The Golf Club Review: Made for Golfers, but Maybe not Gamers

I’m an avid golf fan; I play, I watch, and I love playing golf video games. I grew up playing Hot Shots Golf and Tiger Woods Golf. When I saw Golf Club, it was the game that I was really excited to play. HB Studios, creators of Home Run Derby 2014 for Ipad and the Madden 2013 port for Vita and Wii, made the game. While the game wont win any Game of the Year Awards, it did give me a great time playing at the links.

Let’s get right to what makes this game so much fun: the course creator. Golf Club gives the player a paintbrush and says, “Create whatever your heart desires.” The visuals in this game are stunning and truly look “next gen,” and the process is very simple too. You set the standard for how many trees, water, and hills you desire, and then you can to each hole and decide how challenging/easy you want them to be.

Another great feature is the ability to share those courses with others. There are thousands of courses up now. Some of them are true works of art, while others are pretty awful. The only thing I would have wanted here is the ability to edit the shared courses. Outside of that, I absolutely loved making course after course that either made me feel like a true golfer or just a kid trying to be ridiculous.

As far as gameplay, the game is rather difficult. The game does not hold your hand. In fact, it felt like I was completely alone, playing without any guidance. There is no caddie system, recommending which club to use or giving you advice of where to hit. The game wants you to figure that out; the game wants you to be the decision maker and not lean on AI assistance. I found myself struggling, at first, but after I began to understand the courses’ layout and my own swing (there is no swing meter), I was able to prosper at every hole. The game truly makes it a “you vs the course” and not forcing you to hit some funny animation or build up some “luck” attribute.

Golf Club, purposefully, separates itself from previous golf games by trying to be pure golf simulation. It does this with taking out the zany music, the dancing golfers, or the smoke trail shots from the tee. This game is made for golfers, who truly are golfers. While this was a nice change of pace, it did leave me wanting more in the character aspect of the game.

There are only half a dozen of golfers in the game that you can’t edit, and that does take away from the game at times. I wish that I could create “Robby” and dominate the links, but that is not available to me. Editing players in games is a must today, and I’m not quite sure why that isn’t present.

Another problem I have with the game is that they do not have any kind of progression system in the game. There is no career mode to be had, and that’s the most disappointing aspect of the game. I understand that HB Studios doesn’t have the rights to golfers and courses like TPC at Sawgrass, but I would think that they could have come up with something.

In conclusion, Golf Club is a gorgeous golf simulation that acts as a cornerstone for HB Studios, and their desire to compete with other famous golf titles. It introduces a fun course creator system that kept me busy for hours. The game doesn’t hold your hand, and it expects you to figure out how to beat it. It does lack in presentation. At times, I felt a very bland presence in the game, and the lack of editable characters seems puzzling. Golf Club is a fun time and worth your money, if you are an avid golf fan. I expect Golf Club 2 to be something to be marveled at based on what they were able to do with this first step in a, hopeful, ongoing series.