Game Review | The Golf Club 2
The Golf Club 2 has a way of fooling you into believing that you’ve suddenly become a 1960s British aristocrat, with its fine music, elegant menus, and almost immaculate replication of the sport it emulates. The game sets an atmosphere that makes it hard to critique, but it’s not going to please everyone.
The Golf Club 2 is the sequel to the 2014 game by the same name, minus the number of course. The game is developed by HB Studios using the unity engine, and published by Maximum Games for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. The version of the game we used for this review was the PC version, which is currently available on Steam.
When you launch The Golf Club 2 you are presented with 5 menu options excluding the option to exit the game. These options include Play, a quick way to get onto a course with a few options to help refine your choices. Next is training, and then we have career. This Career mode is not what we generally consider a career mode to be in most other games. It’s barebone and lacking any form of progression or drive to keep the player invested. There are no rivals, you don’t see your opponents, cutscenes, or any other discerning story elements that one would associate with a career mode. What you get is the ability to create a season, and then play it out for in-game credit. In essence all the single player elements in this game are pretty much tutorial for the online mode. In fact you can’t even play the Career unless you’re online. The game does have some local multiplayer, but this is also under developed, as the other players are all just guests with temporary profiles.
Graphically the game is stunning to look at with very detailed looking courses thanks to the Unity Engine. As mentioned before, it has a noticeable online focus, but it doesn’t go all the way with this, which surprised me the more I played. Listed as societies on the main menu, and arguably the main mode in this game. Societies allows the player to join a number of official clubs made by the developers, clubs created by other players, or they can make their own club. The choice is completely up to the individual playing. So sadly If you’re looking for a fun single player golf game, this is not where you’ll find it. Most of the modes in this game don’t even work unless you’re online, and speaking of which, the game disconnected me a couple times while playing with rivals, which locked out a couple options, requiring for me to restart the game to regain full access. I’m not sure if my reason for disconnecting was due to the game’s servers or my internet provider, but it did allow me to see what the game is like offline, and its limited.
Where this game shines the most is in its online clubs when they work, and course creation.
The course creator is the final option on the main menu, and it’s one of my favorite. It’s very robust in its creation offerings for the game. Using it you are able to create courses by altering some sliders, and then you can refine it even more by getting up close and personal to add you own personal touches. You can also test your creations while you create them so that you don’t create impossible situations for players, like a hole in the middle of a lake. Once a course is created, you are free to share it with the online community.
The game also allows you to personalize your in game avatar, and it has a lot to offer, but I was saddened by this option due to the fact that players are unable to view other players while playing the courses. It’s basically just pretty sprinkles for the player, and no one else.
Controls in the game are handled by moving the right stick back and forth to give a very authentic golfing experience, which I found was enhanced by the less than energetic commentary. You see if this was another game I’d want more energy from my commentators, but this is not other sports games, this is golf, and golf requires elegance in every aspect. Something this game emulates well.
By the time you’ve gotten the hang of the fully analog controls, you’re gonna want to test your skills against someone else, so join a club, or if you have friends that also have the game, then create your own club and have them join. Clubs all start with the same basic template; however, they can be altered to suit the player’s interest. Our club for example has a 2000 coin non-refundable entry fee, it’s own cool black and blue emblem, a setting by a nice country side, and our course is a winter wonderland that I created. Clubs can hold events which members can enter to increase their rank in the club as well as in-game credit. This aspect of the game gripped me immediately when I noticed it. It’s even possible to see other players ghosts while playing, which makes the game a lot more competitive. It’s not ideal, but it’s functional. If it were up to me to choose some additions that this game needs, then I’d have virtual caddies giving advice, and driving players along the course, as well as a proper visual representation of other players on the course, the ability to get down on the ground and look at the curvature of the land for putting, and adding back the golf bags that were available in it’s predecessor.
Final Verdict
As it stands, the enjoyment factor is basically up to the players. Which is not bad for a game like this, but it’s also not good either when you factor in the difficulty of finding other players to play with. I struggled to find anyone to play with me, or to even find an active community that I could play or discuss the game with. Playing local multiplayer is fun, but that also hangs on the availability of family and friends. The Golf Club 2 is one of the best golf simulators I’ve experienced, but it’s not the best golf game. If you want good a game play PGA Tour or Hot Shots Golf, if you want an almost athletic golfing experience then play The Golf Club 2.
The copy of The Golf Club 2 we used for this review was supplied to us by it’s publisher, Maximum Games.
