Review - The Golf Clubby Chris Murray
Format reviewed on; XBOXONE |
Developers; HB Studios
Publisher; HB Studios Formats; PC, PS4 |
Much like the actual sport of golf, the video game variant has been on the go for quite some time also. The first notable golf game, appropriately named; Golf was released back in the 80s on the Atari 2600. Naturally since then with the advance in technology over the years, golf games have continued to evolve progressively becoming more and more like the sport itself.
Having very little experience with these types of games and the sport for that matter, I thought I’d try one out. I am Scottish after all.
Developed by HB Studios, The Golf Club is the latest IP to come from the Canadian based team. For the most part TGC is a simple game. There is no player roster to choose from, no well known courses to play on. After a few hours with it, it soon becomes clear what type of simulator this game is. Its a game about you the player, and playing a peaceful round of golf by yourself or with friends.
With an easy to navigate user interface you can find yourself on the green in a matter of seconds. Choose a course, choose your “character” and start playing. What you will find whilst choosing a course though is that TGC has a small amount of developer created courses. This is because of the majority of the whats available are user created with games’s very robust course creator.
Having very little experience with these types of games and the sport for that matter, I thought I’d try one out. I am Scottish after all.
Developed by HB Studios, The Golf Club is the latest IP to come from the Canadian based team. For the most part TGC is a simple game. There is no player roster to choose from, no well known courses to play on. After a few hours with it, it soon becomes clear what type of simulator this game is. Its a game about you the player, and playing a peaceful round of golf by yourself or with friends.
With an easy to navigate user interface you can find yourself on the green in a matter of seconds. Choose a course, choose your “character” and start playing. What you will find whilst choosing a course though is that TGC has a small amount of developer created courses. This is because of the majority of the whats available are user created with games’s very robust course creator.
As I’ve had very little experience with golf simulators, I had originally assumed there would be a steep learning curve to them. TGC however is very easy to pick up and play. Pushing left or right on the Right Stick angles the way you want to drive the ball, and pulling the stick back swings the club. With the exception of choosing a club or choosing the type of shot you want to play thats really all there is to it. But although the main gameplay mechanics are easy enough to learn, one thing I did find particularly frustrating was how difficult it was to determine how much swing to put into the club the closer it got to the hole. Especially when it came to putting. Putting was something I found to be the most frustrating part of the game. Straight of the bat or club in this case you'll find there isn't a shot trajectory to help you or any way to put spin on the ball whilst its in the air. So it purely down do you as the player to work this out and learn how to overcome this. I found this to be slightly overwhelming at first as I'm so new to this type of game. But after only a few hours with it I found myself gradually playing better shots than when I had first tried it. I presume it would be easier for the more professional players.
Interestingly as there is an abundance of user created content TGC offers a unique multiplayer experience. That of which I have not seen before from its competitors. When you play a competition or tournament for example the game puts you up against other players “Avatars”. The game cleverly records and tracks all other players shot data right down do how that player played each hole. This is shown by multi coloured lines of each players shot trajectory throughout the course. Pretty clever stuff!
One of the most unique features about TGC is its course creator. Its quite extraordinary. If you've ever dreamed of what it would be like to create your own golf course then now you can. The course creator houses just about everything you need to create the perfect course. But before you can edit the holes etc first you must choose what type of course you would like to create. Is it a Links course? A Desert course? That's up to you. Does your course have lots of water? Lots of Trees? These are all choices you can make with sliders even down to how many holes your course has.
One of the most unique features about TGC is its course creator. Its quite extraordinary. If you've ever dreamed of what it would be like to create your own golf course then now you can. The course creator houses just about everything you need to create the perfect course. But before you can edit the holes etc first you must choose what type of course you would like to create. Is it a Links course? A Desert course? That's up to you. Does your course have lots of water? Lots of Trees? These are all choices you can make with sliders even down to how many holes your course has.
As its procedurally generated the possibilities are endless with what you can create. While I was only messing around with it, I manage to create a course that had no fairway. It was just a Tee off point and the hole surrounded by water. It was quite a challenge I assure you. If however you prefer to stick with the more “normal” courses. The creator allows you to add bunkers, lakes, hills. As much or as little as possible. Just to make sure you have created the perfect course you can test each hole and edit it if need be. Unfortunately though, unless you know what you are doing the course creator can be extremely overwhelming. The best I could do was to choose the “Randomise” option and add a couple of sand bunkers. It would be nice if there was maybe a tutorial to help beginners.
Overall TGC offers a unique golfing experience with a limitless amount of procedurally generated user created content. However sometimes bad frame rates or strange sound glitches let it down somewhat. If I was to nit pick at things I didn't like, the voice over commentary was particularly annoying. The strongest attribute about the game is its course creator and multiplayer experience. But with out tutorials it makes it much harder for a beginner like my self to stick with it and enjoy the good old game of Golf. Is it a truly “Next Gen Experience”? probably not. Is it a strong competitor to the likes of the Tiger Woods series of games? Maybe the course creator is something of value.
Sorry guys. But I think i’m going to stick with shooters in the mean time.
Overall TGC offers a unique golfing experience with a limitless amount of procedurally generated user created content. However sometimes bad frame rates or strange sound glitches let it down somewhat. If I was to nit pick at things I didn't like, the voice over commentary was particularly annoying. The strongest attribute about the game is its course creator and multiplayer experience. But with out tutorials it makes it much harder for a beginner like my self to stick with it and enjoy the good old game of Golf. Is it a truly “Next Gen Experience”? probably not. Is it a strong competitor to the likes of the Tiger Woods series of games? Maybe the course creator is something of value.
Sorry guys. But I think i’m going to stick with shooters in the mean time.
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Good - Unique multiplayer experience, Vast amount of user created content, The course creator
Bad - Particularly annoying voice over guy, Lack of beginner tutorials, Somewhat steep learning curve |
3/5 |
Game from Publisher
Images - from Publisher
Images - from Publisher
