The Club mixes the best elements from action shooters with arcade accessibility, the pace of racing games and a story structure based on fighting games. Players will choose from a selection of characters to fight in a shadowy underground blood-sport controlled by faceless, obscenely wealthy and influential elite – The Club. Each character has their own reason for risking their life to “beat” The Club. Some are driven by greed, some are driven by a higher purpose, and some are driven by pure insane bloodlust.

CHARACTER BACKGROUND - RENWICK

A tough, no nonsense, NYPD Detective of more than 30 years standing and one of the most decorated cops on the force. Renwick first picked up rumours of The Club – some kind of freak-circuit, under ground snuff show entertainment – from his contacts in the New York underworld. Intrigued and sickened by what he was hearing, he tried to investigate further, but found all his official lines of inquiry blocked by NYPD bureaucratic intransigence. The harder he pushed the more resistance he encountered. The Club must have powerful allies within the Mayor’s office or the NYPD, because not only was Renwick taken off the case, but, when he tried to go to the press with his suspicions, convincing but trumped-up allegations of bribe-taking were suddenly brought against him.

Forced to resign to avoid a scandal and possible criminal charges, Renwick continued his investigation unofficially, using his own time and money to try and break the veil of secrecy surrounding The Club. He must have got closer than he knew, or finally irritated The Club enough to make them do something about him, because what he thought was a new lead turned out to be an ambush, with The Club enforces waiting for him. The Club’s money men were obviously unimpressed with Renwick’s persistence.

As its new star attraction, Renwick’s own survival instincts will carry him through the tournament, with him hating himself every time he has to pull the trigger, but there’s a greater motivation driving him on. If he gets to the end, then he might get a shot at bringing some justice to the sick freaks behind The Club.

CHARACTER BACKGROUND - DRAGOV (The Beast)

Heavily-tattooed, mountainously-built, a Siberian hunter, a trapper and a bandit, Dragov is unarguably the most wanted criminal in Russian history. Originally, it took three platoons of Spetsnaz Special Forces to capture him, but they couldn’t keep him captive for long and he broke free, slaughtering his way out of Russia’s most secretive and brutal gulag prison, fleeing on foot across hundreds of miles of frozen tundra wilderness.

Military helicopters were sent in hot pursuit, snipers aboard given strict orders to shoot to kill. But someone somewhere had heard of Dragov's brutal and daring escape and decided he would be worth a lot more alive than dead. A swift phone call was made directly to the powers that be at the Kremlin and almost immediately the helicopter snipers were ordered not to kill Dragov, but to bring him in alive. Swapping their bullets for tranquiliser darts, they tracked Dragov down and fired shot after shot into the fugitive figure. Finally, with a terrifying bellow of rage, Dragov collapsed and spiralled into unconsciousness. Upon awaking he would discover that he had become the newest recruit to The Club, with freedom promised for surviving the deadly contest.

LOCATION BACKGROUND - PRISON CELLS

The crumbling tomb-like Newhaven Federal Penitentiary lies in a remote region of one of the less glamorous Rustbelt states. Built in the 1920’s, during the Prohibition era, it soon became home to more than two thousand of the country’s most notorious criminals and gangsters. The prison’s monolithic architecture, brutal wardens and reputation for being almost escape-proof soon earned it the nickname of ‘The Citadel’.

The Citadel finally fell in the 1970’s. A savage race war among rival gangs of inmates erupted into a full-blown prison riot, leaving the prisoners in charge of the place and holding hostage more than twenty members of staff. An orgy of looting and violence lasted for three days inside the prison walls, rumours that some of the hostages had been executed finally provoking the authorities to send in the National Guard. Dozens of prisoners and most of the remaining hostages were killed in the ensuing gun battle with the trigger-happy National Guardsmen.

The riot and the gun battle didn’t destroy the Citadel, but their aftermath did. A Congressional investigation into the disaster ordered the place closed down. The town of Newhaven, whose economy was based almost entirely around the prison, died with it. Hardly anyone noticed when a large corporation – a corporation owned by a member of The Club – bought the place cheaply from the federal government. Fewer still cared that the corporation’s stated plans to demolish most of the place and redevelop it into a research facility devoted to alternative eco-friendly energy sources don’t yet seem to have been acted on.

The Club own the Citadel now and soon the prison will once more ring with the sounds of the screams an gunfire as men hunt each other through its corridors and cellblocks.

LOCATION BACKGROUND - THE STEEL MILL

German unification wasn’t kind to the East German industrial town of Jaegerhof. The financial benefits anticipated by many, failed to arrive, but the real blow arrived when the town’s steel mill (run-down by decades of Communist mis-management and unable to compete with steel production in the west) shut down. Then recently and suddenly, there were rumours that it had been bought. No-one knew who the new owners were or what they were going to do with the place; after all it had been left to rot for years. Strangers were spotted up at the mill and, incredibly, rumours spread that they were American movie producers looking for a place to film their new movie.

The movie producers arrived with trucks stuffed full of equipment and setting up began at the mill. The inhabitants of Jaegerhof had hoped for jobs helping out, but were disappointed that the producers didn’t hire any locals. Neither could the locals catch a glimpse of any of the big stars assumed to be there as movie studio security guards were dotted around the mill, threatening anyone that tried to get too close.

The people of Jaegerhof didn’t even know what kind of movie was being made in the steel mill, but everyone assumed it must be a big war picture or Hollywood action movie, on account of all the fake gunfire noise they can hear coming from the place...