The Golf Club 2 – Review
Follow Genre: Sports
Developer: HB Studios
Publisher: Maxim Games
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Tested on: PlayStation 4

The Golf Club 2 – Review

Site Score
7.8
Good: Large amount of content
Bad: Texture pop in, everywhere
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0
(0 votes)
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The Golf Club 2 is the best title ever, guys! The main developer exclaimed. “It works on so many levels!” “How?” came the reply. “Well there’s the fact that it’s about a Golf Club, the item and the actual place where people play golf.” “So it works on two levels?” “It’s also the second game in the series, but a number 2 golf club also exists!” “Ok, we get it. The title is settled then.” That’s probably how the elevator pitch for ‘The Golf Club 2’ went down. The first game in the series was released a little under 3 years ago. That game was also released on current generations of consoles.

The_Golf_Club_Logo

Story

You are a budding golf player, so you are the 1% who did the right thing and didn’t invest in avocados but in real estate and diamonds, so by the age of 30 onward you can focus mostly on the sport of kings and queens: golf. You start off small, with no currency to enter the high brow golf societies, but as you partake in more tournaments, you gain more money so you can afford the entrance fees to the most honorable societies. There isn’t exactly a personal growth, story wise, but not every game needs it and it’s not like the people who play golf are going to be wary of the troubles of the streets. Or the needs of the poor for that matter.

The Golf Club 2 - 04

Graphics

Being on the current generation of consoles and PC doesn’t mean that the graphics are stellar. For one, the pop up is quite prominent in the game on all levels. The only thing that doesn’t have it is the water, even the grass has it when the ball hits the ground. The animations on the other hand, are quite nicely done. The character moves quite smoothly and when your character misses the hole by just a smidgeon, he or she is visually frustrated, sometimes swinging the club in rage or tensing up. It’s the little details that really add to the atmosphere. The courses, though beautiful in their design, are often completely desolate, with no other golf players in sight. There are however some signs of wildlife.

The Golf Club 2 - 03

Sound

When talking about the audio in The Golf Club 2, it’s a game that doesn’t really hold back. The voice acting is really nice and soothing, which is apparant when the tutorial starts. The voice smoothly tells you what to do in which situation. When he congratulates you when you hit the ball with just enough fade, it feels satisfactory. When you’ve managed to hit the ball out of a bunker and it sounds like he’s suppressing the urge to shout out how well you’ve done, that’s when the voice acting shines.

Gameplay

The Golf Club 2 is a sports simulation game. It doesn’t let you manage all the aspects of the club, just the ones that are really important to the sport itself. This makes it so the core of the game is solid and doesn’t stray off course with added fluff content.
The tutorial is brief yet explains enough for your to learn the ropes. Just enough to know what the difference is between a putty and a sand wedge, or fade and backspin for that matter. When you are done with the tutorial, you can make a choice between three massive parts of the game. First there’s the ‘Play’ option, which lets you choose certain tracks you’ve favorited, already played or those which your friends have played. There’s also the ‘hot’ tracks which are the tracks that have been played by the masses and are popular.

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The controls are quite easy to master, the left or right joystick controls your golf club (you choose which of the joysticks you want to use at the beginning of the game), and square lets you change the way you want to hit your ball, while R1 and L1 change the golf club itself around. Don’t worry about remembering which club does what, because The Golf Club 2 automatically takes the right club for the job. Should you feel more at ease with another one, nothing’s stopping you to change things up however.

Then there’s ‘Career’, which lets you -what’s in a name- build your career by partaking in golf tournaments which will earn your money. This currency can be used to buy other apparel, different clubs, change up the lobby of your society or even make it so you can get into certain societies. Money isn’t the only way to get into them however, there’s also the possibility to get into them with a certain ‘handicap’, which is basically how good -or bad- you are at the sport. This does require you to play at least 5 games of the ‘Establish your handicap’ mode of the game, which might pan out better than you’d have hoped.

The Golf Club 2 - 01

The biggest and probably the most time consuming part of the game is the ‘Course creator’ mode. Here you get to unleash your creativity and make courses to your liking. It’s big because of the amount of possibilities you are presented with, so it’s sure to take up hours of your time. This isn’t solely due to the quantity of items you can manipulate to your whims to make a rather unique or strange or even twisted and difficulty course, but also because there’s quite some input lag when making a choice, or when creating something in the course itself. This can cause frustration and might turn players away from a rather fun game mechanic.

Conclusion

The Golf Club 2 is a rather enjoyable, uncomplicated sports simulation game that makes you feel like a pro by the end of the tutorial. Even though the amount of options to play the ball in a certain manner are quite numerous and choosing which club to use for which task might seem overwhelming, the game finds the perfect balance between challenge and accessibility. There’s ‘Git Gud’ mode in the game if you want it, but there’s also the leisurely “hitting-a ball-around-without-a-care-in-the-world”. If you’ve ever wondered what the deal with golf is, this game might be the thing you are looking for.

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Q


First game ever was Crash Bandicoot 3 Warped, ever since then, gaming has been something that I've gravitated to. Reading's fun but not as interactive. Always up for a bout of online multiplayer. If that multiplayer is co-op. So if you are up for a friendly co-op session, hit me up. Rahenik's the name to search on PSN.

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