If you like your shooters kept simple, you know, ones that don't require any extra brain cells, but are still none- the- less fun to play, than you might want to check out Sega's The Club.

This game offers up old school run and gun gameplay, but with a twist. It's not merely kill or be killed to proceed to the next level. You need to do so with skill and accuracy because doing so ups your point total and that's what sets this shooter apart from others in the genre and seeing as how this game was developed by the same folks that brought you the Project Gotham Racing series, it's shouldn't come as a suprise.

There is a plot to the game albeit a simple one. The club is an elite group of powerful, filthy rich people who essentially run and host there own hunt or be hunted style game. You've seen this premise before in watching flicks like Ahnold in "Running Man". As a contestant forced to play in this competition it is your goal to win events in each of the several locations. You'll start off with six playable characters, each with their own distinctive look and attributes, but honestly playing none of them felt very distinguishable while playing.

Like the PGR series you are awarded points for style. Extra points are there for accuracy, type of weapons, difficulty of enemies and the style in which you do so. The game even has it's own type of kudos system where your multiplier increases as long as you are killing. Wait too long before your next kill and your multiplier drops back down. Here's the rub though. The higher your multiplier the faster it fades away, so you'll find yourself in a frantic rush against the clock to rack up the points. It really adds a layer of urgency and fun to the gameplay.

There are five event types most of which involve either a beat the clock or running and gunning style of play, all while trying to rack up as many points as possible. My favorites, survivor and siege, however, force you to stay in a confined area and fend off oncoming enemies until the clock runs out

The environments and locales are done rather well and offer up enough destruction and explosions to add to the chaos.

One major gripe is not being able to take cover and shoot out from behind it. It's almost a prerequisite now for any next gen shooter to allow for this. On the other hand this could be very intentinal by the developers to force you into running and gunning and not staying in one place for too long. But this could have also been accomplished by destructable cover spots.

The games focus is clearly on single player, with never ending replayability trying to up your high score. There is a mulitplayer which plays very much like a simpler form of Team Fortress. It's kind of fun for a while, but the levels feel way to big for the amount of players in a session.

The games graphics are on par for the expecatation level of this generation of gamers and the game's frame rate never drops.

All in all "The Club does a great job of offering up a quick fix for shooter fans and with the constant challenge of thinking you can beat your last score the game offers up endless replay time. "The Club" is out now, rated for Mature audiences.