasion. If it’s a deliberate ploy to increase the difficulty, then it works but it’s far too cheap - especially in a game that’s already pretty damn hardcore.

It’s a pity, as The Club is a very welcome departure from racing kings Bizarre Creations - even if its repetitive nature means it’s best played in short bursts. With an amazing array of online modes to try out once you’re done with the single-player tournaments, it’s surprisingly good value too. Rather appropriately, The Club will probably become an underground cult hit, with a loyal band of fans who’ll regularly meet for an online blast or three. Expect a traditional shooter and you might come away disappointed, but those who embrace its combo culture will have an absolute blast.