PGA Tour 2K21 - Review

As a sport I really do not like golf. The closest I have ever come to a golf course was when I was a teenager and I used to live down the road from the Huntingdale Golf Club which is apparently one of Australia’s best golf courses or something, golf was what I used to put on TV when I had insomnia, it actually did a great job of putting me to sleep. With all that being said, regardless of my dislike for golf as a sport I've always been a fan of golf in video game form, there is something relaxing about trying to nail the timing based mechanics of most golf games and smashing a small ball around a digitised golf course.

It's been a good 5 years since EA Sports last released a version of their golf franchise and to pick up the slack in recent years HB Studios has released The Golf Club series of video games in an attempt to fill the void, now The Golf Club has been given the 2K treatment with the release of PGA Tour 2K21, will it step up to the tee and smash a hole in one or will it fail to make par?

As soon as you load into the game you are taken to a character customisation screen where you will essentially create the golfer you are going to play with, the customisation options available here are adequate but nowhere near as comprehensive as what you will see in something like the NBA 2K series. Once you have finished creating your golfer the next step is to go through the tutorial, and I really recommend paying attention here, as this will introduce you to all the mechanics of the game. The tutorial mode is great and really does give you a comprehensive overview of what you can do in the game from driving all the way through to fading and pitching shots on to the green.

The game really does give you a great amount of control over your shots, aiming your shot is done via the left stick and then you use the right stick to pull back your club and then push it forward to hit the ball, sounds simple and it is to a certain extent, however you also have to time your swing in relation to the swing meter at the bottom of the screen and also pull off the forward and back movement of the stick in one smooth motion or else rather than having your ball sail down the fairway, you might be fishing it out of the bottom of a creek. The swing mechanics are the backbone of any good golf game and I am happy to say the PGA 2K21 can stand tall here, the controls are absolutely fantastic and even though it tends to be a bit frustrating to get the timing down at first as you play through a few rounds you will find that your swing is improving rapidly with each hit, the sense of achievement you feel when you hit your first perfect drive was almost enough to make me consider taking up the sport of golf, almost.

After perfecting the golfing basics in the tutorial it is time to start your career, at this point you can choose to start out as an amateur golfer and go through various events in order to try and qualify for the PGA Tour or you can choose to start off on the tour. I highly recommend starting off as an amateur and working your way up as this will allow you to become more familiar with the controls and perfect your swing, you will also earn experience and in game currency along the way which will allow you to customise your golfers clothes or their set of clubs. When you start off the career mode it is also a good idea to take a look through the options and there is quite a lot of them here, you can customise how much guidance and CPU help you will be given in relation to your shots all the way through to how tough the other golfers on the tour will be, you can customise these options at any time and I found myself frequently tweaking them as I got better at the game.

The career mode will see you playing through various courses (there are 15 total in the game) against other golfers, there are 12 licensed PGA pro golfers in the game, throughout your career, if you are good enough, you will rise through the ranks and also earn sponsorships, experience and currency to improve your golfer. Improvement comes in the way of buying newer better clubs for your golfer rather than an RPG style system where you would improve your golfer stats, personally I would of rather of had stats for my golfer that I could use experience points to raise as I feel this would allow me to beef up some of the weaker areas of my game and improve on them. The graphics and presentation on display here are pretty good. The commentary here is pretty "golf like" and features Luke Elvy and Rich Beem who are apparently some famous golf guys, they do a good job in speaking in hushed tones as you play through your rounds sometimes cracking hilariously bad dad jokes, the commentary does have a tendency to get it wrong though and praise you for a good shot when you have clearly hit the ball into the rough, it also has the potential to become repetitive but all in all it is adequate.

Included in the package is a course creator, and it is quite a comprehensive editor. You start out by selecting the location of your course from a few options including the desert and the alps, how many holes you want and the par for each hole, the editor will then whip up a course for you which you can further tweak and customise down to the elevation of each part of the course through to the width of the fairways, There are an amazing amount of options here and I am looking forward to exploring them all and creating a course when I get the time to sit down with it for a lengthy amount of time.

Once you have created a course you can then upload it to share with the community, from my understanding courses from the previous Golf Club games are also compatible with PGA Tour 2K21 however I could find no evidence of this in my time with the game. The game also offers online play with players being able to set up social events to play through on the licensed PGA courses or courses created by other players, unfortunately I was unable to test these features at the time of the review, if they are anything like the previous Golf Club games though online play should be a lot of fun.

Overall I had a great time with PGA Tour 2K21, it’s the type of game that is a welcome and relaxed change from the normal fast paced sports games I play and I really enjoyed playing through rounds and improving my game as I went along. There is a vast amount of included courses and the ability to create your own courses or download other people’s creations will ensure that you don't get bored with the game especially once the online community begins to start churning out content. Golf fans are going to have a ball here with the amount of content that is on offer, and even those such as myself that aren't really into the sport of golf may find themselves hooked by this game if they give it a shot.

The Score

8.0

Review code provided by 2K

The Pros

+Swing mechanics are fluid and fantastic

+Great selection of course and creation options

+Vast amount of gameplay options for all skill levels

The Cons

+Graphics are adequate but not great

+May not appeal to those not into golf