If the first two episodes of The Golf Club were probably the best on the market since the disappearance of EA's PGA Tour series, the budget is clearly not the same as with the American series. Both opuses suffered from this lack of resources, and the arrival of 2K for this new game let us predict something very different. From the start, the player is welcomed into the game by many big logos that will please the fans. The title has indeed several large licenses like PGA Tour and that of TPC golf courses, which immediately made us optimistic. The Golf Club 2019 offers, as often, a campaign mode, a quick mode and an online mode to challenge other players. The campaign mode being in general what makes the salt of these titles, it is necessarily there that we started. It all starts with the character creation stage where the game is particularly complete. Indeed, a staggering number of parameters are available to shape our golfer according to our wishes, whether it is the distance between the eyes, the size of the nostrils, or even the protrusion of the ears! To be honest, we hadn't seen a game offering so many character creation options since Conan Exiles and its knob to vary the size of the genitals. Once our Golfer has been created, we move on to the clothing part. Unfortunately, here, everything is locked, and we will have to unlock the huge wardrobe using the in-game currency that we will obtain by performing well during competitions.
As always, the campaign proposes to propel our character from anonymity to the firmament of the best golfers in the world, via the various divisions of the professional golf circuit. It all starts with an invitational tournament that allows you to obtain a wildcard for the famous Web.com circuit, the antechamber of the professional circuit. As in real life, 50 tickets for the PGA Tour are at stake, knowing that you can get one directly by winning three events, or by finishing in the top 50. Players who finish between 50th and 75th place restart the championship the following year, while the others have to start all over again. Once in the PGA Tour, we will play a full season, while the best will advance to the playoffs, known as the FedEx Cup. The more prestigious the tournament, the higher the sum at stake, and the more your golfer will be able to establish himself as a heavyweight within the world elite. Unfortunately, after these good initial impressions, The Golf Club 2019's polish is peeling very quickly. Of the 35 courses available, only the six officially licensed TPC golf courses are real, far from almost all of the courses that were offered by the EA franchise. We will therefore not be able to take advantage of legendary grounds such as St Andrews, or even Peeble Beach (where the US Open is often held, one of the 4 Grand Slam tournaments). The consequence of this lack of official routes is that the competitions are also fanciful, and that once again there are very few events that actually take place during the PGA Tour.
FROM T-SHOT TO POLO
After a few hours of play, we understand that the studio clearly did not have the means to afford the full PGA license, and that the deal was ultimately limited to a few logos and a few events. Indeed, during our career, we have never come across any known golfer on the scoreboard (such as Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler, or Hideki Matsuyama), all the stars giving way to generated players randomly. Worse, the system has even chosen a female golfer as its official rival, while women actually play a different circuit dedicated to them (the LPGA). This lack of licenses is also found in the equipment where the selection of clubs and clothes - although vast - is totally fanciful. Only three brands are represented, where Electronic Arts games offered an avalanche of more prestigious brands than each other. Worse, all the equipment being cosmetic, the incentive to get rich, and therefore to advance in the campaign is not really effective, and you get tired very quickly of the pro circuit and the race for big prize money. This also dynamites the interest of the rudimentary system of sponsors, since we no longer see too much why we would go and fulfill the objectives requested. Incidentally, we specify that there are only four sponsors, which are automatically unlocked according to our progress in the career, and that our results have no influence on the desire of brands for us.
Fortunately, with regard to the pure gameplay, the game adopts a very simulation orientation which may put off novices, but which is really very pleasant. Each part of the gesture must be carefully performed and in the right tempo, whether it is the backswing or the downswing
With such dull packaging, despite what the PGA label might suggest, we expected the gameplay and technique to be up to par. Unfortunately, here too, the game turns out to be a disappointment. Regarding the graphics, be aware that the Unity engine is not necessarily the best able to transcribe large green expanses, or pronounced effects. The game is therefore not really pretty, with a dull rendering, and few effects, which could have helped during the swing. Indeed, the vegetation is absolutely not subject to the wind, and only the HUD indicator can give us an indication of the strength and direction from which the breeze is coming. Likewise, our golfer will never be in a cloud of sand or grass after a shot to get out of the bunker or the rough. Worse, despite these shortcomings, the game is particularly resource-intensive on the PC, without anyone really knowing why. Fortunately, with regard to the pure gameplay, the game adopts a very simulation orientation which may put off novices, but which is really very pleasant. Each part of the gesture must be carefully performed and in the right tempo, whether it is the backswing or the downswing (the preparation of the shot with the club in the air, and the shot itself). The precision of the gesture is such that we even quickly abandoned the joystick and the game with the stick to switch to the mouse. Indeed, a delay or anticipation of the gesture can ruin the power of the shot, while a deviation from the trajectory will send the ball anywhere. As in real life, the key to success will therefore be to succeed in a gesture that is perfectly similar to each shot.
GOLF GTi
For even more precision, you can choose your club, your type of shot (normal, chip, pitch, wedge, etc.) and even where you will hit the ball. All of these choices will of course have a huge impact on the ball's trajectory, spin, and behavior after it hits the ground. Likewise, while you have a certain margin of error in movement when swinging down the fairway, that margin will shrink drastically in the rough, and even more so when silted up in a bunker. All this allows for fairly precise shots, even if the grip requires to be tamed. This choice of requirement will surely not appeal to novices, but the depth of the gameplay is really improved. In putt, you will find an aid system that allows you to analyze the surface in a precise way, and which offers great legibility of the terrain. We will all the same complain about the fact that the shots are much more difficult to dose on the green, probably because of problems inherent in the physics of the game. Indeed, for an equivalent shot, a ball hit with a putter will roll very little, as if the green is mowed high enough, while on a chip the ball will roll as if on a concrete parking lot. All this means that the last shots are often the hardest, and in the event of a missed approach, par or bogey will be inevitable. We also noted several very annoying bugs in the gameplay, including a completely aberrant physics when you have to hit the ball out of the grass, after having missed a shot. We have thus seen our ball bouncing on the leaf of an ornamental plant while trying to regain the fairway, or a shot from the driver sending the ball vertically, while it was on a concrete path.
