Written Review:

I’ll be honest with you; HB Studios’ ‘The Golf Club’ is not my usual kind of game. Whilst many are happy to purchase their favourite sports game every year, I do this sparingly. I’ve had experiences with other golf franchises, but never put in as much time as I have with 'The Golf Club’.

First things first, 'The Golf Club’ is a pretty game. For a download only game, I was blown away by the detail here. The ui is beautiful, And the game’s narration never fails to advise and amuse. The golf courses themselves are the game’s biggest asset. There’s some stunning vistas on offer here, and watching your ball soar through the air is truly breathtaking. Meanwhile, your character is pretty bare. There’s a few customisable aspects, but I’d really have liked to see a lot more.

One of “The Golf Club"s best features is it’s online connectivity. You can obviously play the game with friends, both locally or via the internet. But if not, your competition is made up of the ghosts of other players, whether you know them or not. This kind of online integration is becoming commonplace in a lot of games, and it actually makes a lot of sense here. Furthermore, custom courses created by other users will also populate your course select menu. There were plenty of times where I played courses that hadn’t been featured days before.

As previously mentioned, the game features little customization for your character, meaning that it’s hard to see them grow. Characters also have little personality, and there’s no campaign to steer the through. The Golf Club also lacks any official licenses, and so you play solely as your custom character, who, with the exception of a few cosmetic changes, you never get to really make your own.

Speaking of the GREG NORMAN COURSE CREATOR, there are flaws with the game which begin to show when you look deeper than purely playing a round of golf. Whilst the HB studios website features an Indepth guide to the course creator, there’s nothing like this actually within the game. This is a problem, because I feel like theres a lot of potential here. There’s an impressive set of tools, and dedicated designers will be able to produce incredible content. The lack of advice will hinder a casual user though, as will the sluggishness of this tool. You’re simply shown the outline of say, a bunker you wish to add. I’d like to be able to preview exactly what my holes will look like.

The Golf Club also lacks a simple screen dedicated to teaching you the controls. Perhaps I’m being picky here though, as the simplicity of the game’s controls is one of my favourite aspects. A simple flick of the right analogue stick allows you to do everything . It’s a system that’s easy to understand, and means that this game is accessible to anyone. That said, there’s no way of Gauging the power or direction of your swing before making it. The Golf Club is at its heart, a really pure simulation of the the game. There’s no way of monitoring your progress or stats, with the exception of your average score. Very little of the sport has been adapted to create a better video game. this will be great for purists, but prevents TheGolfClub from becoming a party game on par with say ,FIFA, or even EA’s PGA Tour series. This is an oversight, Especially considering that HB has developed games PUBLISHED under the EA Sports brand.

Overall, The Golf Club is a great simulation of the sport, although a few obvious tweaks would turn it into a much better VIDEO GAME. It does seem like HB studios have succeeded with what they’ve set out to do though. Normally I’m against the idea of a game’s core elements being vastly improved on via dlc and patches, and feel developers should ship a complete game. But HB HAVE done that. The Golf Club is a good game, that I’ll continue to play for a long time. This is a solid experience, but theres so much potential that I’d like to see utilised